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Architect, artist collaborate on new creative academy |
Daily Journal of Commerce, July 26, 2007 by Alyson Ryan .pdf of the original article The client-architect pairing on the new Fire and Earth Art Academy, by both accounts, has been a great match. Martin Eichinger had a clear vision for how he wanted the Southeast Portland art school to form. Architect John Perkins loves an involved, hands-on developer. “My ideal client is really someone like Marty, who really wants to get fully involved in the design process,” Perkins said. “He knows the building, down to every detail.” And, Eichinger said, Perkins’s “notion of creating a space is not as egocentric as an artist’s might be.” |
The project will rise on a small, half-block lot on Southeast Division Street between 25th and 26th avenues. New building pieces will surround the existing Eichinger Sculpture Studio: a four-story condominium-retail project to the east; two stories of classrooms, student housing and work space, and Eichinger’s home above; and a restaurant space that will provide student meals and act as a gathering spot to the west. Curves take the lead throughout the architecture. In Eichinger’s existing space, which he designed, swooping interior walls delineate the space between his office and the sculpture-peppered showroom. “Everything I do is kind of curved,” Eichinger said. “I have an aversion to straight lines.” The gentle horizontal “s” of the tilde, a punctuation mark found most often in Spanish writing, provided inspiration for the project. So, Perkins said, did the warm colors, interplay of forms and human scale of the hillside villages of Tuscany. “But we didn’t want to replicate that in any faux way,” he said. The building details are dovetailed to the needs of the school and the community. A gallery for the visiting master teacher’s work sits on the second floor. Skylights punch through from the rooftop deck to add natural light. The restaurant will open for guest lectures by artists, much in the same way bookstores open for discussions and readings by authors. The student dorms are townhouse-style spaces that span the second and third floor, with working space and kitchens tucked below sleeping space. “It’s to give people more isolation,” Eichinger said. The condominium units, too, are planned with consciousness of community needs. The 12 units, which face the Clinton Condominiums being developed by Randy Rapaport, are small, averaging about 600 square feet. With the exception of the two penthouse units, which will sell for a shade over $300,000, all are priced below $300,000. The academy will offer immersion experiences, in which a master teacher will lead intensive two-, three- and five-day workshops to live-in students, as well as weeknight and weekend six- to eightweek classes for local students. Construction on the project is expected to start with a retrofit of the existing roof in September or October. From there, Perkins said, building will be a 10- to 12-month process. The project has been “wonderfully complex,” said Perkins, who has made his architectural niche as a generalist, working mostly among the widely varied styles and challenges of the Hollywood District. The site holds one building, but two different tax lots – the condos are on one, the school another. Academic, dormitory, condo, restaurant, retail and studio uses come together under one roof. “New challenges have come along,” he said. “That’s why I enjoy, I think, really defining myself as a generalist.” |