The Casco | 201 Federal Street | Portland

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This weekend, I noticed the fine view of this building while coming up Union St., by the corner of Middle. I didn't get any photos, though (driving will do that), but if anyone else is in the area.... ;)
 
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Half a block from Middle Street last week. Looks fairly urban from this vantage point in addition to all of the buildings blending in nicely with a relatively modern theme of brick, granite, concrete and glass.
 
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As others have mentioned previously, the Temple Street garage has become such a waste of prime center city real estate! It served its purpose when it was built in the early 70's when that area of downtown was going through its urban renewal phase. Now it's well on its way to becoming an eyesore especially when the city did not follow through with the updated facade improvements. I've always wondered if the current structure could physically support office or residential floors above which might be a better option than demolishing the garage years down the road?
 
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Portlander said:
As others have mentioned previously, the Temple Street garage has become such a waste of prime center city real estate! It served its purpose when it was built in the early 70's when that area of downtown was going through its urban renewal phase. Now it's well on its way to becoming an eyesore especially when the city did not follow through with the updated facade improvements. I've always wondered if the current structure could support office or residential floors above which might be a better option than demolishing the garage years down the road?
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Yeah, I've definitely mentioned this. Even the "park" with the Lobsterman Statue is a blight.

PHOM is a great venue for music and the other businesses are also great. The Nickelodeon is also a great niche theater where you can see some popular movies, as well as independent less known works. To replace all of this would be expensive for sure, especially to displace these businesses.

Boston has a well known movie theater (AMC Boston) with 7+/- stories of housing above it. However, the new construction would probably require higher business leases. So the Nickelodeon with all of its cheap seats right downtown would be essentially gone. I'm not sure a new build would want concert space in it; so that would be hard to replace. Still, it'd be best to rip it all down and build a couple of 20-30 story towers here with retail/restaurant options.
 
If you get a chance, go see what Boston did to its City Hall Plaza. It was a $120 million spend on well, you have to go see it to understand. Otherwise, they were going to tear down city hall because of its Brutalism arch style. Yes, you read right. They were going to tear it down because it was too manly, or aggressive to look at, so they "softened" it up with the adjoining newly envisioned plaza. I think the Temple Street Garage could get a facelift. It's kind of brutal to look at. I've seen parking garages around the U.S. that you have no idea are a parking garage until you carefully look at it for a few minutes. Maybe go that way.
 
I think the city would need to sell the garage to a developer in order to make any substantial long term improvements. The recent round of renovations were to include a complete facade makeover which was impressive from the renderings I saw but the money ran out and only structural needs were addressed.
 
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TC_zoid said:
If you get a chance, go see what Boston did to its City Hall Plaza. It was a $120 million spend on well, you have to go see it to understand. Otherwise, they were going to tear down city hall because of its Brutalism arch style. Yes, you read right. They were going to tear it down because it was too manly, or aggressive to look at, so they "softened" it up with the adjoining newly envisioned plaza. I think the Temple Street Garage could get a facelift. It's kind of brutal to look at. I've seen parking garages around the U.S. that you have no idea are a parking garage until you carefully look at it for a few minutes. Maybe go that way.
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Almost every time I drive past the Fore St Garage I think about how great the reno looks - I was skeptical of the mesh they were going to use to hide the park spots, but it actually looks great. Particularly when it reflects (refracts?) the light. The glass staircase is also great, particularly with the paint, lettering and lighting. Massive improvement to the retail spaces and now all filled with quality tenants. I'm sure none of this was cheap, but it would be great for Temple St to get a similar refresh.
 
TC_zoid said:
If you get a chance, go see what Boston did to its City Hall Plaza. It was a $120 million spend on well, you have to go see it to understand. Otherwise, they were going to tear down city hall because of its Brutalism arch style. Yes, you read right. They were going to tear it down because it was too manly, or aggressive to look at, so they "softened" it up with the adjoining newly envisioned plaza. I think the Temple Street Garage could get a facelift. It's kind of brutal to look at. I've seen parking garages around the U.S. that you have no idea are a parking garage until you carefully look at it for a few minutes. Maybe go that way.
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The Boston City Hall redesign is pretty great - LOTS of trees added. Accessibility issues addressed, water feature added, farmer's market-esque space.

I'd love to see Monument Square redone with better street-side trees and gardens. The massive brick and concrete plaza is ugly.
 
^ Agree. Monument Square has been neglected for almost 50 years and replacing the broken granite strips and brick with asphalt patching is tacky and irresponsible. The "triangle" should continue to be the focal point of downtown and your idea of trees and gardens would would go a long way to bringing it back to life visually.
 
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Interesting... I would have thought the Temple St. Garage would appear in that photo; I thought it had been built before Temple was shifted and that's why it follows the old streetline.
 
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