Sunday, September 16, 2012

Neighborhood Watch: Downtown Between SW Salmon and Taylor

Composer Building

Continuing on our neighborhood watch blog series, we take you to a square block in downtown Portland that has, in our humble opinion, some of the loveliest buildings in all of downtown Portland. The city block is between SW Salmon, Taylor, Park and 10th Avenue.

This block is home to our favorite building in all of Portland - the Studio Building. Just stunning. The brick, the gorgeous patina copper Mansard roof, the lead windows, and of course, the stone busts of famous composers wrapped around the whole building. I first noticed this building from the 11th floor of the Bank of California building many years ago, especially the domed skylights and the amazing roof windows. Originally built in 1926 to house rehearsal studios with performances occurring at the Guild Theater next door. I would gladly call this building home. Can you imagine living in such a beautiful building and the amazing views it must have.

The Composer Building

Front View of Composer Building

Close-up of Composer Building Roof

Composer Builiding from SW Salmon

I noticed this following gem of a building one night and was surprised it hasn't been torn down to make way for some new shiny glass tower similar to the ones that surround it. The buiding is located directly across the street from award-winning Director's Park. I'm so glad the city has kept this beautiful old brick building from the wrecking ball for low income housing because it really is a lovely building.

New & Old

Great Brick Apartment Building

Rumor has it when the Indian mystic/guru the Bhagwan Rashneesh and his disciples owned the building which South Park Restaurant currently occupies, they had massive parties here. We imagine they parked all their Rolls Royces in the parking garage above. It's a gorgeous building and we particularly like the copper salmon bursting out of the brick facade.

South Park Restaurant

The building across the street is the Roosevelt Apartment Building, which looks like a great building to live in. Right across from the beginning of the SW Park Blocks, it's such a great neighborhood, I hope it never changes.

The Roosevelt

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