UPDATE and the after-work commute today

UPDATE: I made it through work today without any problems--hooray! Soon I'll be back in the recliner at the Oncology Center for Chemo Round Three. I wonder if it will be different, the side effects. Or, will it be much the same as Rounds One and Two? We'll see.



After work today, I missed the streetcar, so I took the 4 bus across the Hawthorne Bridge to wait for the 12 that I would then ride the rest of the way home. Here we are looking south on SW 6th Avenue. Where's that next bus? I like to be in downtown, so I do this most all of the time after work when I'm there full time because the bus gets filled up with folks coming out of downtown office buildings. That means if I were to ride the streetcar or a bus north on SE Grand to change at East Burnside like I did last week in the middle of the afternoon, I'd be waiting on a 12 or 19 bus with no seats available. I'd rather go west across the river, then end up going east to make certain that I get a seat. It's safer to ride sitting down than standing up, in my opinion.



Ah, there's the 12 at the other end of the block. Why? I know. It's shift change, from driver to driver. When I walked by after getting off the 4 bus, I had noticed a TriMet employee sitting on the sidewalk with his back leaned against one of the huge concrete planters that dot the streets of downtown Portland. When I noticed the 12 pull in, I put two and two together and came up with shift change. I've been riding the bus since July, 2006, and often make correct guesses as to what's going on after observing lots over time.



Curbside service, thanks to TriMet and the 12 bus, y'all! I only had to wait seven minutes, total; I spent the first few minutes sitting at the bus shelter, but the sun shined on me too directly which I knew I didn't need to have happening, due to the chemotherapy, so I ended up standing where I figured the bus would come to a stop in order for all of us commuters to board.



I decided to put my phone on, I guess you call it Facetime, so that I could hold it up to the window and catch some candid shots, maybe a video. Here's a photo that I cropped because about a third of it was of the inner wall that separates this window from the next one. I like how this turned out! The shelter and the stop are at the MAX Green and Yellow Lines' stop beside Pioneer Courthouse on SW 6th between SW Yamhill and SW Morrison. Pioneer Courthouse Square is directly across the street.



I like this video! The building is one of A. E. Doyle's best, in my opinion--it's my favorite--the Bank of California built in 1924. I wish I were filthy rich 'cause I'd love to own it! The video ends as the 12 pulls to a stop at the bus shelter in front of a restaurant called the Original Dinerant on SW 6th. The next building north is the Big Pink. I've eaten at the Original twice, but that was at least two or more years ago. The food was good, sort of expensive if you don't make Happy Hour, and I might stop there some time in the future before I go to a Portland Trail Blazers' home game. I would then catch the MAX to the game at the stop beside the Big Pink.



Here's a video as we head up the slope of the Burnside Bridge and on across the Willamette River. I stopped the video sooner that I meant to, but that's OK. You get the idea of how the bridge railing looks, as well as the sidewalks. At the beginning of the video, the bridge approach is above downtown streets and the Tom McCall Waterfront Park, thus all of those trees.



Finally, here is a video shot through the windshield, showing you the new building being built at the east end of the Burnside Bridge, right up against the north side of the bridge. The building's name? Yard. Just Yard. Not The Yard.

Rediscovering why I was out and about, thanks to several photos that I took.

Paul Mitchell School, downtown Portland, seen when I was out and about on November, 19, 2010. Wonder what I was doing downtown after dark? I remember walking along, seeing this through the window and taking photos, but I don't know why I was out and about.



Looking at the other photos that I took that evening, I remembered why I was out and about. I had read about The Original Dinerant in the paper, decided to check it out. The food was good, especially for a happy hour menu, and priced right. However, I've not been back but a few times since then, mainly because I now live within walking distance of my local bar The Blue Diamond where the food is great and affordable, the service fantastic, all brought to you by real people who are great human beings. Nothing against anyone at The Original, but it's not within walking distance.



Here's the reason that I walked up SW Oak from The Original. I wanted to get a night photo of the Benson Hotel. On our first visit to Portland, summer 2004, Mama and I stayed here, so the place is special to me; my younger son Leland worked there as a line/prep cook which adds to my personal special factor. I got a great photo that night before walking on up SW Oak and catching a bus back home.

Here's what I found at the Oregon Encyclopedia about the hotel back in 2010 when I went online:

The Benson Hotel, built in Portland by pioneer lumberman Simon Benson in 1913, was constructed as an annex to the adjacent Oregon Hotel to the south. It was originally called the New Oregon Hotel. Soon after it opened, however, it became known as the Benson. The older hotel was demolished in 1959 to make way for a new addition.

Conceived as a high-end hotel in downtown Portland, the Benson was designed by architect A.E. Doyle, who modeled it after the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago. Doyle's design used the elements of the Baroque Revival Style in a grand manner, sheathing the twelve-story building in red brick and cream-colored, glazed terra cotta.

The massive mansard roof is covered in copper and green terra cotta and pierced with pediment dormers. (My photo, taken August 5, 2010, during the Architectural Heritage Center Downtown Terra Cotta Walk. Near as I can tell, the golden sphere rests inside a vase-like depression and is held in place by a scroll-like shape. I was wishing for a gargoyle.)

The interior also displayed an opulent touch. The lobby featured rare Circassian walnut woodwork from Russia, Italian marble floors, and Austrian crystal chandeliers. The ceiling was punctuated with ornate plaster designs of acanthus, rosettes, egg-and-dart, and other classical motifs. Noted lighting designer Fred Baker created the lighting fixtures for the interior. The Benson Hotel was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

The $1 million, 200-room hotel boasted the latest in modern conveniences, including private baths, automatic door switches, electric lights, and telephones in each room. The hotel has been well maintained over the years, receiving a thorough rehabilitation in 1991. The Benson Hotel has always sought to attract a high-end clientele, which included show business celebrities, business leaders, politicians, and many U.S. presidents.

Simon Benson (1852-1942) gradually accumulated a fortune in the timber business, shipping large quantities of lumber to southern California to supply a building boom in the early years of the twentieth century. He sold his holdings in 1910, invested in real estate, and built the hotel that bears his name.

Written by William F. Willingham

And this is from Wikipedia:

The Benson Hotel is a 287 room historic hotel building in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. It is owned and operated by Coast Hotels & Resorts. It was originally known as the New Oregon Hotel, and is commonly known as "The Benson." It has a reputation as one of Portland's finest hotels. The hotel is named after notable businessman and philanthropist Simon Benson.

Simon Benson had wished to build a world-class hotel in Portland. During the population boom that occurred between the 1905 Lewis & Clark Centennial Exposition and the Great Depression, Benson fulfilled his wish.

The firm of Doyle, Patterson, and Beach designed the main hotel building in French Second Empire style. The hotel opened 1912 and Chicago's Blackstone Hotel served as the inspiration of the building's overall design. The building was originally an annex to the Oregon Hotel, and was known as the New Oregon Hotel.

In 1959, the old Oregon Hotel next door was demolished to, ironically, make way for a 175 room annex to the 1912 building. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

A. E. Doyle's Bank of California Building, No. 5

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An eatery, The Original Dinerant, occupies the street level of the building to the north of the Bank of California. The BOC is just out of sight at the right of this building, next to the black-faced wall visible near the current-day TriMet bus shelter you see lit up for the night-time users of mass transit. Someone waits for a bus and appears to have a bicycle to place on the bike rack attached to the front of the bus.
 

Here's the Bank of California, just south of The Original Dinerant--notice the black-faced wall.

Vintage photos, part of the documentation used to place architect A. E. Doyle's Bank of California on the National Register of Historic Places. The application is dated as received on February 15, 1978, and approved on March 14, 1978.
 

Vintage photo shows the Guaranty Building which was adjacent to the Bank of California and north of it. The back of the photo says that it was taken in 1924. Since the grand opening photos are dated 1925, it may not have actually been occupied at the time this photo was taken. I wish I had a photo of the north end of the building, which was exposed with the demise of the Guaranty Building, complete with the drive-up window and the canopy. Below is the next best thing.
 

The north end of the Bank of California, taken during 1977 probably. Note the placement of the older style TriMet bus shelter here on this section of SW 6th Avenue--part of the then brand new Portland Transit Mall. In the second photo on today's post, a bench occupies this spot, put there when the Transit Mall was rebuilt. And you've already seen the style of bus shelter which replaced these iconic ones, in the top photo today. 

From the paperwork submitted to the National Register of Historic Places:

Since the Bank of California's move to a new building in 1970, the structure has been occupied by The Security Bank of Oregon and, subsequently, the Oregon Bank. In 1977, ownership passed to Bankside Investors for occupancy by Durham and Bates, Inc., an insurance firm of pioneer beginnings in the Portland area. Since its construction, the exterior of the building has remained substantially unaltered, the only significant change being the addition of a drive-up banking window and canopy at the north end of the building. This was made possible by the razing of the six-story Guaranty Building which occupied the property immediately to the north until the mid-or late1950s. At this time, the newly exposed north wall was plastered in a rusticated stonework pattern simulating the west and south building elevations.

The imposing west facade of the bank building has five large arched windows which extend from the ground floor to a height of 28 feet above the sidewalk in recognition of the two-story banking lobby inside. Centered above these arches are smaller rectangular windows which serve the second floor office space almost 35 feet above the ground floor. Window frames are of painted steel. Above the second floor windows is a marble frieze and bracketed cornice which supports the Cordova Terracotta tile hipped roof typical of the Pallazzo style. The imposing rusticated "stonework" of the exterior walls and cornice are, in reality, cast terra-cotta executed with excellent craftsmanship. Only the marble base course and frieze are genuine. 

The entrance to the building is through a handsome bronze portico set in the middle arched window opening at the west facade, and boasts a pair of bronze gates which can be slid in front of the double entrance doors. The original bronze-framed doors were removed a number of years ago and replaced by automatic tempered glass doors.

Recent modifications to the building, made just prior to occupancy by the present tenant, include the removal of the added drive-up window and canopy at the north wall, and the filling in of a door which was cut through to the parking lot.

A new entrance was installed in the northern-most window of the west wall to provide access to a new lobby serving the upper floor
tenant spaces. Presently, theTri-Metropolitan Transit District has contracted for the widening and brick-paving of the sidewalk on SixthAvenue. The brick texture and color, together with soon-to-be-installed trees and street furniture should further enhance the handsome building.

Seen from the TriMet bus, No. 1

I took this photo looking through the bus window on the way home Wednesday night, December 5. There's something romantic to me about riding along in a bus, looking into lighted windows. The backwards white letters reflected above the door are part of the lighted letters identifying The Original Dinerant which is across the street--a restaurant. I'm not sure where the specks of white light  to the right of the door originate.



Here's the same photo, altered with HDR at BeFunky. I think I like the first one better, but I wanted to show you both of them.

The doorway is in a fine building at 309 SW 6th Avenue. I'll have to go back and check out the granite doorstep. Read this which I found on the Internet to learn what I'm talking about:

The Wells Fargo Building is a historic office building in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. The large doorstep at the building's entryway required the largest slab of granite ever shipped to Portland at the time. Completed in 1907, it is the first steel-framed building in Portland, and is considered the city's first true skyscraper. At 12 stories, it was the tallest building in Oregon and remained so for four years. In 1986 the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.