Saturday, September 29, 2007

For you, a part of what I see walking to work

092907_triangle_bldg_625x469
Friday morning as I walked part way to work, this view particularly appealed to me. It's about 7:05 AM, PDT, and we're looking east down West Burnside on the left and southeast down SW Morrison on the right. Some mornings when I walk down Everett to Third, I'm walking at the same downward slope you see on Burnside. If I decide to walk on Morrison instead, then go due south to take Salmon down to Third, I walk slightly uphill before it levels off and then slopes down towards the Willamette River. Either way I walk, I make good time, take a few photos, and catch the bus that takes me over the river to work. I love to walk in Portland, and I'm curious to see how I can work it out to walk as much as possible during the wet winter.

The pale peach-colored building in the intersection is one of two triangular-shaped buildings that I've noticed in the sharp-angled intersections on the south side of Burnside. At its closest end, it houses a pizza place; at the opposite end, there's a bar and grill. I believe the upper floors are apartments. The tall, many-windowed building behind it is the Civic, a brand-new condo building. In between it is the rust-colored shorter building, the Morrison. They represent an interesting concept, new to Portland, as reported recently in the Portland Tribune. You can read about it at http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=118945870998628300.

Here's a bit from Wikitravel about how Burnside and the Willamette River work to delineate parts of the city: Portland is divided into five sections. Burnside Street is the north/south split. The Willamette (pronounced will-LAM-et) splits Southeast and Southwest, but the river takes a turn north of Burnside. Since Mother Nature doesn't care much about straight lines, the city decided to split what would be the Northwest quadrant into Northwest (West of the river) and North (East of the River), then divide North and Northeast at Williams Avenue. All Portland addresses contain their designating sector inserted between house number and street name (i.e. 3719 SE Hawthorne Blvd.) This will make it easier to figure out where things are. If you hear Portlanders talking about Southwest or Northeast, they're probably talking about the section of the town rather than Arizona or Massachusetts.

7 comments:

Jo's-D-Eyes said...

Hi Nice photography,
This street could be in Paris,Rome or Amsterdam, I did not know that some street could be so alike "the same' Looks pretty to me, Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the wiki-information

have a GOOD weekend

NorthBayPhoto said...

Very nice photo!

Thanks for visiting my NorthBayPhoto blog.

GMG said...

7:05 a.m., walking to work with the lights still on and a rain threatenning sky... No, Thanks! ;))
Great picture, anyhow!
Thanks for your visit and comment to my blog. Just left Bali and posted on Singapore at Blogtrotter.
Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Marie said...

Hello Lynette, you go to work early!

I am sorry for not being more present on your blog and on myother friends' blogs. I have got something that looks like the flu. I hate it.

Kate said...

I love those triangle/flatiron/wedge buildings. Full of history and character

dot said...

This street could even be Atlanta! Very nice picture.
Do you ever feel unsafe walking on the city streets?

Neva said...

I like this street...you have a nice walk to work...even if it is very early!!!