Fw: Portland Architecture - Washington High Community Center idea

[Don MacGillivray]

Could this be a win-win for everyone?          Don

For anyone wanting more information this it s the link to the SERA powerpoint presentation given and the 2nd public meeting

http://www.portlandonline.com/parks/index.cfm?c=49531&a=260339

---

Washington High School turns toward "gut and stuff". What about giving it to PICA? Posted: 03 Oct 2009 10:19 PM PDT The city Bureau of Parks and Recreation earlier this year convened a citizen advisory committee to determine the fate of Washington High School, the long-empty building that recently played host to the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art's popular Time-Based Art Festival and is set to become some kind of city community center. That committee is moving toward an option (one of three still on the table) that would completely remove everything within the school building but its exterior walls. The Buckman neighborhood, where the Washington High School (also known in the past as Washington-Monroe) site is located, has a need for some kind of community center. Ultimately, that's what this property is scheduled to be. But on September 22 (as reported by Lee Perlman in the Southeast Examiner), a majority of the advisory committee voted for what has been nicknamed the "gut and stuff" option (officially "Option C"), by a 10-8 vote over Option A, which would have instead built a separate building for the community center and retained the school for another purpose. According to Perlman's piece, "the old high school biulding, once proposed for housing, would be used for some other purpose or possibly torn down." The committee also eliminated a 3rd possibility, Option B, that would have been the purest preservation measure, putting the community center in half of a renovated school building.  The Parks bureau is not counting the 10-8 vote as the final verdict because the committee pledged to decide major issues by consensus. So on October 15 at 7PM at Central Catholic High School (2401 SE Stark), the public is being invited to weight in before another vote is held. If you want to save Washington High School from either demolition (which is a faint possibility under option A) or a renovation that compromises its historic character (by removing everything inside - a much greater possibility), please consider attending this meeting and weighing in. Unfortunately I can't go to the meeting, because it coincides with my mom's retirement party. But if not for supporting mom, I'd go to that meeting and urge the committee to preserve the interior. And without trying to undermine the process as it's gone forward thus far, with a lot of work from both city staffers and volunteers on the committee, I'd hope some consideration for incorporating an arts organization like PICA with a permanent home in Washington High School, along with the community center that's planned, might still be possible if there was a will for it.   Meanwhile, anyone who attended last month's TBA Festival at Washington High was treated to a wonderfully imaginative re-imagination of the former school. In each classroom there was a different art exhibit, many of them very accessible too, such as a room filled with scores of electronic music boxes affixed to the walls. What's more, the center of the school is a double-height auditorium, where on my visit I could hear the rock band Quasi warming up for a show later that night. Before the Portland Parks committee decides this building's fate, I think this has to be said: Washington High would make an ideal home for the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art. For many years, the Institute has been without a home to exhibit visual art or performing arts. Each year during TBA, PICA exhibits a huge amount of energy and fun and stimulation, only to disappear for most of the other 50 weeks of the year. They have swanky offices in the Wieden + Kennedy building thanks to the generosity of the advertising agency, but PICA would be better off in a home of their own with space for performance and exhibits. PICA may not need to occupy the entirety of Washington High in the future, but why not make the Institute an anchor tenant in the building with a community center incorporated around them? There would be countless opportunities for PICA artists and staffers to interact with people visiting the community center. What better way, in this age of plummeting arts-education funding, to have the city's most important arts organization in the trenches working with kids and parents on art? What's more, PICA understands - apparently better than Buckman's own residents on the Parks committee - that Washington High is a treasure precisely because the old school inside is mostly intact. A new building could never match the ambiance of experimental and performance art happening amidst the classroom chalk boards, hallway lockers and literally old-school feel of this wonderful old school. The wheels are already in motion for Washington High to be leveled by those trying in vain to do the right thing. Lets not only stop the demolition, but move PICA there permanently. And this isn't just my pipe dream. I know PICA loved having TBA at Washington High. It made The Works a much greater portion of the overall festival. It made TBA performances and exhibits more centralized. It was an ideal marriage, it seemed. It's great that Washington High could become a community center. But let's not take away the wonderful historic feel of the building, and let's add a tenant that clearly belongs there and would make a great addition to any public space we create there.

You are subscribed to email updates from Portland Architecture To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610