Friday, September 12, 2008

High. And low.

High above the building that said, "Hello, Lynette," we see Portland's blue sky dressed with clouds highlighted by the sun. It's that same sun that reflected off the Fox Tower, leaving this pattern of light and shadow playing across the brick facade. I feel lucky to have been in the right place at the right time.
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Of course, if the entire block between the two buildings had not been demolished at some point, there would have been no spectacular for me to witness. Here's some information about the Fox Tower and the construction going on between it and my featured building.

From Wikipedia:

The Fox Tower is a 27-story office building in Portland, Oregon. It opened in 2000, making it Portland's most recently opened major office building. Thompson Vaivoda and Associates designed the building and Tom Moyer developed the property. The building is named after the Fox Theatre which occupied the site from 1911 until the late 1990s.

The building is most notable for the contrast between its curving east side and boxy west side. The juxtaposing angles of the building create a unique shape from nearly every angle. This multiplanar and set-back design is meant to prevent as much of the building's shadow as possible from falling upon Pioneer Courthouse Square on the opposite corner.

The Fox Tower's 462-space underground parking garage was the deepest in Portland when built.[citation needed] In 2006 the Fox Tower's developer, Tom Moyer, started construction of an underground garage on the block to the west, connected to the Fox Tower garage. This new parking structure opened in December 2007. Because the west block lies slightly uphill from the Fox Tower, the west garage will be deeper than the Fox Tower garage, relative to ground level. The new garage is designed to be an underground facility, with a City of Portland park on top of the garage. Construction and landscaping for the park was started by the City of Portland in March 2008. The underground parking is also planned to be connected to the Park Avenue West Tower.

Low down in the left corner of the top photo, you can barely see a sign, white letters on blue background. Here's a close up of that sign, a photo I took and posted in April.
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And here's some information on the Guild Theater from Cinema Treasures: Operating as the Guild Theatre since at least 1950, it was last used by the Northwest Film Center for film festivals. It closed in the summer of 2006. The single screen theater has 425 seats.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thought this must be a SkyWatch picture but remembered the building from the several earlier posts. It is really nice to see all of this. I don't know if you ever go see sky watch pictures but mine is below.

My Sky Watch Friday blog is at my Canon Pixels blog. If you have time I would appreciate your having a look at the sky peeking through the oak tree leaves./a>

WendyB said...

Beautiful shot of those clouds.

Jim Klenke said...

I just love the shadows on the building.

TeamSplashi said...

I like that area of town.
The elephants deli is right there.
Yes =)

Elizabeth said...

Woweeeeeeeeeeee.

AVCr8teur said...

It's sad to see former popular places closed. Recently, I saw a theater where I used to see movies and plays as a kid closed and boarded up.

Jane Hards Photography said...

I hate seeing older building close instead of being re used. Those clouds floating over. reflected in the windows are so briliant.

Neva said...

That is an amazing shot, Lynette...wow.....good thing you had your camera at the ready!

Jack said...

We had similar reflections, didn't we?