Restaurant news: Big ambitions sink upscale restaurants

by Karen Brooks and Jeff Manning
Sunday March 02, 2008, 5:12 PM

For N.W. Hayden Enterprises to pull off its furious expansion into Portland's competitive restaurant scene, the firm needed an exacting recipe: equal parts sound plan, steely focus and surplus cash.

Instead, Hayden boiled over with chaos and red ink.

In mid-December, days before the company's Tondero opened in the glittery Fox Tower downtown, the unpaid chef walked. Nearby, Chayote Grill opened with a dirty awning, a temporary sign and no marketing plan to back a seasoned Boston chef. Trash piled up as fast as unpaid bills at Oregon City's most ambitious restaurant, Black Point Inn, despite a $200,000 loan of public money.

Spearheaded by veteran restaurant consultant Bill Hayden, the firm opened six restaurants in the second half of 2007 -- and once juggled as many as 15 projects at a time. Nearly 600 staffers were hired for restaurants in Portland, Oregon City, Vancouver and Astoria, many recruited from other restaurant jobs.

But by early February, Hayden's plan to stake his spot in Portland's growing reputation as the Next Food Place lay scrambled, fried and cooked.

The cash-strapped company abruptly shuttered four restaurants and killed plans for three others. Bill Hayden gave up his ownership in almost everything, including his namesake Hayden's Lakefront Grill in Tualatin.

Also left on the chopping block: broken dreams, breached promises, workers jobless in a tough market, suppliers and contractors holding unpaid bills, a financier out between $2 million and $3 million.

Still more striking: how respected restaurant consultants -- hired for advice on avoiding pitfalls of the business -- could have so thoroughly botched an expansion in Portland's trendy, if turbulent, restaurant market.

Even in the risky restaurant business, where a majority of startups can expect to fail within five years, the Hayden meltdown was unsettling.

"In 29 years in this business, I've never seen anything like this," said Tom Swafford, manager of the short-lived Tondero on the Fox Tower's second floor. "It's biblical, Old Testament."

"It angered me," said David Machado, a 27-year industry veteran who owns two Portland restaurants. "So many people out of work, chasing bills. There's a price to pay for all this, a cost to the whole industry, which is not doing well right now because of the economy."

Even a disconsolate Hayden told The Oregonian that the business failure dazed him.

"I take responsibility for all of this," he said. "I thought I could pull it off. It was never my intent to give anyone false hope."

Chasing a vision

Hayden, 59, tears up when he speaks of his passion for restaurants and their people. He describes himself as a concept guy and white knight who shepherds restaurant novices through the thickets of daily operations.

"Your project becomes our project," his consultancy asserted on its Web site.

For more than two decades, he labored in the offices and kitchens of the Portland area's restaurant scene. But Hayden admitted that something ate at him: lack of a presence in Portland's prestigious downtown market.

In 2005, Hayden formed an equal partnership with another industry veteran, Richard Arthur, 56, to start N.W. Hayden Enterprises. Arthur took charge of sales and contracts. Their consulting firm promised customers it would "take the worry out of your nights."

Both knew how sleepless those nights can be.

Hayden had filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2003, claiming debts of more than $800,000. Foreshadowing his current plight, Hayden back then chose to open or manage three new restaurants on top of a full load of consulting.

All tanked. According to bankruptcy papers filed by his attorney, Hayden's time was "spread too thin" and he "was forced to admit he could not continue."

Arthur, too, claimed personal bankruptcy in 2005, claiming debts of $950,796 against assets of $385,525. He took his four food-service companies with him into bankruptcy. Arthur told The Oregonian he liquidated his personal savings to pay business debts.

Despite the bankruptcies, Hayden and Arthur continued in business together and built a strong clientele.

But, just as a few years earlier, Hayden decided it was time to run his own restaurants again. In 2006, he and Arthur rolled the dice on an upscale restaurant in timeworn downtown Oregon City, spending nearly $1 million -- well beyond what they budgeted -- to rehab a 1903 building. Oregon City's City Council lent $200,000 in urban renewal money, hoping Black Point Inn would spark a downtown revitalization. The city recently told The Oregonian that it did not know about the duo's bankruptcies.

Meanwhile, Hayden and Arthur agreed to help open a music-themed restaurant with local '60s rock icon Mark Lindsay.

Lindsay investor Gerry Frank, a successful restaurateur and contributing writer to The Oregonian, introduced Hayden to Aequitas, a deep-pocketed Lake Oswego investment company. Frank, who said he did not know about the bankruptcies, sits on Aequitas' advisory board.

In May 2007, Aequitas invested $1.175 million.

Flush with cash, Hayden and Arthur charged headlong into expansion. Hayden said he saw opportunity in real estate waiting to be grabbed and rehabbed on the cheap. Between consulting jobs, they launched a spate of their own projects under various company names, including Cutting Edge Restaurant Group.

Hayden and Arthur knew the dangers of rapid expansion. Still, they gambled that one restaurant would hit big enough to prop up the others.

"Things we were telling our consulting clients that you can never do, we were doing," Arthur said.

Chaos is served

Tondero was to be Hayden's play for downtown foodie respectability, and he made an inspired choice for the starring role: 31-year-old chef Amy Jermain, then working as a consultant. A rising talent who races motorcycles in her free time, Jermain said she was promised free rein to bring an independent spirit and her own take on Latin American cuisine to a mainstream restaurant.

"Tondero was going to be Paley's-meets-Le Pigeon in a 250-seat corporate restaurant," said Jermain, citing a cross between Portland's high-end sophistication and alternative artisanship. "I thought that was punk rock. We were going to shake it up, with music and supper clubs and small, regional wines. All the things chefs in my age group are into, but putting it in a big restaurant downtown."

But when Jermain showed up for work Sept. 16, she found the restaurant empty except for manager Tom Swafford, who had left a similar role at the Pearl District's stylish Bay 13.

"We were all on our own," Jermain said. "No computer. We used our own cell phones."

Things grew stranger. Vendors weren't paid, she said, making it difficult to test recipes. "Checks were bouncing left, right and center," Jermain said.

"I've been in town 10 years and earned respect of purveyors. When you open a place, you call in favors. If you jeopardize that, it's over."

Meanwhile, Jermain said, she asked Hayden the hard questions: Why aren't people working here? Why aren't checks processing? Where is the furniture?

The answer, she said, was always, "'Next week. We're opening next week.'

"Bill told me I could wash dishes at Black Point Inn in the meantime," she said. "That's not what I signed up for."

Jermain left Tondero days before its December opening.

A few blocks away, Paul Hyman, 36, was trying to hold down the Chayote Grill. Hyman moved to Portland last year, after working for Boston celebrity chef Todd English. Chayote, he said, opened in a half-finished state and he worked for weeks with "no contact with anyone" in management. Then he was called in to help salvage Tondero.

Still, he was a believer. Hyman said he was promised more than $50,000 a year, 7½ percent of profits and a job as chef at yet another project Hayden hoped to undertake: a reopening of the once-hopping jazz club Brasserie Montmartre.

Collapse follows

Aequitas officials began suspecting financial troubles.

Fed up with N.W. Hayden's clamoring for more money despite two additional loans, the investment firm demanded to review its books. With a gulp, they realized, the Hayden restaurants all told were losing between $50,000 and $100,000 a month.

"They didn't execute," senior managing director Brian Oliver said. "In retrospect, we should have all questioned the number of things they were doing."

Around year's end, Aequitas took over Tondero, Chayote and the Blackstone American Grill in Vancouver. Employees said they were reassured that Tondero and Chayote would go forward properly funded and organized.

Just weeks later, Aequitas, coming to grips with the full extent of the restaurants' troubles, shut them down. Oliver said the firm was not equipped to rescue the restaurants.

"I had to lay off 40 to 50 people," Hyman said. "It was just a mess. Some corporate suits made a decision that really hit people's lives. The (job) market out there now is very slim."

Hyman didn't hear an explanation for Aequitas' change of heart. "They just handed me the last payroll and said, 'Can you lock the doors on the way out?'"

By mid-December, N.W. Hayden and Cutting Edge -- beset with lawsuits and creditors, including the IRS -- ceased operations. Arthur went to work full time managing Mark Lindsay's Rock & Roll Cafe.

Hayden kept his stake in Black Point Inn and John Jacob's Waterfront Grill in Astoria, but closed both in January. He sold his 60 percent position in an Oregon City bakery to its operator for $1. He sold his 49 percent share in the still-open Hayden's Lakefront Grill.

"I had a dream," said Hayden, who winces as he recalls the ordeal. "I just really believed I could do it."

But Hayden's sentiments ring hollow to some.

"The No. 1 rule of expansion: If it's too quick, you explode," Hyman said. "If you're flying by the seat of your pants, it's Murphy's law. Things go wrong."

Aequitas said that with $200 million in assets under management, the Hayden blowup would not prove a significant setback for the firm. Although it checked references on Hayden and Arthur, managing director Oliver said, it did not know about their bankruptcies.

"We were backing two guys with 30 years of operating experience," Oliver said. "But as they transitioned from a consulting company to an operating company, they really didn't have the people or the processes in place."

Undaunted, Hayden has begun to move on. On Jan. 24, he started yet another company: Dreams and Solutions Restaurant Consulting.

"I obviously have to start all over," Hayden said. "In the consulting business, it's all about trust. It's all about what you've done lately."

GUARDIAN MANAGEMENT WINS 2007 PROJECT OF THE YEAR AWARD FROM MULTFAMILY EXECUTIVE MAGAZINE

Portland -

Portland-based Real Estate Firm Nabs Top Honors in Adaptive Reuse Category for Rehabilitation of the Crane Building

Portland – Guardian Management LLC (Guardian), a Portland, Ore.-based real estate firm specializing in multifamily housing investment opportunities and property management services, is being awarded the 2007 Project of the Year Award in the Adaptive Reuse Category by Multifamily Executive magazine. The firm’s $22.3 million renovation of the historic Crane Building in downtown Portland stood out among roughly 170 award submissions. Guardian will be recognized at a special gala event held Oct. 3, 2007, at the Multifamily Executive Conference in Las Vegas, Nev.

“The Crane Building has been a special project for us, and we are extremely proud of this honor,” said Tom Brenneke, owner and president of Guardian Management LLC. “As a Portland-based firm, we are committed to fostering development in our own community. Rehabilitating the Crane Building has not only preserved an important local landmark, but it has also provided a new home for Guardian Management as we continue to grow our business throughout the western U.S.”

A Mixed-Use Development in the Pearl

The Crane Building is a seven-story, mixed-use, brick and concrete building located in Portland’s Pearl District. Originally constructed in 1909 by The Crane Company, the building was the regional headquarters and distribution facility for the Chicago-based pipe fitting and plumbing company. In 1963, it was purchased by American Rag and Metal and used as a rag and clothing processing facility. The 90,000 square foot building originally contained six floors and an adjacent single level shipping and staging warehouse.

Today, the Crane Building reflects an emerging trend to “recycle” underutilized historic buildings in Portland’s core. Once an industrial facility, the Crane Building now features seven floors dedicated to various uses: retail on the ground floor, office space – anchored by Guardian – on the second and third floors, and residential space on the remaining floors, including 30 market-rate lofts on floors four through six and two luxury penthouses on a newly constructed seventh floor. Restoration on the Crane Building began in October 2005, and the building received a comprehensive seismic retrofit.

The Crane Building’s historic designation required maintaining the integrity of the original exterior and brick work, and numerous partnerships were critical to bringing Guardian’s vision to fruition. Chevron TCI, Inc. was instrumental in the purchase of historic tax credits, and Heritage Consulting Group advised on strategies for maximizing value and preserving historic details of the building. Walsh Construction Company served as general contractor, and the architects were SERA Architects and Emmons and Associates.

Get Out Guide

Friday, September 14, 2007
The Oregonian

All telephone numbers are area code 503 unless otherwise noted. family fun

THIS WEEK ONLY

Under the Autumn Moon: Chinatown offers a weekend of free events including a public parade, fireworks, outdoor movie screening, world stage with dancers, musicians and performers and free admission to the Portland Classical Chinese Garden (Sunday only). The weekend is produced by the Old Town Chinatown Business Association and private sponsors. Events 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Sat, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sun, along Northwest Fifth Avenue and Flanders Street. Details and schedule: www.portlandchinesegarden.org. Aquifer Adventure: The Portland Water Bureau's annual event teaches about groundwater protection and water conservation. This year's party has a pirate theme and includes a treasure hunt, canoe rides, live music and games. Noon-4 p.m. Sat, at the bureau's canoe launch area, Northeast 166th Avenue and Airport Way. Free.

Doll and Teddy Bear Show: Antique dolls, vendors, classes, bears, supplies and miniatures. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat, National Guard Armory, 10000 N.E. 33rd Drive. Admission $3-$6. Details: www.dolls4all.com.

Aircraft Fly-In: The Pearson Air Museum hosts a show of 1930s and 1940s Stinson aircraft. Meet with the pilots and see the planes up close. The hours of the show are varied, but the museum plans to have the planes on view beginning Saturday afternoon, 1115 E. Fifth St., Vancouver. Details: 360-694-7026.

KID CULTURE

"The Boatman's Flute": The Brooklyn Bay hosts performances of a folk tale from Vietnam. After the performance, children are invited to meet and interact with the performers. Shows 10 a.m. Sat, 2 p.m. Sun through Sept. 23, at the theater, 1825 S.E. Franklin St., Bay K. Tickets $6. Reservations requested: 772-4005. Directions: www.brooklynbay.org.

Ladybug Theater: Tiny theater fans gather for these 40-minute performances with audience participation. Current show is Baby Bear's "I Bet You Can't Stop Talking for One Minute!" 10:30 a.m. Wed-Thu, through Sept. 27, Smile Station, 8210 S.E. 13th Ave. Admission $3.50. Reservations recommended; 232-2346.

BOOKS AND STORY TIMES

Powell's at Cedar Hills Crossing: 3415 S.W. Cedar Hills Blvd., Beaverton. Mo Willems reads from "Knuffle Bunny Too." 7 p.m. Wed.

Beaverton City Library: 12375 S.W. Fifth St., Beaverton (644-2197). The library offers preschool, morning, toddler, baby, evening and Spanish story times. Call for schedule.

At Multnomah County libraries: Online schedules and details at www.multcolib.org/events.

Sellwood-Moreland, 7860 E. 13th Ave. (988-5398). Children ages 2-6 are invited to experiment with clay. 11 a.m.-noon Sat.

grab bag

Troutdale Antique Street Fair: Vendors offers furniture, art, garden pieces and glass work. Live music in the Mayor's Square. 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Sun, on the streets of Troutdale's downtown area.

Pumpkin Patch Corn Maize: Get lost in the six-acre corn maze open daily 10 a.m.-6 p.m., and at night 6-10 p.m. Fri-Sun through Oct. 31. The farm also offers fall produce. At the Pumpkin Patch, 16511 N.W. Gillihan Road. Maze admission $5-$7; www.thepumpkinpatch.com.

fairs & festivals

Apple Harvest Celebration: The John Tigard House Museum welcomes families for a day of apple picking, cider pressing, toy making, wool spinning and old-time music. Noon-4 p.m. Sun, on the museum grounds, Southwest Canterbury Lane at 103rd Avenue, Tigard. Free.

Alberta Street Fair: It's the 10th anniversary of this neighborhood classic offering live music, food and art vendors, poetry, puppets, kids games and more. Alberta street is closed to traffic for this event. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sat, along Northeast Alberta between 12th and 31st avenues.

Chili on the Green Festival: The chili cook-off is the highlighted event, but families can also play in the kids carnival, check out the classic car show and listen to live music. The B.O.O.M. Pirates also perform. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sat, in the park across from City Hall, 1300 N.E. Village St., Fairview. Free.

Foster Art Walk: Along Southeast Foster Road from 50th to 92nd avenues you'll find more than 60 artists, street vendors, performers, clowns, live music and more. Festival hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Details: www.myspace.com/fosterartwalk.

get active

Walk for Parkinson's: The annual Sole Support for Parkinson's 1K and 5K walks also include live music, community vendors, children's activities and information on the disease. Events kick off at noon, walk at 1:30 p.m. Sun, Willamette Park, 6599 S.W. Beaver Ave. Fee $10-$15. Registration and information: www.solesupport.org.

Learn to Square Dance: The Happy Rock'rs Square Dance Club offers three open house events with free square dance lessons and demonstrations. Open houses 3-5 p.m. Sun and Sept. 23 and 30, Abernethy Grange, 15745 S. Harley Ave, Oregon City.

open air

Beaverton market: Area produce, meats, seafood, baked goods, flowers, plants and live music. 8 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Sat, through Oct. 27, Southwest Hall Boulevard between Third and Fifth streets;www.beavertonfarmersmarket.com.

Eastbank market: Seasonal produce, live music, herb and vegetable starts, flowers, prepared foods and more. 3:30-7:30 p.m. Thu, through September, at Southeast 20th Avenue and Salmon Street; www.portlandfarmersmarket.org.

Hillsdale market: Vendors offer produce, plants, prepared foods and more. Each week the market includes live music, face painting and other children's activities. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sun, through Oct. 28, in the parking lot at 1407 S.W. Vermont St. Details: www.hillsdalefarmersmarket.com.

Hollywood market: Fresh foods in Northeast Portland with live music, children's entertainment and monthly cooking demos. 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Sat, through Oct. 27, between Northeast 44th and 45th avenues at Hancock Street. Details: www.hollywoodfarmersmarket.org.

Hillsboro market: The seasonal market offers fresh local produce and specialty foods, garden products, arts and crafts, live music and educational information. 8 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Sat, through October, Main Street and Second Avenue.

Market at Orenco Station: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sun, through Oct. 7, at Orenco Station Parkway and Northeast 61st Avenue, Hillsboro, www.hillsboromarkets.org.

Interstate market: Fresh area produce, baked goods, cut flowers, artisan cheeses, meats and fish. 3 p.m. Wed, through Sept. 26, at North Fremont Street and Interstate Avenue; www.interstatefarmersmarket.com.

Lents International Market: Growers market that showcases foods from around the world. Much of the produce is grown by immigrant and refugee farmers. Baked goods, plants, flowers and prepared-food vendors. 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Sun, through Oct. 14, at Southeast Foster Road and 92nd Avenue.

Portland Saturday Market: Vendors offer handcrafted gift items and whimsical art. Under the west end of the Burnside Bridge between Southwest First Avenue and Naito Parkway. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat, 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Sun, through mid-December; www.portlandsaturdaymarket.com.

Tigard market: Featuring fresh fruits and vegetables, hot foods, garden plants, cut flowers and arts and crafts. 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Sun, through October, Washington Square Too parking area; www.tigardfarmersmarket.com.

museums/parks

Children's Museum: 4015 S.W. Canyon Road (223-6500). "Arthur's World" is on view through January 2008.

"Kids Care" teaches about healthy bodies and minds. "Building Bridgetown" offers construction fun for little builders. Make a splash in "Water Works"; dig into the "Dig Pit"; shop and prepare a meal in the role-playing exhibit "Kid City Market and Cafe." Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon-Sat, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sun; $7 ages 1-54, $6 seniors; www.portlandchildrensmuseum.org.

Columbia Gorge Discovery Center and Museum (The Dalles): 5000 Discovery Drive (541-296-8600). The museum offers displays and exhibits on the cultural and natural history of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area and Wasco County. Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily; $4-$8; www.gorgediscovery.org.

Columbia River Maritime Museum (Astoria): 1792 Marine Drive (325-2323). "Mapping the Pacific Coast" offers rare maps, books and illustrations that played a key role in the settlement of the Pacific Northwest. Ends 9/30.

View exhibits on the Pacific Northwest's maritime history. Listen to shipwreck survivor stories or learn to read signal flags. The National Historic Vessel Lightship Columbia is available for tours. An extensive collection of nautical artifacts is on display. Hours: 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. daily; $4-$8; www.crmm.org.

High Desert Museum (Bend): 59800 S. U.S. 97 (541-382-4754). Andy Warhol's Athletes Series features famed sports figures of the 1970s. Ends 10/7. The museum features detailed indoor exhibit areas and outdoor exhibits including a walk-through pioneer homestead and a historic working sawmill. Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily (except major holidays); admission $7-$15 for two days, $9-$18 for six days; www.highdesertmuseum.org.

Museum of the Oregon Territory: 211 Tumwater Drive, Oregon City (655-5574). View a covered wagon that made the trip on the Oregon Trail, ancient petroglyphs and Native American artifacts, a 19th-century pharmacy and a map of San Francisco filed in Oregon City when it was home to the only federal courthouse west of the Rockies. Hours: 11 a.m.-4 p.m. daily; $5-$7 using the Fall HOS Pass; www.historicoregoncity.com.

Oregon Historical Society: 1200 S.W. Park Ave. (222-1741). "Oregon, My Oregon" features artifacts, artwork, photographs, documents, visual presentations and displays that share the Oregon story. Museum hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue-Sat, noon-5 p.m. Sun; $5-$10; www.ohs.org.

Oregon Maritime Museum: Willamette River harbor wall at the foot of Southwest Pine Street (224-7724). On the sternwheeler Portland, the museum offers models of early steamboats and sailing vessels, and a maritime library. Also view videos in the theater, listen to nautical music, take in interactive displays and shop at the museum store. Hours: 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Wed-Sun; $3-$5; www.oregonmaritimemuseum.org.

Oregon Museum of Science and Industry: 1945 S.E. Water Ave. (797-4000). "Body Worlds 3" on view through Oct. 7.

OMSI has a multitude of science exhibits to entertain and inform. Special museum hours during the "Body Worlds 3" exhibit: 9 a.m.-9 p.m. daily. Admission: $7-$9; additional charges for "Body Worlds," Kendall Planetarium, Omnimax films and the submarine USS Blueback; www.omsi.edu.

Pacific Northwest Truck Museum (Brooks): On the grounds of the Antique Powerland, two blocks west of Interstate 5, Exit 263. The museum tells the history of the trucking industry in Oregon. Hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat-Sun and holidays, through September; donations; www.pacificnwtruckmuseum.org.

Oregon Electric Railway Museum: Also on the grounds of the Antique Powerland. Trolley rides noon-4 p.m. weekends, through Oct. 31; $5 general, 12 and younger free with paying adult; www.oregonelectricrailway.org.

Pearson Air Museum: 1115 E. Fifth St., Vancouver (360-694-7026). Collection of vintage airplanes and exhibits featuring area aviators, hands-on activities, restoration hangar, model airplanes and artifacts. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wed-Sat.; $3-$6; www.pearsonairmuseum.org.

Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals: 26385 N.W. Groveland Drive, Hillsboro; 332-0659. View exhibits of minerals, crystals, fossils, petrified wood, meteorites and gemstones. Hours: 1-5 p.m. Wed-Sun; $3.50-$5; www.ricenwmuseum.org.

U of O Museum of Natural and Cultural History (Eugene): 1680 E. 15th Ave. (541-346-3024). "The Flood Zone" landscapes sculpted by the Glacial Lake Missoula floods are featured at the museum. Large-format panoramic photographs show the dramatic work of the Missoula floods. Opens Fri. Ends 3/23. Museum hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Wed-Sun; $2-$3, family admission $8.

Velveteria: 518 N.E. 28th Ave. (233-5100). View more than 180 paintings on velvet from the 1930s to the present. Featured are "Creaturama" animals from this world and others. Gift store. Noon-5 p.m. Fri-Sun; $3; www.velveteria.com.

historic sites

End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center: 1726 Washington St., Oregon City (657-9336, ext. 114). The center offers interactive tours representing the journey pioneers took to reach the Northwest. Tours include living-history presentations, historical cinematic drama, hands-on activities and exhibits. Museum hours: 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon-Sat, 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Sun; $5-$7 using the Fall HOS Pass; www.historicoregoncity.com.

Hoover-Minthorn House Museum (Newberg): 115 S. River St. (538-6629). The boyhood home of President Hoover, now a museum, contains many of its original furnishings, including the bedroom set that Hoover used. Tours can be arranged by appointment. Hours: 1-4 p.m. Wed-Sun; 50 cents-$3; 538-6629.

McLoughlin House: 713 Center St., Oregon City (656-5146). This 12-room mansion was built in 1845 by Dr. John McLoughlin and his family. Hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Wed-Sat and 1-4 p.m. Sun. The McLoughlin House is operated by the National Park Service as part of the Fort Vancouver National Site.

Old Aurora Colony Museum: Second and Liberty streets, Aurora (678-5754). The museum displays artifacts relating to the Aurora Colony -- furniture, quilts, books, photographs, clothing and tools used by the original German families that settled the area in 1856. Hours: 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Tue-Sat, noon-4 p.m. Sun; $2-$6.

Pittock Mansion: 3229 N.W. Pittock Drive, 823-3623. "Beautiful Botanicals" features 20 vintage prints from the collection of Elizabeth Burdon. Ends 10/31. Historic Pittock Mansion is open daily for touring. The 22-room mansion, built in 1914, has period furnishings and panoramic views. Hours: 11 a.m.-4 p.m. daily; $4-$7; www.pittockmansion.org.

Stevens Crawford Heritage House: 603 Sixth St., Oregon City (655-2866). "Hats on Parade" features vintage hats from the museum's collection. Ends 9/28. The heritage home, completed in 1908, is an example of Foursquare architecture. Authentic period decor in a house that commemorates the Harley Stevens and Medorem Crawford families, who were prominent in the settlement and politics of the West. Hours: Noon-4 p.m. Wed-Sat; $5-$7 using the Fall HOS PassDetails, schedule:www.historicoregoncity.com.

nature

Tillamook Forest Center: Weekend nature programs are free and open to all ages. This weekend's program tells the history of the fire towers of the Tillamook forest, 11:30 and 1:30 p.m. Sat-Sun.

Learn the habitat and history of the Tillamook State Forest, from the devastating fires of the 1930s and '40s to today's multiuse wilderness. The center offers free public access to activities, educational exhibits and a central location for up-close exploration of timber-management practices. There's a functional 40-foot-tall fire lookout tower, a suspension bridge crossing the river and a restored steam donkey at the center, 50 miles west of Portland on Oregon 6 (Wilson River Highway) near milepost 22. Hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Wed-Sun; 815-6800, www.tillamookforestcenter.org. -

Sturgeon Viewing Pond (Bonneville Dam): The Sturgeon Viewing Pond and Interpretive Center features Herman, a 12-foot-plus sturgeon, in his natural environment, with underwater viewing. Other features include tour exhibits, trout-feeding ponds and a chance to see the return of spawning salmon. Open 7:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. daily year-round. Reach the center off Interstate 84 near the dam; 541-374-8393. SEND IN YOUR PRESS RELEASES: Please submit notices at least 14 days before publication. Photos are welcome but cannot be returned. Submit listings to A&E Get Out calendar, The Oregonian, 1320 S.W. Broadway, Portland, OR 97201; or fax to 294-5029.

DOWNTOWN IS GROWING UP

The building boom that's produced Portland's bumper crop of high-rises could spread, changing the look of the city skyline as Stumptown sprouts and soars
Sunday, July 01, 2007
The Oregonian

So, you think Portland's downtown is almost filled up?

It's easy to believe, seeing a half-dozen or more tower cranes piercing the sky for about a decade. Developers have churned out an average 1.3 million square feet of condos, shops and offices each year since 1990. That's almost equal to two new Wells Fargo Centers -- at 41 floors, the state's tallest building.

A panoramic view of the skyline, photographed from a helicopter, brings the construction boom into a single, vast portrait of the Portland we know today. Take a look -- it won't stay this way for long.

Without so much as a zoning change, developers could double the 103 million square feet that now make up the central city. From the South Waterfront to the River District, from Goose Hollow to the Lloyd District, the city's zoning allows a virtual forest of high-rises. By the city's count, 400 acres of underused property -- think surface parking lots, or beat-up buildings worth less than half the value of the land they occupy -- is ripe for change.

No one knows how long it will take to fill all that land. At the current pace of construction, the doubling would take 75 years. It could take much longer: Downtown has plenty of competitors in the Portland region and worldwide. Or, perhaps the central city will boom beyond anyone's imagination.

Soon, "the city that plans" will launch an update of the central city, with new schemes for shaping the coming high-rise growth to fit the region's goals for urban containment. The present plan, adopted in 1988, opened the way for urban expansion into the Pearl District and South Waterfront. And an earlier 1972 Downtown Plan set out a vision for housing west of the Park Blocks that is only now bearing fruit.

These pages show some major recent and upcoming projects.

Who knows what's next?

-- Dylan Rivera

Downtown The region's traditional center of commerce. 232 acres Existing buildings: 37 million square feet Projected increase: 17 million square feet

Office: 6.4 million square feet

Retail: 900,000 square feet

Housing: 8,954 units Strengths: The psychological heart of the Portland metro area, downtown has the highest concentration of employment, hotels, mass transit and non-mall retail. West End, Old Town, South Auditorium, Hawthorne and Morrison bridgeheads have buildable sites on cusp of transformation. Central City's best bet for office towers and hotels. Weaknesses: High cost of development and parking. Many existing buildings complicate new construction. Homeless population scares off some employers, residents. Condo market lags Pearl District and South Waterfront. Lloyd District and Lower Albina

A mall, a convention center, two arenas and lots of underused land. Adjacent to Central Eastside Industrial District south of Interstate 84. 328 acres Existing buildings: 17 million square feet Projected increase: 28.4 million square feet

Office: 11 million square feet

Retail: 1.5 million square feet

Housing: 12,740 units Strengths: Lloyd area has zoning for the tallest, densest development outside the downtown core. Generous parking allowances compared with downtown. Great views west and east. Incomparable transit and highway access. Weaknesses: Arena and convention areas sleepy when those attractions are not in use. No neighborhood focal point. Not much built lately; major landowners passed on condo boom. Lower Albina nearly all industrial zoned, with Portland School District headquarters site a tough play. River District The Pearl District and Old Town north of West Burnside. 238 acres Existing buildings: 20.5 million square feet Projected increase: 21.7 million square feet

Office: 4 million square feet

Retail: 1.4 million square feet

Housing: 11,944 units Strengths: The Pearl comprises the region's strongest, most established urban condo market. Retail and restaurants draw from across metro area. North Pearl development sites ready to pop. Old Town section and Post Office hold potential, with complications. Weaknesses: Little employment presence aside from Brewery Blocks. Old Town stigma and historic district restrictions work against potential high-rise housing and offices closer to downtown core. North section still considered risky for offices. South Waterfront The city's newest urban neighborhood. 129 acres Existing buildings: 4.1 million square feet Projected increase: 25 million square feet

Office: 10.8 million square feet

Retail: 1.3 million square feet

Housing: 10,146 units Strengths: Plentiful vacant land with riverfront views. Oregon Health & Science University expansion forecast to last decades. Lush Pearl alternative now a proven high-rise, high-end condo market. Weaknesses: Needs roads, light rail and other infrastructure. A nonstop construction zone for decades to come. Biotech doesn't normally build to SoWa's tall, expensive, dense standard. University District Portland State University and its eastward expansion area. 50 acres Existing buildings: 3.9 million square feet Projected increase: 4.6 million square feet

Office: 1.4 million square feet

Retail: 200,000 square feet

Housing: 2,837 units Strengths: PSU on a growth path, led by student housing. Light rail soon to meet streetcar line. Fourth Avenue stretch developable. Nearby conversion of Portland Center from apartments to condos adds more homeowners to area. Weaknesses: Uncertain state funding for higher education over long term. PSU still an unproven employment draw. Students dominate housing market.

Portland tram up & running

By Associated Press
Jan 14, 2007 - 12:14:32 am PST

PORTLAND -- They hang from spacy curved handles and look like blunt silver bullets, or maybe some sort of giant runaway gel tablets, as they glide back and forth across the freeway.

They look like the future. They are the future.

If you've driven along Interstate 5 through Portland in the past six months, you've probably wondered what in the world was going on near construction of the high-rise condos in the South Waterfront District. What is that bizarre, futuristic looking steel tower by the freeway? And what are those overhead cables for?

They're for you -- so you can ride from Oregon Health & Science University's Center for Health & Healing, which opened along the waterfront in October, up to OHSU's main campus on Marquam Hill.

Two-hundred seconds.

That's how long it takes, rising or descending at a whopping 22.7 mph. Might not seem so fast, but since the two sleek Swiss-made silver cabins of the $57 million Portland Aerial Tram are part of a tramway unlike any other in Pacific Northwest history, it's not a bad way to ride. Not to mention the 360-degree view from 500 feet up in the air on a cold, clear, crisp winter day.

"I've never seen so many smiles," says John Burnham, OHSU's tram operations coordinator, of the first day OHSU employees were allowed to ride, Dec. 15. The city-owned tramway opens at the end of this month.

"That was amazing," says an OHSU employee as she leaves the upper-tram terminal. "Amazing!"

It's so very European, this tram that takes you up, up and away, with a birds-eye view of not only Mount Hood and Mount St. Helens, but the Willamette River, downtown, the Rose Garden arena, anything and everything that is P-town.

The Portland Aerial Tram, or PAT, is billed as being like no other aerial tram ever. Anywhere. It is designed and constructed by Doppelmayr CTEC, a North American subsidiary of Switzerland-based Doppelmayr, in conjunction with the Portland Department of Transportation.

The tram is similar to New York City's Roosevelt Island Tramway and many all over Europe, but no evidence could be found of an aerial tram being constructed specifically for a business such as OHSU, Burnham says. All other trams like it are strictly commuter, tourist or ski-related trams, he says.

The Portland Aerial Tram is the key to OHSU's expansion across the freeway to the South Waterfront District and to the $2 billion of private investment in the district that includes the John Ross, a 32-story condo tower and two other high-rise condos, as well as the new OHSU building, OHSU officials say.

What was a more than 20-minute shuttle ride by van for doctors and other medical personnel is now just 3 minutes and 20 seconds.

The tramway is part of a 20-year OHSU master plan developed in 1999 that indicated the most conducive place for Oregon's only academic health center to expand was the South Waterfront along the Willamette River.

Not that the tramway has come without controversy and caused the Portland City Council more than a few headaches. With initial estimates saying its construction would cost $15 million, the price continued to rise until it hit its current tag of $57 million, 15 percent ($8.5 million) of which will be covered by South Waterfront property taxes. The majority of the cost, about 70.5 percent or $40 million, is being covered by OHSU, with the other 14.5 percent being covered by South Waterfront property owner fees.

Skyrocketing steel, concrete and labor costs are mainly to blame for the almost quadrupling of the tramway's construction price, according to news reports in The Oregonian.

Then there are the Corbett-Terwillinger and Lair Hill neighborhoods below the tramway. Residents have claimed that the tramway is not only an invasion of privacy but will also lower property values.

Residents have been offered rides on the tram before it opens to the public and OHSU has gone out of its way to hear their concerns, says Gerri Lutes, an OHSU spokeswoman. "They've commented that it's pretty quiet," she says.

While the cabins are now filled every five minutes with doctors in white medical coats and blue scrubs, nurses and construction workers, along with some OHSU employees who admit they're riding just for fun now and then, anyone will soon be able to ride for a public fare expected to be $4. The tramway has been built as a "public conveyance," Burnham says.

Two OHSU employees were sent to New York City last year to talk with operators of the Roosevelt Island Tramway, whose only mishap in 30 years came last April when commuters were trapped above the East River for seven hours when the tram, the only commuter aerial tramway in North America used strictly for mass transit, suffered a power failure.

It's really not that complicated, Burnham says, pointing to the cables, or "ropes," as they're called in tram terminology, from the deck at the upper-tram terminal. Each cabin is guided by three ropes, two "travel" ropes with a "haul" rope that runs underneath the travel ropes. The haul rope is the endless looping bi-cable. A 16-wheel carriage sits above each cabin and runs on top of the travel ropes.

"The weight of the car is simply pulling down on those travel ropes," Burnham says.

Two-car tramways like PAT use a "jig-back" system. A large electric motor is located at the bottom of the tramway. As the system pulls one cabin down, that cabin's weight helps pull the other cabin up. Each cabin has a few seats and bars to hang on to but is mostly standing room only. Each cabin holds up to 78 passengers and there's a "run" every five minutes.

The first test runs of PAT were conducted while the cabins were still wrapped in plastic. When members of the Portland media were invited to ride Dec. 14, Oregon was gearing up for one of its biggest windstorms in recent memory, with gusts reaching 100 mph on the coast and 50 mph in the valley. Nonetheless, PAT made a smooth run that day, Lutes says.

Portland theater takes center stage

By Misha Berson

PORTLAND — The opening of a major new playhouse is a festive occasion in any sizeable city. And the opening of Portland Center Stage's handsome new Gerding Theater at the Armory last weekend was accompanied by plenty of hoopla — and some audible sighs of relief.

A city that's growing fast but determined to retain its unique urban character, Portland has long lagged behind its more populated cousin to the north in erecting new performing facilities. It has also never developed the critical mass of professional theaters, and theater patrons, to gain Seattle's national credibility as a "theater town."

The completion of the new Armory complex is a big step toward that goal.

In the heart of the fashionable and trendy Pearl District, this refurbished 19th-century military facility has retained such original features as its 100-foot-long old-growth Douglas fir bow trusses and crenelated parapets.

But enter, and you'll find a pair of handsome, modern, well-equipped theaters (one seating 599 people, the other a 200-seat "black box" studio), and spacious lobby, meeting and office areas decorated in the invitingly hip, modern-funk style for which Portland is known.

One might assume, from the happy crush of dignitaries, media folk and other revelers at the opening of the theater's first show, "West Side Story," that Portland's movers-and-shakers had rallied behind the project from day one.

But nobody knows better than Portland Center Stage's determined artistic director Chris Coleman what it took to secure financing for the $36.1 million project, and convince influential skeptics it was just what Portland needs.

"West Side Story" Through Nov. 5 at the Portland Center Stage's Gerding Theatre, 128 N.W. 11th Ave., Portland. Tickets and other information: www.pcs.org or 503-445-3700.
Chatting before the opening gala, a deceptively calm, low-key Coleman noted that when he migrated from Atlanta to Portland in 2000 to run Portland Center Stage (PCS), he faced the same daunting challenge former directors had.

Namely: How do you get Portlanders excited about theater if you're presenting it in an inflexible, shared barn of a downtown auditorium within the Portland Center for the Performing Arts?

"There were huge issues with (our old)space, in terms of the quality and variety of productions you could have," said Coleman. "The sightlines are difficult. You can't do intimate plays.

"And we really needed to be in a space where we could reinvent and expand our relationship with the community. We needed a place that said, 'This is Portland.' "

Once Coleman and the PCS board agreed a major makeover of the Armory was the right move, they had to devise a creative financing plan for buying, gutting and remaking the historic structure (then owned by the Portland development company, Gerding Edlen). It meant cobbling together municipal and federal tax credits and urban-renewal loans, private gifts and foundation grants.

A public flap ensued over one critical source of funding: federal tax credits aimed at economically depressed urban districts. The Armory project qualified because the Pearl District has a fair number of low-income housing units.

But critics protested the use of federal dollars in an area now more noted for pricey condo complexes and the upscale eateries, shops and Whole Foods Market that came with them.

The plan survived, however, gaining esteem also for the eco-friendly design by Portland's GBD architectural firm. The building will use rainwater to flush toilets, passive heating and cooling, and other features to be roughly 30 percent more energy-efficient than standard structures of the same size.

The Armory now proudly displays a plaque certifying that it has won a rare platinum Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating from the U.S. Green Building Council.

Coleman says PCS still must find about $8 million to pay off building costs. But he's optimistic about that.

The main thing now is introducing Portlanders to the Armory complex (which is near a light-rail line, cafes and easy parking). And proving the new venue will be an artistic boon to PCS and the wider community.

On both scores, opening with "West Side Story" was an inspired choice.

Sure, it's a classic Broadway musical with instant title recognition. But the ambitious Leonard Bernstein-Stephen Sondheim score and high dramatic and choreographic demands aren't easy to ace.

Coleman's staging in the Armory's intimate yet substantial mainstage theater got off to a tentative start in the opening "Jets vs. Sharks" number. And the orchestra fumbled through the complex score at times.

But overall this is a vibrantly performed and designed production, with good chemistry among its four leads (Carey Brown's sweet Maria, Tony Clarno's acrobatic Riff, Anderson Davis' sincere Tony and Ivette Sosa's exciting Anita), and it honors the show's blend of vitality and tragedy.

The opening-night crowd roared its approval at the final curtain. But Coleman knew he was home free before the show even started. When he came before the audience to make some brief welcoming remarks, they gave him a well-deserved standing ovation.

Stage right?

Sunday, October 01, 2006
BOB HICKS
The Oregonian

"It's a nutty, nutty, nutty time," Chris Coleman says with a jagged little smile.

No kidding. Coleman, artistic director of Portland's biggest theater company, Portland Center Stage, is in the midst of whipping together a grand-scale "West Side Story," one of the biggest shows the company's done since it debuted in 1988.

And that's the easy part.

The tough part -- the part that dwarfs any single show, even an American masterwork like "West Side Story" -- is pulling back the curtain on the theater itself.

When "West Side Story" has its official opening night on Friday, it will also mark the opening of the $36.1 million Bob and Diana Gerding Theater at the Armory, Center Stage's new home, which has been plopped inside the gutted shell of the 1891 Armory building in the Pearl District. Hundreds of people are expected to traipse through the old-new building today for a series of getting-to-know-you events.

The unveiling of the eco-savvy Gerding is the biggest real-estate event to hit the city's performance scene since the opening in 1987 of the Portland Center for the Performing Arts' Newmark and Dolores Winningstad theaters -- the two major halls in the building that Center Stage is abandoning to move uptown. On the city's larger cultural map, the birth of the Gerding rivals the Portland Art Museum's $45 million expansion last year into its north-wing Mark Building.

It's a moment Coleman has been looking forward to since he arrived at Center Stage from Atlanta six years ago. And it's certainly one of the most significant steps a Portland theater company has ever taken.

"I tip my hat to him," Portland Opera's general director Christopher Mattaliano says of Coleman. "It's cause for celebration. There always are going to be naysayers, but this is terrific for everybody."

Still, moving from the handsome and familiar if artistically frustrating Newmark is a gamble.

Will the price tag (Center Stage is still more than $9 million short of paying the construction bill) put a crimp in the company's ambitions? Will the company's established older audience follow it from the city's traditional downtown into the go-go hustle of the Pearl? Will the move draw in the city's younger, more pop culture-attuned crowd, an audience that so far hasn't given mainstream theater much of a whirl?

The move raises several other large questions:

Why quit the Newmark, a space that was meant to transform the city's arts culture when it opened just 19 years ago?

Will Center Stage's exit leave the publicly owned Newmark in the lurch, with no one to fill all those empty dates?

Will the Gerding re-energize the company, as Coleman so fervently hopes?

What does the move mean to a fractured local theater community in an age when the art form itself is fractured, with no clear sense of common goals?

What effect will the new performance hall have on other mainline performance groups, including the city's ballet and opera companies and its symphonic orchestra, each of which has flirted with the notion of moving into its own new performance space?

In a rapidly changing urban area that expects to squeeze in another half-million people by 2025, the answers aren't easy.

"I think it's like the rest of the city," Coleman says. "So much is changing. In 20 years we might look back and know where we were going."

Center Stage's splashy new house

Walk through the Gerding and it's clear this place is meant to be a magnificent theater machine. More than that, it aims to stitch itself into its community in some very Portlandy ways.

It's a great big recycling project, maintaining a striking historic facade even though everything inside is new. It's environmentally friendly, with sophisticated operating systems that might make it the most "green" historical rehab and performing arts facility in the nation.

With features ranging from interactive touch-screens in the lobby to a "sliver park" along one side to public meeting spaces to a cafe, free Wi-Fi, lobby performances and theater classes, it's throwing its doors wide open to the community surrounding it -- which, with Powell's Books a stone's throw one way and Jimmy Mak's jazz club an underhand lob the other, is rapidly turning into a mini-cultural district. The Gerding's lobby will be open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, making it, the company hopes, a sort of cultural living room for the city.

The extras, Coleman anticipates, will become part of what makes Center Stage tick as it seeks to fight the graying of the theater audience and realign itself with younger generations. "My hope is not to run off all the mature audiences in Portland, but open our arms," he says. "There's already shifting happening. There's a level of curiosity about what this thing is going to be." All that lobby stuff, he adds, is meant to be "a magnet for all ages, but cooler for young people."

There are other significant advantages. At the Gerding, Center Stage has control of its own space. If a show is selling well, the company can hold it over: Don't be surprised if "West Side Story" tacks another week or more to its run.

In the end, of course, nothing much matters if the performances inside the armory aren't alive and vibrant and pertinent.

The building's twin hearts will be the theaters themselves -- a 599-seat proscenium main stage and a flexible, 200-seat second stage where all sorts of things might happen. The first shows in the two spaces are telling: the classic "West Side Story" in the bigger hall, the intimate and edgy "I Am My Own Wife" in the smaller space.

A lot of theater people expected Coleman to go with a more radical design for the armory's main theater. "I was really surprised that they designed a sort of traditional proscenium stage," says Robyn Williams, executive director of the Portland Center for the Performing Arts, which manages the Newmark.

But the Gerding's main stage appears to be an excellent performing space, big enough to play epic and small enough to play intimate. Its sight lines are good, its seats are comfortable and it has an almost luxurious amount of knee space between rows -- a not insignificant selling point.

"We've been fascinated, charmed, by what's happening in the public spaces," Coleman says. "But for me . . . it's going to be just delightful putting on a show there."

Meanwhile, back at the Newmark

When the New Theatre Building opened next door to the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in 1987, it was following the money, just as the Gerding is following the money into the high-rolling Pearl.

Both the New Theatre, which houses the Newmark and Winningstad Theatres, and the Schnitzer were originally meant to be built near Keller Auditorium on a block donated by the old Evans Products, creating a sort of Lincoln Center complex, the Portland Center for the Performing Arts, near the riverfront.

But business and political leaders felt that downtown had a big gap on Broadway, and that creating a new cultural zone there would revitalize a key economic stretch of downtown.

Economically -- at least for the business district, if not for the underfunded arts groups that paid top dollar in the arts center because it failed to set up an adequate operating fund -- the plan was a smashing success.

Artistically, it was another story. The refurbished rock 'n' roll palace that became the Schnitz has always been an uncomfortable fit for its main tenant, the Oregon Symphony. And the two new theaters proved to be the wrong spaces in the wrong place at the wrong time.

No performance hall is perfect, of course, and many of the most revered performing groups in the country play in halls that aren't ideal for their purposes. But the Newmark and the underused Winnie, a courtyard-style space that's proved economically infeasible for most groups, are problematic in interesting ways.

With two balconies and close to 900 seats, the Newmark is a grandly old-fashioned, Edwardian-style theater, built for an age when acting styles were large and most plays were lavishly produced spectacles. And by and large, the public loves it: The theater is beautifully appointed, and it feels special.

The problem is, even as the hall was being built the American theater was deep into the process of redefining itself as a more intimate, stripped-down art form -- a combination of changing tastes and the economic realities of producing this expensive form of art: Small-cast, basically designed shows are cheaper.

For most theater, the Newmark has always played bigger than it is, and producers have been trying to deal with its challenges since the now independent Center Stage was established as a branch of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Coleman is adamant about the space's shortcomings.

"Everyone who was a finalist for my job said, 'If you want to succeed long-term, you have to find another space,' " he says.

The Newmark, he adds, is "a big space: 880 seats. If you are filling that number of seats on a regular basis, you are usually operating with a $15 million to $20 million annual budget and are in a significantly larger metro area.

"But beyond that: the relationship between actor and audience in the first half of the orchestra level is quite problematic (the stage is too high and the rake of the house too shallow). The overhang from the second balcony makes acoustics quite problematic at the back of the first balcony, and in the second balcony you are pitched so steeply that you're looking at the top of actors' heads."

Center Stage's exit leaves a huge programming gap in the Newmark. Oregon Ballet Theatre and Portland Opera, companies that might be expected to pick up the slack, could indeed end up doing that -- but only a little bit.

"Certainly our Broadway series is starting to test the waters of the Newmark," the opera's Mattaliano says.

But even for chamber operas, he adds, the Newmark probably won't work very often: "I would love nothing more than to run a Mozart opera, say, or a Rossini, in the Newmark. But logistically it's problematic, because the orchestra pit is so small there."

The ballet's artistic director, Christopher Stowell, whose company presents part of its season in the Newmark but most of it in the 3,000-seat Keller Auditorium, echoes Mattaliano. The pit is too small, he says, and the ballet's big hits, such as "Swan Lake," need the seating capacity of the Keller.

"The truth is, we can't really put more of our season there, unless we were to expand our season generally," he says. ". . . There are too few seats. It just doesn't pencil out."

Plenty of other potential users are out there, although no obvious ones that can fill large blocks of time. A lot of classical musicians believe the hall's sound is too dry, but its availability is tempting: The Portland Piano International series, for instance, is moving into the Newmark this season. The hall would work well for midsized pop concerts, and it's a good space for dance, if companies can afford to rent it.

The Newmark may be best suited for musical theater -- and Center Stage has produced a handful of musicals in it, although Coleman says the hall's uneven acoustics make mixing sound for a musical difficult -- but Portland has no musical theater company with the financial resources to move into it.

Surprisingly, Center Stage's departure from the Newmark could be a financial boon for the Portland Center for the Performing Arts, which manages the Newmark, Winningstad, Brunish, Schnitzer and Keller theaters.

"The immediate thing is, we're going to make more money," says the PCPA's Williams.

That's because, as one of the arts center's resident companies (the others are the opera, ballet, symphony, Oregon Children's Theatre and Tears of Joy Theatre), Center Stage got the cheapest rental rate available -- only about a third that charged other not-for-profit groups, and even more of a break over commercial rates.

"We've really heavily subsidized the space for Center Stage," Williams says. "So we knew we wouldn't have a huge amount to make up."

In fact, the Newmark is pulling in much more money. Last season Center Stage paid $47,070 for 188 days of use. For the same time period so far this season the center has contracted only 83 days for the space -- but with rent of $72,120.

In addition, the arts center is adding income by beginning to rent out the small Brunish Theatre, which had been used mostly as rehearsal space for Center Stage.

Williams sees the shift as a chance to throw open the Newmark's doors to a wider variety of uses.

"Just like Center Stage, we have a next chapter for ourselves," she says. "It opens up a lot of possibilities. Can we do stand-ups? Can we do small bands? I think we have an opportunity to re-create the Newmark, and I think that's a good thing." Company at a crossroads

Center Stage's brave new move into the armory comes at a time when the kind of big regional theater company it represents is undergoing an identity crisis. Beginning mostly in the 1960s, cities from Seattle to Minneapolis to Louisville to Baltimore established central professional theater companies, large groups that would uphold the classics and raise performance standards and be the suns around which smaller, thriving satellite theater companies would orbit.

Those groups still exist, and many continue to have loyal and healthy followings. But in an increasingly fractured culture, theater itself has become fractured, and the idea of a central, uniting vision has begun to lose its traction.

More and more, theater communities and much of their audience have begun to the think of the big companies as dinosaurs, irrelevant to what they do on their own stages. In Portland, other, smaller centers of theatrical activity have taken root: Artists Repertory Theatre, with two stages and its eye on a third; CoHo Theatre; the east side's Theater! Theatre!, which houses several groups; Miracle Theatre, Imago, the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, the Back Door and others. In addition, suburban cities have begun to grow their own theaters -- some, such as Lake Owego's Lakewood and Tigard's Broadway Rose, quite successful.

Do such groups gain from a healthy Center Stage, even if they pay scant attention to it? What is the place in contemporary American culture for a one-stop shopping center theater? Does this kind of company face the same challenges that newspapers, old-line television networks and even public political debate face -- are they attempts to provide a unified field theory for a culture that doesn't want to be united?

Long-term, the question is pertinent, and it helps explain Coleman's eagerness to reposition Center Stage as something new and exciting in the public's eyes.

The company has asserted its centrality in several ways, notably with its annual JAW/West festival of plays in progress. Coleman has made new plays a focus of what the company does, and the Gerding's smaller studio theater is bound to attract younger, adventurous audiences that have considered Center Stage too staid for their tastes.

But for the Center Stages of the country, designing a season that will appeal to a broad sampling of audiences has become a precarious balancing act. Go too swiftly into experimental waters and you'll lose your vital traditional base. Stick too much to the tried-and-true and you sacrifice your future.

Most large regional companies also see the exploration and reinvigoration of the classics as one of their primary responsibilities, and Center Stage will continue to do that, even if its younger target audience opts to stay home. "West Side Story" will almost certainly be a box-office success, yet a lot of theater people in town have complained that it's a tired old thing, a boring way to kick off the first season in the armory.

Coleman disagrees. "It's such a seminal piece of American drama. It was so groundbreaking," he says. "So much of it is about, 'Where's my place? There's gotta be a place for me, where I'm comfortable, where I'm safe, where I'm with my people.' "

And that, he says, is emblematic for Center Stage as it moves into the armory. "There's gotta be a place that fits us. And that question's been around for 18 years." All across the town

What does the opening of the Armory mean to the city's larger arts culture? It could be just the first of several doors to open -- but don't expect to see the new ones swinging anytime soon.

"There's a lot of performing arts in this town," says the ballet's Stowell. "Ultimately to make things work they're going to have to have homes."

And homes they really want, not homes they're stuck with.

As big-league baseball and football teams have moved away from multipurpose stadiums in recent years and toward stadiums designed for their specific sport (think Seattle's Kingdome, imploded to make space for baseball's Safeco and football's Qwest fields), so have arts groups longed for performing spaces that meet their particular needs. Center Stage's move to the armory could be just the first big real-estate shift among the city's major arts groups.

Money, of course, is a key factor, and with the opera, ballet and symphony all racking up big operating deficits in the past fiscal year, nobody's saying it's a good time to start hitting up donors for more building projects. The general feeling is that the art museum and Center Stage construction projects have tapped the market out for a while.

Still floating around town are the 2002 recommendations of the Keewaydin Group, a national arts consulting firm that first suggested moving Center Stage into the armory. Keewaydin's 10-month study also called for a new 2,000-seat house to be shared by the symphony and opera.

"There was a lot of that study that was incomplete, and there were some assumptions that were inaccurate," PCPA's Williams says.

Nevertheless, the dream -- or one something like it -- remains. Long-term, the symphony still wants its own space. The opera and ballet, art forms that fit together naturally, dream of a new building that's big enough to make sense financially but small enough to let audiences experience the art the way it's meant to look and sound.

And that's why other arts groups hope the Gerding is a hit.

"If they're successful, then maybe five or 10 years from now we can start a conversation about a new opera house -- that state-of-the-art, 1,800-seat opera/ballet house," the opera's Mattaliano says.

If anything kick-starts a new round of building, it could be pressure on the barn that everybody loves to hate, Keller Auditorium. The Keller's big artistic disadvantage -- it's a cavernous hall with 3,000 seats -- is also its big financial attraction to producers: You can sell a lot of tickets there.

"I think we need to have a conversation about the Keller, because they're packed," Williams says. "Just shoulder to shoulder."

That means that groups such as the opera and ballet and even Oregon Children's Theatre, all of which use the Keller as their main home, can't easily expand their programs.

It also means that touring shows -- the "Lion Kings" and "Wickeds" of the world -- often can't get the dates they want or can't play as long as they would otherwise. For the arts center, that is very lucrative business, and producers have been banging at the door, wanting to get in. If the opera and ballet were to move to a new building, Williams believes, the Keller could break into a whole new level of business.

All of which brings the subject back to Center Stage. In a curious way, its success in the armory is vital to every other major performance company in town.

Coleman feels the pressure, and the opportunity.

"We need to do something that raises the hair on people's backs this first season," he says.

And raises the stakes on the future of Portland's performing arts.

More police presence due at New Columbia

Park fights - The Housing Authority also will try to find ways to help keep teens busy
Thursday, August 03, 2006
STEPHEN BEAVEN
The Oregonian

After a series of fights and other disturbances at North Portland's New Columbia development, the Police Bureau said Wednesday that it plans to open a community policing office there in the next month and assign two officers to patrol the area on a regular basis.

Meanwhile, the Housing Authority of Portland and the Parks Bureau are talking about developing more activities and placing adult volunteers to defuse growing tensions in McCoy Park, in the middle of New Columbia.

"When we see the emergence of negative activity, we want to jump at it," Steve Rudman, the executive director of the Housing Authority, said after meeting Wednesday afternoon with police, the Parks Bureau and others.

The moves come after fights last week involving groups of young people armed with sticks, rocks and bottles forced the early closure of McCoy Park on successive nights. Police officers say they're seeing more activity from gang members in the area, including some youngsters displaced last year by Hurricane Katrina.

New Columbia is a 15-month-old mixed-income community that includes market-rate homes and public housing. It's built on the site of the former Columbia Villa housing project, which included community policing before it was demolished.

But the Housing Authority, which developed the site, didn't plan for a specific police presence in the new community because it and the Police Bureau lacked the resources, Rudman said.

North precinct Cmdr. Jim Ferraris said two officers would be permanently assigned to New Columbia, patrolling in the afternoons and nights four or five days a week. He said he hopes to find grant money to pay for a third officer, ensuring a police presence every day.

They'll work at an office on North Trenton Street in the heart of New Columbia, across from the park, Rudman said.

But he cautioned that the community policing office wouldn't be a permanent addition to New Columbia. Rather, he said, it would be open for "the next couple of years as the community takes form."

In the short term, however, the Housing Authority expects to give teens more to do at the park at night and to increase adult supervision.

It's important to establish such measures in the next few weeks to get a head start on next year, when the development will be completed, said John Keating, the Housing Authority's assistant director of community building at New Columbia.

"This is like a dress rehearsal," Keating said. "We're waiting for the big opening next summer."

A pledge to look outward from the hill

With a new president in place at OHSU, an institution that has
Thursday, July 13, 2006
The Oregonian

blossomed in size now needs to cultivate its connections

T he incoming president of Oregon Health & Science University says he wants the organization to focus more explicitly on external partners, from community colleges around the state to venture capitalists in Portland. After some recent high-profile flaps and low-profile disgruntlement, this is what many OHSU watchers want to hear.

Joseph Robertson, the dean of OHSU's medical school, was chosen from among three finalists to replace Peter Kohler, retiring at the end of the summer after 18 years as president. Kohler presided over a remarkable growth spurt at the school and hospital, which added buildings and campuses, strengthened its reputation as a nationally prominent research institution and slugged its way to heavyweight status as a business enterprise.

Robertson was the popular choice to succeed him. He is a knowledgeable, well-respected, longtime Oregonian who is deeply familiar with the institution and well-versed on the health care issues playing out across the state, from Portland to Eastern Oregon towns. Colleagues call him an inspired choice to oversee the next chapter of OHSU's development.

Under Kohler, OHSU's gains came at some cost to the institution's good will. The bruising battle over the tram between Marquam Hill and the new South Waterfront campus is only the latest and most prominent of the episodes that have damaged OHSU's standing in the community. In recent years, OHSU has taken a hard line in the case of paying for the care of Jordaan Clarke, whose brain was damaged when an air tube was dislodged during a procedure at the hospital. It warned it might close its Poison Center, which serves the public around the clock. It threatened to expand in Washington County instead of Portland.

Kohler himself made the odd choice to join forces with Texas Pacific when the buyout firm sought to buy Portland General Electric. Instead of winning friends, in recent years OHSU has lost a few.

The institution has proclaimed itself, with considerable justification, a critically important employer and economic engine, especially for biotechnology and health sciences. Yet when biotechnology firm Genentech declared it would build a plant in Hillsboro, company officials said they had no contact with OHSU.

Privately, investors and business executives have complained for years that OHSU is too big and inward-looking to be responsive to private-sector needs. They say it takes a lot of persistence to accomplish anything with OHSU, even when both parties would benefit from working together.

To his credit, Robertson acknowledges that OHSU can and should work more collaboratively with the business community. And he insists that the school has no intention of abandoning its public mission to place doctors and nurses where needed and widen the availability of health care.

Robertson says OHSU's mission hasn't changed, but political arguments over the tram and other things have diverted attention from the institution's fundamental purpose. He would like to return the public's focus to OHSU's role as a medical enterprise, a research institution, a teaching school and a provider of health care services.

Amen to that. Portland and Oregon have bet heavily on OHSU's success, from assisting its real estate development to providing millions of dollars in state funds -- though never as much as OHSU would like. To the extent that the institution can grow while fulfilling its mission of providing education, research, health care and health programs, Oregon will benefit.

The Fight for Housing

City Council Steps Into the Fray

BY SCOTT MOORE

Two weeks ago, in a room packed with low-income housing advocates, city council made the first steps in a process that will keep Portland affordable. The plan: Require the Portland Development Commission (PDC) to make affordable housing a priority by setting aside a portion of its budget for inexpensive residences.

The only opposition: The Portland Business Alliance (PBA) and the Metro Association of Realtors, who don't want the city telling the PDC where to spend its money.

In March of 2006, the median cost for a house in Portland was $262,000, a 17 percent jump from 2005, and a staggering increase over 2002 prices. But during the same period, average incomes for Portland residents have remained flat or decreased.

In other words, Portlanders are being priced out of their own city.

So Erik Sten—who heads up the Bureau of Housing and Community Development—put forward a new plan: Simply force the PDC to set aside a percentage of all urban renewal dollars for affordable housing. His resolution—co-sponsored by Commissioner Sam Adams—passed 4-0, with Commissioner Dan Saltzman absent.

But in order to get a unanimous vote, Sten had to water down the resolution. The original plan was to force the PDC to set aside 30 percent of its budget for affordable housing, but Mayor Tom Potter characteristically wants to hear from "stakeholders" before finalizing the percentage. Now the resolution simply establishes a policy goal of setting aside PDC money for housing—the actual percentage will be decided this summer in negotiations between PDC, developers, city council, and housing advocates.

"I was comfortable with where the mayor wanted to go," Sten said after the vote. "His process concerns aren't unreasonable. The mayor's cooperation will make [negotiations] go smoothly. We lost almost nothing, and gaining a majority of the council was worth it."

Interestingly, Saltzman was AWOL during testimony and didn't return before the council voted. He's endorsed by the PBA and has numerous real estate agents as contributors—but, according to his chief of staff Brendan Finn, Saltzman wasn't dodging the vote. He would have voted for it, Finn said, but he had a speaking engagement to which he was already committed.

Guide to green commercial real estate available

The first guide to green commercial real estate on the West Coast, Green Real Estate Guide 2006, has been released by Celilo Group Media.

Published as a supplement to Sustainable Industries Journal, the Green Real Estate Guide is a comprehensive resource for sustainable office space on the West Coast. The guide can be downloaded for free at www.sijournal.com/resources.

The Green Real Estate Guide 2006 contains information and resources for California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia.

The guide was created in response to the rising demand for green office space along the West Coast and the mounting interest among property managers interested in greening their existing buildings.

The Green Real Estate Guide 2006 was sponsored by Coastwide Laboratories, makers of sustainable earth products.

Celilo Group Media Inc. is a media company with offices in Portland, Seattle and St. Paul, Minn.

More of the young and hip fight urban urge

By Haya El Nasser, USA TODAY
Young, single people usually love the excitement of big cities, from the vibrant nightlife to the noisiness and frenzied pace of urban existence. They love it so much they're willing to pay a stiff price for cramped quarters and communal living.

For some, the price is getting too steep. The draw of the bright lights and big cities is dimming now that housing costs have hit exorbitant heights. Some who grew up fantasizing about life in the "big city" are settling in less glamorous cities and even suburbs.

"For a lot of young people, especially growing up in the Northeast, there are two cities: New York and Boston," says Nick Lentino, 31, a native of western Massachusetts.

So where is Lentino living? Hartford, Conn.

It's a far cry from the cosmopolitan, fast-paced ambience of New York and Boston — but far cheaper. Lentino just bought a one-bedroom, 750-square-foot condominium in a converted 1950s apartment building a half-mile from downtown. Price: $95,000.

"I have to be honest. There were certain times I would've loved to have been in Boston or New York," says Lentino, assistant to the director of enrollment at Goodwin College in Hartford. Even so, whenever he has pangs of regret, he goes to New York for a weekend and visits friends who are spending twice what he spends on his mortgage to rent a place half the size of his.

"I can't imagine how people are able to a) save money or b) live paycheck to paycheck all year," Lentino says. "It's the same thing in Boston. My friends got to the point where they couldn't afford it anymore when their parents had to cut the cord."

Research is starting to document the housing squeeze for young people in New York and other high-octane metro areas. The Center for an Urban Future, a New York policy research group, and Mt. Auburn Associates, an economic development consulting firm, released a report recently that concluded: "The high cost of work space and housing in New York has prompted increasing numbers of artists and creative workers to decide it's simply not worth it to stay here — especially as other cities offer enticements to relocate."

The report cites New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's push for 65,000 units of new housing across the city and support for the creation of space for cultural organizations.

Robin Keegan, co-author of the report, says New York may still attract young, creative types right out of college, but the question is whether they'll stay. "They get to a juncture where the cost of living is really crucial," she says.

Philadelphia, sometimes the butt of jokes for its lack of cachet compared with nearby New York, is being marketed by some former residents of the Big Apple as the "next borough." It is attracting small numbers of artsy young people from expensive neighborhoods in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Cities get hip, costly

The young haven't stopped flocking to urban jewels such as San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and New York. A recent study by CEOs for Cities, a Chicago-based organization of urban leaders, shows that young people ages 25 to 34 in the 50 largest metropolitan areas are three times more likely than they were in the 1980s to live within 3 miles of the city's center. The research is based on 2000 Census data, taken before real estate prices soared.

"They're very economically important to cities," says Joe Cortright, a Portland, Ore., economist who did the research for the CEO group. "They're the dream demographics of HR (human resources) departments of fast-growing companies."

Even the most deeply rooted older suburbanites are rediscovering the joys of cities. Developers are converting old factories and offices into expensive lofts, and aging baby boomers with fat retirement funds and empty nests are snapping them up. Working-class city neighborhoods are being redeveloped and turning upscale.

The resurgence of cities' popularity among people of all ages is making urban living less affordable for the young and less affluent.

"Let's face it, bright lights aren't as bright as they used to be downtown," says William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a think tank. "The high priority is to have an affordable house."

Several factors are pulling the young in other directions.

•The cost of housing. The U.S. median price of a single-family home was $218,000 in October, according to the National Association of Realtors. It's more than three times that in the San Francisco area ($721,900), more than twice that in New York ($461,100, and that's not including Manhattan), and about double in Boston ($430,900). Rental prices are climbing, too.

People earning the median income can afford only 2% of the homes in the Los Angeles area and 24% in Boston.

"The worst enemy of a true urban renaissance has been an overhyping and overspeculation in the central city market," says Joel Kotkin, senior fellow for the New America Foundation, a think tank, and author of The City: A Global History. "They build these condos, and they're so overpriced. ... A lot of these places are not being built for young people."

Laris Kreslins, publisher of Arthur, an arts, culture and political magazine, says he got into debt living in New York. He moved back home, into the basement of his parents' house in Gaithersburg, Md., a suburb of Washington, D.C.

"It was a way to get back on my feet," he says. He worked part time at a private school and ran the magazine. Then he and his girlfriend, Kendra Gaeta, discovered Philadelphia. They bought a four-bedroom home near the Philadelphia Museum of Art earlier this year. Now they run a website — movetophilly.com — that links viewers to housing bargains and hip districts there.

"In my age group and demographics, what I'm hearing is that most people work a lot, but they haven't amassed a lot of savings because most of the time they're renting and living in places like L.A. and New York," says Kreslins, 30. "They're asking, 'Why am I renting when I could be putting that same amount of money in a mortgage?' "

•Work flexibility. Employers in expensive housing markets are responding. Bill Trenchard, chief executive of LiveOps, a teleservices company based in Palo Alto, Calif., in the San Francisco Bay Area, says the company now is willing to have employees work from just about anywhere in the USA.

"Wherever the brains are, wherever the talent is," he says. "That's a real change in attitude from five years ago, even two years ago when we thought there were huge advantages to having people in the building."

LiveOps has workers based as far away as Ohio. The company's employees tend to be young, many of them in their 20s and 30s.

"You've got these housing markets that are completely out of whack," says Richard Florida, professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., and author of The Rise of the Creative Class. "There's no point of entry for young people anymore."

Florida has argued that creativity plays such a big role in the 21st-century economy that cities must adapt to the needs of creative thinkers — whether they're artists or engineers. Letting people work where they can afford to live is one way.

Seattle native Elizabeth Howie, 27, was determined to live the city life. What better place than San Francisco? A science major and graduate of UCLA, she found work with a biotech company in South San Francisco. "It was very important to live in the city, to just being young in the city ... to live in an area that had lots of restaurants and bars," she says.

She was willing to pay the price: $4,200 a month rent for a three-bedroom apartment she shared with two roommates. She commuted 30 minutes to work.

"It was insane, but we knew we would be paying for living in the city," Howie says.

Leaving San Francisco

The rental market softened when the high-tech bubble popped in 2000, but she was still paying $1,100 a month and sharing a place with two others.

"I saw a lot of my friends who were not living in San Francisco buying homes," she says. "I couldn't do it in San Francisco," even though her salary is in the $60,000s. "If I continued to live in the city, I don't know when I'd be able to buy a house."

Howie quit as an account manager for LiveOps and moved 90 miles away to Sacramento, the state capital that's not known as an exciting hub. She bought a three-bedroom house with a yard for $390,000. The hous