General Portland Discussion

[markhb]

Reading the article, those particular towers are apparently asbestos death traps. I don't know why they're more deadly than any other older apartment buildings with asbestos in them; AFAIK the stuff is considered safe as long as it's sealed up and intact. Perhaps whoever the low bidder who built the towers was didn't do the job properly.

 

[TC_zoid]

Reading the article, those particular towers are apparently asbestos death traps. I don't know why they're more deadly than any other older apartment buildings with asbestos in them; AFAIK the stuff is considered safe as long as it's sealed up and intact. Perhaps whoever the low bidder who built the towers was didn't do the job properly.

Placing the homeless (or anyone) in a condemned building with asbestos would be a P.R. disaster. I'm guessing the PPH posted the photo expecting some controversy so that they could "sell more newspapers." It's de facto shoddy reporting. I think homelessness and people in need of housing (asylum seekers) has become the new normal, or now that Portland is talked about as the place to go. I've said this before, that bringing together a few of Portland's top architects to discuss creative ideas to address this serious and pressing problem is a good start. A few years ago, Kaplan Thompson built the Friends school in Yarmouth in the Passivhaus style, and it has won not only design awards, but the Going Green feel-goods too. The cost of that school was only $4 million. What is the usual or today's projected cost to build a school? $30 million or more? Give a good architect a problem, and he/she will fix it. It's what they do. The housing should also have a business attached, one that can employ people part time with minimal skills and the city and state and Uncle Sam should mandate an exemption for asylum seekers so that they can also work here. Otherwise, people without a daily school or work structure often turn to drug use and consequently, crime (to feed the habit). The city needs to wake up and be proactive, instead of reactive.

 

[BeeLine]

The housing should also have a business attached, one that can employ people part time with minimal skills and the city and state and Uncle Sam should mandate an exemption for asylum seekers so that they can also work here. Otherwise, people without a daily school or work structure often turn to drug use and consequently, crime (to feed the habit). The city needs to wake up and be proactive, instead of reactive.

Totally agree. Portland needs its own Pine Street Inn organization like Boston.

 

[PlantArch]

Placing the homeless (or anyone) in a condemned building with asbestos would be a P.R. disaster. I'm guessing the PPH posted the photo expecting some controversy so that they could "sell more newspapers." It's de facto shoddy reporting. I think homelessness and people in need of housing (asylum seekers) has become the new normal, or now that Portland is talked about as the place to go. I've said this before, that bringing together a few of Portland's top architects to discuss creative ideas to address this serious and pressing problem is a good start. A few years ago, Kaplan Thompson built the Friends school in Yarmouth in the Passivhaus style, and it has won not only design awards, but the Going Green feel-goods too. The cost of that school was only $4 million. What is the usual or today's projected cost to build a school? $30 million or more? Give a good architect a problem, and he/she will fix it. It's what they do. The housing should also have a business attached, one that can employ people part time with minimal skills and the city and state and Uncle Sam should mandate an exemption for asylum seekers so that they can also work here. Otherwise, people without a daily school or work structure often turn to drug use and consequently, crime (to feed the habit). The city needs to wake up and be proactive, instead of reactive.

The issue with building residential with attached commercial (where you are expecting the renters to work) is that it isolates them from the rest of the community and they fail at integration into society. It's no better than the Jewish ghettos of Europe and elsewhere.

 

[markhb]

I am not sure that the particular individuals who have received dozens of Narcan revivals and/or have been publicly copulating in doorways are interested in reintegration into society. I think some of them may have already decided that their particular "rock bottom" will be six feet below ground level.

 

[nomc]

From the NYT Mag yesterday:

Imagine a Renters’ Utopia. It Might Look Like Vienna.
Soaring real estate markets have created a worldwide housing crisis. What can we learn from a city that has largely avoided it?

 

[TC_zoid]

From the NYT Mag yesterday:

Imagine a Renters’ Utopia. It Might Look Like Vienna.
Soaring real estate markets have created a worldwide housing crisis. What can we learn from a city that has largely avoided it?

Yes, good article. Better architecture, or the kind that prioritizes the user experience rather than aesthetics, can work wonders for a city in regards to public housing. The worst example would the housing projects in American cities built in the 60s and 70s. I could write a thesis on what went wrong with that.

 

[PlantArch]

Yes, good article. Better architecture, or the kind that prioritizes the user experience rather than aesthetics, can work wonders for a city in regards to public housing. The worst example would the housing projects in American cities built in the 60s and 70s. I could write a thesis on what went wrong with that.

Aesthetics IS part of the user experience. They are inseparable. Aesthetically pleasing architecture = positive user experience.

 

[nomc]

It looks like the current plan is for the Galt Block (29 Commercial St) to become a 58 room hotel + retail. I remember there was discussion (and maybe even an HP meeting) on adding a dormer, but I thought they were talking residential. Oh well, what's one more hotel.

 

[Portlander]

Have you heard anything about the Maine Public Broadcasting project next door?

 

[markhb]

It looks like the current plan is for the Galt Block (29 Commercial St) to become a 58 room hotel + retail. I remember there was discussion (and maybe even an HP meeting) on adding a dormer, but I thought they were talking residential. Oh well, what's one more hotel.

Correction (and I was there when Auto Europe renovated it and moved in in 1996): it's 39 Commercial. I mentioned a dormer at the time (that fifth floor goes all the way up inside; it feels like a basketball gym), but AE wasn't the kind of place that needed a showcase conference room and there may have been HP considerations as well. (Considering that I still pray for the health of the guys from ServPro who went in and cleaned up 2 decades of shuttered-building-on-the-waterfront mess, I I can vouch that there hadn't been any preservation going on before we got in there.)

 

[nomc]

Correction (and I was there when Auto Europe renovated it and moved in in 1996): it's 39 Commercial.

CSS refers to it as 29 Commercial - whether correctly or incorrectly - for those interested in watching/digging in further.

 

[PlantArch]

It looks like the current plan is for the Galt Block (29 Commercial St) to become a 58 room hotel + retail. I remember there was discussion (and maybe even an HP meeting) on adding a dormer, but I thought they were talking residential. Oh well, what's one more hotel.

I'll be interested in seeing the floorplans for the hotel. There are certainly some architectural challenges posed by this building that you wouldn't expect seeing it from outside.

 

[PWMFlyer]

Maine Public Broadcasting bought the Galt Block and the lot next to it. My assumption is that to raise capital to build the new building, was to sell the Galt Block to Olympia Development. Ryan Senatore is the Architect on the project.
35 & 29 were also grouped together for a text amendment.

 

[TC_zoid]

Maine Public Broadcasting bought the Galt Block and the lot next to it. My assumption is that to raise capital to build the new building, was to sell the Galt Block to Olympia Development. Ryan Senatore is the Architect on the project.
35 & 29 were also grouped together for a text amendment.

I'd love to see this project happen. Who wouldn't. But a *public* television station studio on the waterfront a block away from a building that sold a rooftop condo last year for $4.5 million? Anyone taking bets here?