Cultural Memory by Stephen Salazar

US CUSTOM(S) HOUSE Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

US CUSTOM(S) HOUSE Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse by Stephen Andrew Salazar

Thesis document submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture at Portland State University Portland, Oregon June 2011

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PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL OF FINE AND PERFORMING ARTS The undersigned hereby certify that the Masters thesis of Stephen Andrew Salazar has been approved as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture

Thesis Committee: Chair: Nora Wendl Assistant Professor of Design in the Department of Architecture

Date

Juan Heredia Assistant Professor of Design in the Department of Architecture

Date

Acknowledgements I would like to thank the many individuals who have guided me through my experience of earning a Master of Architecture degree, and completing this thesis on Cultural Memory. To Nora Wendl, without you this thesis could not have been accomplished with as high a level of rigor, inventiveness and execution. Your tireless dedication, long hours, countless feedback sessions, chocolates and our spontaneous outings have made this, by far, much more of a rewarding thesis endeavor. Priceless is your thoughtful advice, unwavering support, and enthusiasm; from the beginnings of my research in glamour, yes Morris Lapidus, all the way to constructing my final thesis installation. Thank you for always challenging me to go one step further. You are far more than my thesis advisor and mentor, you are my dear friend and I cherish our friendship deeply. To Juan Heredia, for introducing me to wonderful thoughts about the world, human situations and the subtle, conditional quality of light. To Clive Knights, not only for your support in and out of the class room, but for your ability to make me question the power of media in architectural design, emphasizing the human quality of our craft as architects. To Scott Daniels, who helped me through the many phases of historical research for the US Custom House at the Oregon Historical Society. To Kayla “Bärchen” Adams, “these are the days of our lives” and I am so happy that I have them to share with you. To my Portland “wives”: Stefanie, Jennie and Shae, thank you for seeing me through the “dropping houses” phase of my life here in Portland; for sharing meals, laughs and allowing me to be our resident “food devil.” I look forward to continuing this tradition in the future, wherever we may be. Most gratefully, I would like to thank my parents Edward and Rose Salazar, whose lifelong support, advice, love and guidance has never wavered, inspiring me to make tough decisions and carve my own path in life. I love you both very much!

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Abstract The US Custom House in Portland, Oregon, built in 1901, currently sits dormant on the North Park Blocks, as it has since 2004, after being vacated by the US Army Corp of Engineers. Several proposals for its re-use have been submitted to the government: the possibility of its metamorphosis into: a boutique hotel, an international school and finally the world headquarters for a Portland based national real estate management company have all failed to realize. In analyzing the most appropriate use of the building, and recognizing that capital gain cannot solely drive the adaptive re-use of architecture, this thesis focuses on cultural memory. Cultural memory as a study of the past and the present situation of the US Custom House has bred a self-designed methodology composed of three elements: Archive, Communications, and Performances. This methodology created a body of knowledge of the building that had not previously existed, leading the building to manifest itself as a Center for Cultural Exchange. To generate this exchange, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency of the federal government was identified as the agency to occupy the building, based on the original use by the US Customs Service. I.C.E. would be paired with a cooperation of Non Governmental Organizations in order to support a mutual goal of fair and amicable immigration practices. The building as a Center for Cultural Exchange has come to house public programs that offer up to Portland the cultural richness that a diverse population manifests, gathering individuals to: share, learn from and teach customs from their own cultural back ground. Through main design principles informed by both internal and external conversations, as well as cultural memory, the architectural intervention of the US Custom House, once slated for federal â&#x20AC;&#x153;disposal,â&#x20AC;? has become a place where the immigration process of the United States celebrated through cultural diversity.

Table of Contents 1.0

Main Research Question �� 2 1.1 1.2 1.3

2.0

Cultural Memory �� 12 2.1 2.2 2.3

3.0

Latent Architecture “Disposing” of Federal Property The Future for Historic Buildings: Anything? Defining Cultural Memory Case Study: The Reichstag The Proposal

7.0

Final Building Design �� 91 7.1 7.2 7.3

Realization of Programmatic Elements Final Design Drawings Cultural Memory Constructed

8.0

Conclusion �� 103

9.0

Bibliography �� 105

Research Methodology �� 19 3.1 Archive 3.1.1 Historical Background 3.1.2 Time line (1898-2010) 3.1.3 1901 Architectural Drawings 3.1.4 Mapping Cultural Memory 3.1.6 Site Sections 1901-2010 3.2 Communications 3.2.1 E-mail Transcripts 3.3 Performance 3.3.1 Day 1: AWAKEN 3.3.2 Day 2: INFORM 3.3.3 Day 3: EXCHANGE 3.3.4 Day 4: DISTRIBUTE 3.3.5 Day 5: CELEBRATE 3.3.6 Performance Exhibition

4.0

Entering the Building �� 55 4.1 4.2

4.0

Immigration Research �� 65 5.1 5.2 5.3

6.0

Journal Entry 2011 Architectural Drawings Census Tract Maps Arousing Cultural Debate Using the Current Model to Inform a New One

Programmatic and Schematic Design �� 74 6.1 Tenants Toward a New Architecture 6.2 Initial Design Work 6.3 Designing for the Neighborhood 6.4 Layering of Building Program 6.5 Programmatic Layout 6.6 Breaking the Middle 6.7 Schematic Design Investigations for the Central Plaza

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

fig 1: Courtyard panorama

1.0 The Question: How can cultural memory be used as a catalyst to inform the adaptive re-use of the historic U.S. Custom House in Portland, Oregon, awakening the vacant structure in an evolution of its original use?

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

1.1 Latent Architecture At the time of the building’s opening in 1901 the US Custom Service had already celebrated its 120th birthday. The organization had been responsible for making the US government solvent in its early years just after the revolution. The US Customs Service funded the purchases of the Louisiana and Oregon territories, as well as a the transcontinental railroad system in addition to funding countless other national achievements. The building played a major role in Portland during its course of use as a US Custom House from 1901-1968. When constructed the US Custom House was visible by ship captains along Portland’s waterfront. At noon everyday a large lead “time ball” located

on the roof of the Custom House would drop, allowing ships to set their chronometers, dramatically shaking the building, signaling the federal workers to take their lunch break. As the shipping industry, in what is current downtown Portland, waned so did the presence of the US Custom House. As city of urban scale of Portland grew, the US Custom House lost its view from the river. In 1968 the Army Corps of Engineers became the primary tenant of the US Custom House and began to rearrange the layout of the building to fit their needs, partitioning the basement and first floors to enclose the vast warehouse spaces. The building became segregated not only in plan but in section as well. The main light well that

lit the grand stair, including inner core of the building, was closed off, making room for a new egress route through the basement, as well as more office space on the upper floors. The Army Corps of Engineers stayed for almost 50 years until 2004 when the Custom House was vacated. The US Custom House has sat vacant since. The General Services Administration (GSA) has since sought a tenant to long term lease the building. Several developers have made proposals for the buildings reuse over the years, turning the architecture into: a boutique hotel, a fine arts center, a school of architecture, as well as the home for the international school in Portland. All of these proposals have failed to realize. 4

(“Real Property Disposal”, GSA.gov)

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

Property

Disposal Process

1. Excess AGENCY REPORTS PROPERTY EXCESS TO GSA FOR DISPOSITION

DETERMINED SURPLUS IF NOT TRANSFERRED TO ANOTHER AGENCY

2. Federal Transfer

AIRPORT CORRECTIONAL EDUCATION HISTORIC HOMELESS LAW ENFORCEMENT/ EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PARK & RECREATION PUBLIC HEALTH SELF HELP HOUSING WILDLIFE CONSERVATION PORT

PROPERTY AVAILABLE FOR CERTAIN PUBLIC USES UP TO 100% DISCOUNT

3. Disposal Conveyance

5. Negotiated Sale OFFERED TO PUBLIC AND PRIVATE PARTIES VIA AUCTION OR SEALED BID FAIR MARKET VALUE

TO ELIGIBLE PUBLIC BODIES FOR OTHER PUBLIC USES, FAIR MARKET VALUE REQUIRED

4. Negotiated Sale

1.2 “Disposing” of Federal Property When Federal Architecture is determined to be no longer an asset to the government it goes through the process of “disposal.” The General Services Administration (GSA) handles this process, the GSA’s Office of Personal Property Management helps federal agencies dispose of personal property that is no longer needed (“Personal Property”, GSA.gov). The US Custom House has sat vacant since. The General Services Administration (GSA) has since sought a tenant to long term lease the building. Several developers have made proposals for the buildings reuse over the years, turning the architecture into: a boutique hotel, a fine arts center, a school of

architecture, as well as the home for the international school in Portland. All of these proposals have failed to realize. In 2010, after 6 years of failed lease attempts, the GSA decided to “dispose” of the building through its current practice of online auction. The auction handled by the Real Estate Disposal branch of the GSA began in May and closed in October, it’s sale for $2.5 million dollars (the tax value of the land) was made to the PREM real estate group. A Portland based Real Estate Management Company. PREM manages over $1 billion dollars of real estate assets across the country; their plans, at the time were to use the US Custom House as their world

headquarters, little renovation being planned for the building. In 2011 PREM did not go through with the purchase of the building, the US Custom House, ownership returning back to that of the US Government.

Find Articles in: All Business Reference Technology Lifestyle Newspaper Collection

Business Publications

2007: Portland Daily Journal of Commerce

1.3 The Future Of Historic Buildings? Anything?

0 Comments

Portland's U.S. Custom House vacant 2 years after rehab deal Daily Journal of Commerce (Portland, OR), Jul 5, 2007 by Kennedy Smith Art DeMuro is tired of people asking him what's going on with Portland's vacant U.S. Custom House, especially because he was passed over to redevelop it nearly two years ago. DeMuro's Venerable Properties is Portland's premier renovator of historic buildings, but the company lost out in a bid to rehab the 100,000-square-foot building back in 2005. DeMuro was one of two finalists picked by the U.S. General Services Administration, the government agency that owns the Custom House at 220 N.W. Eighth Ave., after the GSA issued a request for proposals to redevelop the property. Instead, the GSA picked The Pochter Group of Chicago to breathe new life into the 106-year-old property that was the first federal building in Portland. The GSA and the Pochter Group began negotiating an 80-year lease agreement, under which the company would turn the building into an 82-room boutique hotel operated by Dallas-based Wyndham Hotels & Resorts.

Brian Libby, a local architecture critic moderates a Portland Architecture Blog. He has discussed the vacancy of the US Custom House as well as opened the discussion to the people of Portland. Opposite is a thread of public responses generated by a discussion that began in 2008 on the re-use of Custom House. (Libby, 2008)

News Articles documenting the US Custom House state of vacancy

The Pochter Group has never developed a property in Portland. Two years later, the building is still vacant, the lease remains unsigned, and The Pochter Group's owner, Keith Pochter, is keeping a tight lip about why nothing's happened. "The situation we have is the same situation we have had for some time," Pochter said. "We're still operating under a confidentiality agreement with the GSA, and it's up to them to decide what http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4184/is_20070705/ai_n19354308/

2010: Portland Architecture Blog: Brian Libby (author) Portland Architecture: Landmark U.S. Custom House faces online auction [updated]

2008: Portland Architecture Blog: Brian Libby (author) Portland Architecture: Custom House once again up for grabs

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Portland Architecture

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Portland Architecture

Custom House once again up for grabs The historic U.S. Custom House at 220 N.W. Eighth Ave. is up for grabs once again, as Nathalie Weinstein reported in Monday's Daily Journal of Commerce. Back in 2005, the US General Services Administration chose two finalists to redevelop the U.S. Customs House, Venerable Properties of Portland and The Pochter Group of Chicago.

Landmark U.S. Custom House faces online auction [updated]

Venerable was trying to turn the Custom House into a new home for the University of Oregon Portland center. The Pochter Group plan, which the GSA instead selected, was to turn the building into an 82-room boutique hotel with Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. Pochter held the building for two years and Wyndham backed out of the hotel deal. In July of last year, Pochter then partnered with Marcus Hotels & Resorts of Milwaukee, and the GSA were supposed to sign a new lease with Pochter within 60 to 90 days. But earlier this May, the GSA terminated negotiations with developer Keith Pochter for unannounced reasons. Built in 1901, the U.S. Customs House was designed by James Knox Taylor and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It's an absolute gem of Portland architecture. James Knox Taylor (1857-1929) was supervising architect of the US Treasury when he designed this building. An advocate of classical design, Taylor worked with Cass Gilbert (architect of the US Supreme Court Building) before establishing his own practice. Building supervisor Edgar Lazarus is well known for his distinctive Vista House design in the Columbia Gorge.

Photo by Brian Libby

As reported by Fred Leeson in the March 20 Oregonian, one of Portland's most compelling and beautiful historic landmarks is being discarded by the federal government the same way people sell used sofas and t-shirts: by internet auction. It won't be held on e-Bay, but the same uncertainty is there. Now practically anybody will have a shot at filling what is not only a historic Portland building, but one in a key location bordering the Pearl District, Old Town and the North Park Blocks. "As far as I'm concerned, the feds have hit a new low," Cathy Galbraith, director of the Bosco-Miligan Foundation's Architectural Heritage Center in Portland, told Leeson. The General Services Administration says they have followed the government's usual sequence for disposing of unneeded property. (Because, you know, doing what your told always equals justice, right?) The Custom House was completed in 1901 to accommodate the U.S. Customs Service's first Portland office. Constructed with granite, Roman brick and terra-cotta with a cast-iron staircase, the building was designed by James Knox Taylor, Supervising Architect of the U.S. Treasury Department, and constructed under the supervision of locally noted architect Edgar Lazarus, the latter of whom designed other local landmarks like Vista House at Crown Point in the Columbia Gorge and the Agricultural Palace for the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition ). The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places all the way back in 1973.

US Custom(S) House

According to the General Services Administration website, Taylor and Lazarus's design created for the Custom House a style inspired by both the English Renaissance architecture of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as well as the mannered style that characterized London architect James Gibbs's public architecture. Leeson also notes that the building's original Victorian-era interior is largely unchanged.

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

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In his Architectural Guidebook to Portland, Bart King writes of the Custom House, "This massive and somewhat unusually designed building sits regally within a full city block...Variously described as French Renaissance or Italian Renaissance Revival, the ornamentations of this classical, granite-faced building are fascinating. Columns, scrolls, quoins, arches, dentils and keystones abound...Inside, with over 100,000 square feet, there is a lot of building to explore. A 1977 restoration helps the marble and classical plaster moldings welcome the eye, and a grand cast-iron stairway rises to the fourth floor. The top floors of the east and west wings were added in 1938...In 1906, a small metal tower was built near the north chimney that dropped a large 'time ball' at noon each day. Sailors would sight it and set their ship clocks accordingly." Weinstein reports the GSA will follow a federally mandated disposal process, which begins by offering the building to other federal agencies. GSA public affairs manager Bill Lesh suspects that the building won't be http://chatterbox.typepad.com/portlandarchitecture/2008/09/custom-house-once-again-up-for-grabs.html

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Community Forum: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Custom House once again up for grabs,â&#x20AC;? 2008

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

2.2 The Future Of Historic Buildings? Anything?

Contemporary design and art museum

McMenaminâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

Photography Museum 5-star Hotel

US CUSTOM HOUSE School of Architecture

International School

Artist and Creative Studio Space Extension of the Downtown Library

Small Business Collective

cultural memory

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

2.0 Cultural Memory Research Module: Cultural Memory

Research Methodology:

Jan Assman, a German Egypotlogist, describes cultural Memory as a way of understanding places of memory. For this research the subject is the US Custom House in Portland, Oregon.

The methodology that led the way through this research was selfconstructed, based on the concept of Cultural Memory. In order to establish what the Cultural Memory is a compilation needed to be made documenting the historic accounts of the US Custom House (Historic Horizon) as well as the contemporary situation surrounding the building in its current state of vacancy (Contemporary Context). The research areas can be qualified into three subsets.

Cultural Memory is composed of two equally weighed elements: (1) Historical Horizon: held by its archive: the texts, photographs and records of the building. (2) Contemporary Context: what is the present day situation?

Utilizing Cultural Memory

(1) Archive (2) Conversations (3) Performance

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

2.1 Defining Cultural Memory “ No memory can preserve the past. What remains is only that “which society in each era can reconstruct within its contemporary frame of reference.” (Maurice Halbwachs) Cultural memory works by reconstructing, that is, it always relates its knowledge to an actual and contemporary situation. True, it is fixed in immovable figures of memory and stores of knowledge, but every contemporary context relates to these differently, sometimes by appropriation, sometimes by criticism, sometimes by preservation or by transformation. Cultural memory exists in two modes: first in the mode of potentiality of the archive whose accumulated texts, images, and rules of conduct act as a total horizon, and second in the mode of actuality, whereby each contemporary context puts the objectivized meaning into its own perspective, giving it its own relevance.” (Assman, 130)

“Collective Memory and Cultural Identity” -Jan Assman

6.0 Storytelling as an Importand Focus 2.2 Case Study: The Reichstag After the fall of the Berlin wall the German government made the decision to move the seat of parliament from that of Bonn, in west Germany, back to capital before the war Berlin. The government decided to utilize the original Reichstag located along the River Spree in central Berlin that had been commissioned through public competition in the late 19th century, just after German unification. This building become symbolic of the period of reunification of the early 1990’s. As the original Reichstag was commissioned through competition. So was the proposal for re-establishing the Reichstag as the center of German government. Site Plan

German Assembly

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

The competition had been an open invitation to any German architect to submit, while international applicants were invited specifically from the German government. The

“Dipping its toes in the river”

competition was conducted in 1992 with commission going to that of British architect Norman Foster in 1993 (Foster, 57). Foster’s securing of the commission was in part due to a early decision on (4) main goals of the project that would not waver, and would become the drivers for design. The principles were based on: the possibility of the German Bundestag become one of the great democratic seats of government in the modern world, opening the process of the government to the public, utilizing the history of the building in form architectural design, not creating historical pastiche, and recognizing the importance of environmental design in the futures of all buildings (Foster, 22). To establish key architectural principles became an important goal, in order to hold on to the intentions of the thesis as the research process developed.

Foster’s (4) points in addressing the Reichstag: (1) The significance of the Bundestag as on of the world’s great democratic assemblies. (2) Commitment to opening up the process of government to the public. (3) An understanding of the building of history as a force that shapes buildings as well as the life of nations. (4) Passionate adherence to the lowenergy, environment-friendly agenda which is fundamental to the architecture of the future.

Base Images: “Rebuilding the Reischstag” Norman Foster

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

2.3 The Proposal: The buildings re-use will emanate from the original use as a US Custom House, its ownership remaining with that of the federal government. Cultural Memory would influence how the building would function today, while the architectural design decisions will be based on the history of the building as well as the responsibility of the architecture to best respond to the contemporary climate of our US society.

methodology

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

3.0 Methodology Archive: An archive needed to be constructed in order to establish the cultural memory of the US Custom House. There is no central database that holds the record for the US Custom House. Its texts, photographs, and maps as well as media accounts were scoured from libraries, the Oregon Historical society, the internet as well as from a local architecture firm. The archive was able to establish the history surrounding the construction of the US Custom House and its original use, the identity of the building in its early years as well as its transition into decline and disuse. The periods of urban growth were illustrated through a series of mapping exercises. Original drawings of the Custom House were located and became the beginning for architectural drawings of the plans and sections of the building from 1901.

Communications:

Performances:

The compilation of the buildings archive proved that the building could not be strictly researched through a library of texts and photographs. A human component became invaluable in achieving both a more comprehensive account of the building as well as being able to fully understand the current situation of the US Custom House. Without the human component this research could not be as comprehensive.

With the help of the conversations from individuals with personal knowledge or access to knowledge of the US Custom House, both elements of the Cultural Memory of the U.S. Custom House were comprehensively compiled and illustrated.

Four sets of individuals became invaluable to this research. a. The Reference Librarian b. The Archivist c. The Government Employee d. The Architect(s)

The third phase of this research process became an exercise to gauge the public opinion of the US Custom House, as well as to provoke an embodied response from the building as to ascertain what the new program of the Custom House might be. A week-long performance schedule was adopted to make the Cultural Memory of the Custom House available to the public and explore the programmatic possibilities of this 100,000 square foot building. 5 performances were planned, one to take place each evening the week of March 7, 2011. 5 Installations Day 1 [Awaken] Day 2 [Inform] Day 3 [Exchange] Day 4 [Distribute] Day 5 [Celebrate] 20

3.1 Archive: An archive needed to be constructed in order to establish the cultural memory of the US Custom House. There is no central database that holds the record for the US Custom House. Its texts, photographs, and maps as well as media accounts were scoured from libraries, the Oregon Historical society, the internet as well as from a local architecture firm. The archive was able to establish the history surrounding the construction of the US Custom House and its original use, the identity of the building in its early years as well as its transition into decline and disuse. The periods of urban growth were illustrated through a series of mapping exercises. Original drawings of the Custom House were located and became the beginning for architectural drawings of the plans and sections of the building from 1901.

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

methodology I : ARCHIVE

Methodology I: ARCHIVE

â&#x20AC;&#x153;A lieux de mĂŠmoire is any significant entity, whether material or nonmaterial in nature, which by dint of human will or the work of time has become a symbolic element of the memorial heritage of any community (in this case, the French community).â&#x20AC;? (Nora, XVII)

In referencing the written word of French Historian Pierre Nora, and his work on memory, the U.S. Custom House can be understood as clearly referential of the identity of the United States in the late 19th century, as an expanding country, with the building staking its claim to create a national identity of the United States through its architecture. For the case of building a contemporary national identity, would preservation not be better served by allowing traces of the original use of this building to become apparent, rather than promoting only an architecture of period details held in disconnection with their current context? Images courtesy of the Oregon Historical Society

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

3.1.1 Historical Background In 1870 when the population of Portland numbered more than 10,000 and that of Astoria, Oregon was only 630 the U.S. Congress acted to move its port of entry from the Oregon coast to along the Willamette River to what is currently downtown Portland (Steele, 57). The U.S. Custom House has been located and re-located six times while in Portland. (Steel, 67). Customs Service officials shared space with other federal agencies such as the US Post Office at what is currently Pioneer Square Courthouse.

Portland’s HISTORIC waterfront

With growing trade and commerce in Portland the Customs Service soon outgrew its space. In 1898 construction began on the US Custom House located at 220 NW 8th avenue along Portland’s North Park Blocks. The building was designed by the chief architect of the Department of the treasury, James Knox Taylor (US Customs House, GSA.gov) . The local architect of record who carried Taylor’s design through completion was Edgar Lazarus, who would later design the Vista House along the Columbia River.

BURNSIDE

The U.S. Custom House has been written as having an exemplary display of the Italian Renaissance Revival style of architecture, exhibiting Baroque and Mannerist features. The detailing around the windows has been likened to that of English Mannerist architect James Gibbs, and has thus earned the moniker of “Gibbs surrounds.” The structure is deceptively made from steel construction. Consisting of several 16” thick lace channel columns. The facades are composed of brick and locally quarried granite.

3.1.2 Time line US Customs House Portland, OR

1898-1901 US Custom House Construction

1902 Time Ball installed on top of the Custom House. Can be seen by ship captains in port to set their chronometers at Noon.

1919 Time Ball dismantled from roof. No longer an effective technology, not visible from port.

1937-1939 North and South wings gain fourth floor spaces by partitioning the double-height courtroom spaces.

1968 US Custom Service moves to what is currently the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Old Federal Building,â&#x20AC;? three blocks north at Broadway and Glisan Avenues. Army Corps of Engineers becomes primary tenant.

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

1970 The US Custom House is designated a Portland Historic Landmark.

2003 Homeland Security Act dissolves the US Custom Service. Functions are now carried out by two agencies: Customs Border Patrol (CBP) and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Custom Service has existed since 1789.

1977 Interiors of the building are rehabilitated.

1992 An extensive GSA exterior preservation project renews masonry work, windows and courtyard entry doors.

2004 The Army Corps of Engineers vacates the building. Building is now empty.

2005 The GSA enters lease negotiations with the Pochter Group (Chicago, IL) to reuse the building as a boutique hotel. Deal is never completed..

2007-2010 GSA seeks Tenant

October 2010 GSA sells the Custom House via online auction for $2.5 million (tax value $10.7 million). Purchaser: PREM real estate management. $1 billion in real estate assets. Will use the Custom House as their world headquarters, no major renovations planned.

3.1.3 1901 Architectural Drawings

US Custom House

220 NW 8th Avenue Portland, Oregon

Broadway

US Weather Bureau

Inspector Steam Vessels

US Weather Bureau

Inspector Steam Vessels

Warehouse

US Weather Bureau

Customs

w.c.

Exam Room

w.c.

IRS

Davis Street

Everett Street

Inspector Steam Vessels

Customs IRS

Weigher

Customs

IRS Clerk Gauger

IRS

Customs

w.c.

Examiner

Appraiser

IRS

1901 FIRST FLOOR scale: 1/8” :1’

US Custom(S) House

NORTH

8th Avenue

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

Customs

1901 SECOND FLOOR scale: 1/8” :1’

The US Custom House was comprised of three main floors supported by two services floors, the Basement and the Fourth floor. The ground floor was home to the Customs Service operations of examination, weighing, gauging and appraisal. Goods and peoples would be filtered through this floor of the building as they made their way to their destination, goods as well

NORTH

as contraband (Portland was a large importer of Hashish) remained in the Broadway warehouse or made their way to basement warehouse. Visitors on the other hand would enter from the park blocks and make their way up the cast-iron grand stair, which was lit from behind by an interior light well.

Architectural Drawings were re-drawn from original 1901 Construction Documents

US Custom House

220 NW 8th Avenue Portland, Oregon

Jury

US Circuit Court Office

w.c.

Jury

Bailiff

US Marshall Ct. Clerk

Ct. Clerk

US Circuit Court Office

w.c.

US Circuit Court Court Room

Open to Below

Skylight Above

US District Ct. Court Room

Jury

Grand Jury

Stenographer

Judge

1901 THIRD FLOOR scale: 1/8” :1’

The second floor of the Custom House was where federal offices were located. The Customs Service shared the building with the Internal Revenue Service and the US Weather Bureau. A system of cooperation existed with these three agencies, the Customs Service would impose and enforce tariff law, the IRS would account for the tariff revenue and the Weather Bureau

1901 NORTH

had a responsibility to ship captains as illustrated by a “lead time ball” being installed on the roof of the U.S. Custom House to allow ship captains to set their chronometers at noon everyday with the dropping of the ball. The original 1897 design called for the third floor to be comprised of federal courthouses, making the third floor

FOURTH FLOOR scale: 1/8” :1’

the most public of all floors of the U.S. Custom House. Juries, prosecutors and defendants would arrive to the third floor from the grand stair, experiencing the procession of federal architecture that Taylor, as architect, had designed. The federal district judge at the time had been quoted to say that he would not travel north of Burnside street due to the seedy reputation that the waterfront harbor carried. At that point

NORTH

court rooms were added to the Pioneer Post Office and the building made the transition to becoming a courthouse. In 1900 the plans for these court rooms were simplified, eliminated the extensive detailing but retaining their double height space, coffered ceilings and skylights (US Custom House, GSA.gov).

US Custom House 220 NW 8th Avenue Portland, Oregon

1901

Section scale: 1/8” :1’

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

US Custom House 220 NW 8th Avenue Portland, Oregon

1901

Section scale: 1/8” :1’

fetchimage 675×810 pixels

1/20/11 4:23 PM

3.1.4 Mapping Cultural Memory The research focusing on the Custom House brought about an understanding of the urban condition of the area surrounding the U.S. Custom House. In order to show the transition of the Custom House from its opening in 1901 to its current state of vacancy it is important to show how Portland grew around it as shipping left downtown Portland. The older the building got the more disconnected it became with its context as the waterfront transitioned from a port of entry to a current pedestrian esplanade.

http://0-sanborn.umi.com.catalog.multcolib.org/sanborn/image/fetc…reel08&lcid=7439&imagename=00237&width=675&CCSI=&crop=1,1-675,945

Sanborn Maps courtesy of the Oregon Historical Society

Opium was a large illegal import in Portland during the early 1900’s

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

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Four phases of Portland were chosen to showcase the urban development of Portland neighboring Portland’s waterfront. 1901, 1924, 1965, and 2010. Sanborn maps were used to document the configurations of the city as well as its scale. In order to create a larger context map, several of the smaller detail maps had to be collaged together in order to gain all the data. Sanborn maps are also not drawn completely to scale, thus difficulty was found when piecing multiple map areas.

Customs Service Imported Goods Cycle

Importer contacts the Customs Service to make aware of incoming goods, Customs Service calculates tariffs owed.

When goods arrive, by boat or train, a Customs Service officer inspects the cargo for intended goods and possible contraband.

Customs Officer returns with tariff duties and any possible illegal contraband.

Imported goods are delivered to merchant/importer.

Customs Service Imported Goods Cycle

Portland 1901

Portland 1924

US Custom(S) House

When the U.S. Custom House opened in 1901 Portland’s waterfront was bustling with shipping traffic as well as trade along the rail lines. These factors, along with fairly inexpensive land costs led to the siting of the Custom House along the park blocks. Denoted in the 1901 map by the color red areas

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

of “vice” were mapped, in regards to the federal district judge’s claim that the area was unseemly for a federal courthouse. These red figures represent Japanese gambling halls, hotel saloons, as well as female boarding houses that are conveniently located next to army barracks.

Portland 1965

By 1924 the shipping industry to Portland’s center had waned, Seattle and San Francisco had taken leading roles as ports of entry. The primary route of trade was now via the railroad. In 1965, three years before the U.S. Customs Service moves four blocks

Portland 2010

north to the “Old Federal Post Office,” the warehouses that had been built to support the new rail road driven trade have been dismantled to construct a new central U.S. Post Office. The Custom House is now cut off from the water by a large thoroughfare known as Harbor drive.

In 2010, the US Custom House finds itself vacant, slated for disposal by the federal government. The waterfront has been cleared of Harbor drive and is now occupied by Portland’s waterfront Esplanade. The culture of the surrounding buildings finds itself in a very similar condition as it was in 1901,

populated by nightlife venues, bars and areas of vice.

The “time ball” atop the US Custom House could be seen by ship captain from Portland’s waterfront. It would drop each day at Noon, allowing captains to set their ships chronometers.

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

Naito Parkway

Esplanade

Northwest Natural Gas (222')

1st Avenue and MAXWv

2nd Avenue

Harbor Drive

Front Street

1st Avenue

1st Street

3rd Avenue

2nd Avenue 2nd Street

3rd Street

4th Avenue

5th Avenue

6th Avenue

Broadway

CusTOM hOUSE

Naito Parkway

1st Street

2nd Street

3rd Avenue

4th Street

5th Street

6th Street

Broadway

8th Street

3rd Avenue

4th Avenue and Streetcar

5th Avenue

6th Avenue

Front Street

1st Avenue

1st Street

2nd Avenue 2nd Street

3rd Street

4th Street

5th Street

6th Street

7th Avenue

Broadway

8th Street

Wharf

Park Blocks

8th Avenue

park blocks

9th Avenue

9th Street

CusTOM hOUSE

3rd Street

4th Avenue and MAX

Park Blocks

8th Avenue

park blocks

9th Avenue

9th Street

3rd Avenue

Wharf

Wood Storage and Produce

Straw and Produce Storage

Front Street

Iron Storage Yard

1st Avenue

1st Street

Old and Vacant Store

Portland Brass and Iron Works

2nd Avenue 2nd Street

International Hotel

3rd Street

California Lodging House

Salvation Army Barrack

Female Boarding House

4th Avenue and Streetcar

Single Family Home

Model Livery and Feed Stable

5th Avenue

North Western Transfer Co.

4th Street (Streetcar)

5th Street

Single Family Home

6th Avenue 6th Street

7th Street

7th Avenue

8th Avenue

8th Street

Park Blocks

park blocks

9th Avenue

9th Street

CusTOM hOUSE

4th Street

5th Avenue and MAX

CusTOM hOUSE

5th Street

6th Street

6th Avenue

Broadway

8th Street

8th Avenue

Park Blocks

9th Avenue

park blocks

9th Street

3.1.5 Site Sections 1901-2010 wATERFRONT

Portland, OR (1901)

Portland 1901

wATERFRONT

Portland 1924 Portland, OR (1924)

wATERFRONT HARBOR DRIVE

Portland, OR (1924)

Portland 1965

wATERFRONT ESPLANADE

Portland 2010 Portland, OR (2010)

3.2 Communications: The compilation of the buildings archive proved that the building could not be strictly researched through a library of texts and photographs. A human component became invaluable in achieving both a more comprehensive account of the building as well as being able to fully understand the current situation of the US Custom House. Without the human component this research could not be as comprehensive. Four sets of individuals became invaluable to this research. a. The Reference Librarian b. The Archivist c. The Government Employee d. The Architect(s)

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

methodology II : COMMUNICATIONS

3.2.1 E-mail Transcripts The Reference Librarian

Gmail - Customs House images

6/1/11 5:27 PM

The Archivist

Gmail - RE: US Customs House Portland, Oregon

Stephen Salazar <stephenasalazar@gmail.com>

Customs House images

Stephen Salazar <stephenasalazar@gmail.com>

RE: US Customs House Portland, Oregon

2 messages

Scott Daniels <Scott.Daniels@ohs.org> To: "stephenasalazar@gmail.com" <stephenasalazar@gmail.com>

6/1/11 5:29 PM

1 message Tue, Jan 11, 2011 at 12:06 PM

Eugene Morris <eugene.morris@nara.gov> To: "<Stephen Salazar" <stephenasalazar@gmail.com>

Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 11:06 AM

Stephen

Mr. Salazar:

Here are the images, hope they will work for your needs. The darkest one came out a bit funky but I think you can still see the building details.

This is in response to your request for information about the construction, renovation, and operations of the United States Customs House in Portland, Oregon built in 1901.

Scott Daniels Reference Librarian Oregon Historical Society 1200 SW Park Ave Portland, OR 97205 scott.daniels@ohs.org 503-306-5240

We found a great deal of information in Record Group (RG) 121, Records of the Public Buildings Service regarding the Customs House in Portland, Oregon. In Letters Received, 1843-1910 (PI 110 Entry 26), we found 16 boxes (roughly 16,000 pages) of material. We did not check the Letters Sent for the same time period as those records are on microfilm, but presumably there should be something there as well. In the General Correspondence, 1910 1939 (PI 110 Entry 110 A and B), we found 14 boxes (about 14,000 pages) worth of material dating between 1910 and 1933. We also found a file of roughly 300 pages in the Title Papers (A1 Entry 80A). We can make these records available to you should you choose to visit our College Park, Maryland, facility. For more about College Park, see: http://www.archives.gov/dc-metro/college-park/index.html If you cannot travel to College Park, you may wish to consider hiring a professional researcher. You can find a list of researchers on our webpage at http://www.archives.gov/research/hire-help/

5 attachments

We did not find any drawings or photographs in our holdings but there may be such images in either our cartographic and still picture units. You can contact them by e-mailing carto@nara.gov and stillpix@nara.gov respectively.

no 67.jpg 379K

Our records end in 1939. The Public Buildings Service is now a part of the General Services Administration (GSA) and they would have retained any documentation about later renovations and alterations. Given that you say that GSA only parted with ownership of the building in the last year, we would not have received any of the later records. You will want to contact the GSA Records Officer, Marc Wolfe, at General Services Administration, IT Policy Division (IEP), Room 2022, 1800 F Street, NW, Washington, DC 20405. His e-mail is marc.wolfe@gsa.gov and his phone number is (202) 501-8970. Operational records for customs houses are in RG 36, Records of the United States Customs Service. Records for the Portland, Oregon Customs House are kept at our regional facility in Seattle, Washington. You can contact them by e-mailing seattle.archives@nara.gov

1903.jpg 512K

We hope that this information is of assistance to you. If you have any further questions, please feel free to respond by return e-mail or by calling (301) 837-1993.

Gene Morris Civil Reference NWCT2R

https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=e36149e613&view=pt&q=Scott%20Scott.Daniels%40ohs.org&qs=true&search=query&th=12d76b09f1b76ff9

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

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The Reference Librarian at the Oregon Historical Society became a strong resource in locating historical documents and texts referencing the US Custom House. The Oregon Historical Society was able to produce large format copies of the original drawings for the Custom House, signed by chief architect James Know Taylor.

As the US Custom House is a federal building the National Archives in DC was contacted to see whether or not there was any pertinent data in their collection. The query turned up sixteen boxes, roughly 16,000 pages of material as well as a separate 1,000 page document. All of which were only accessible through their facility in Maryland. The research with the National Archives was not furthered.

https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=e36149e613&view=pt&q=US%20Customs%20house&qs=true&search=query&th=12e0bd1235851b01

Page 1 of 1

The Government Employee

Gmail - Custom House IFB

6/1/11 5:28 PM

The Architect(s)

Gmail - US Customs House: Thesis Project for Portland State Masters Student

Stephen Salazar <stephenasalazar@gmail.com>

Custom House IFB 7 messages

andrew.schwartz@gsa.gov <andrew.schwartz@gsa.gov> To: stephenasalazar@gmail.com

Thu, Jan 6, 2011 at 4:26 PM

Stephen Salazar <stephenasalazar@gmail.com>

US Customs House: Thesis Project for Portland State Masters Student 7 messages

Stephen Salazar <stephenasalazar@gmail.com> To: done@serapdx.com Cc: Kurt Schultz <kurts@serapdx.com>

Thanks for your interest in the Custom House. Please see the attached IFB.

6/1/11 5:21 PM

Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 3:29 PM

Good Afternoon Mr. Eggleston, T. Andrew Schwartz Realty Officer General Services Administration Real Property Disposal (9PZF-10) 400 15th Street SW Auburn, WA 98001 Phone (253) 931-7556 Fax (253) 931-7554

I wanted to thank you for being available for me to come by and look at the drawings you have the US Customs House. Depending on you availability, I will be available tuesday after 3:30pm, complete availability on Wednesday and am available on Thursday after 1pm. Friday will be my interim review at Portland State for this thesis research project, so I will be unavailable then. Let me know if any of these days work for you if not we could schedule something next week. I will be having my wisdom teeth removed Saturday morning, Monday may not be the best.

IFB.pdf 8583K

I appreciate your aiding my research, thank you very much!

Stephen Salazar <stephenasalazar@gmail.com> To: Nora Kathleen Wendl <nwendl@pdx.edu>, Nora Wendl <nora.wendl@gmail.com>

Thu, Jan 6, 2011 at 4:59 PM Stephen Salazar

Hey Nora,

Master of Architecture Candidate, Portland State University

Contacted the GSA today here is the IFP they gave to the bidders, the building has been auctioned off, finished in Oct, sold for 2.5 million, to the PREM real estate group as their headquarters. Good info...

Student Liaison, Department of Architecture AIAS Chapter President, Portland State University

Stephen [Quoted text hidden]

Don Eggleston <done@serapdx.com> To: Stephen Salazar <stephenasalazar@gmail.com>

IFB.pdf 8583K Nora Wendl <nwendl@pdx.edu> To: Stephen Salazar <stephenasalazar@gmail.com>

Stephen, sorry to take so long in getting back to you, why don’t you email me after your recovery from the dentist next week. Don Thu, Jan 6, 2011 at 8:43 PM

Whoa! Already? That's surprising. And there aren't any signs on the building to announce the purchase, strange. That is a great deal, 2.5 million...it will be interesting to learn from PREM what they are planning to do with the building.

Donald Eggleston, AIA, CSI

Where do you go from here, Mr Salazar?

From: Stephen Salazar [mailto:stephenasalazar@gmail.com] Sent: Monday, January 31, 2011 3:30 PM To: Don Eggleston

Nora https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=e36149e613&view=pt&q=US%20Custom%20house&qs=true&search=query&th=12d5ddf5fda12b91

The real estate agent handling the “disposal” of the US Custom House with the General Services Administration was contacted in order to find out the details of the sale process. The Information for Bidding was acquired, detailing the sale process and current condition of the building. Queries to gaining entrance to the building were not answered.

Fri, Feb 4, 2011 at 7:13 AM

Page 1 of 3

www.serapdx.com 503.445.7302

https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=e36149e613&view=pt&q=done%40serapdx.com&qs=true&search=query&th=12dde68e6faa6688

Page 1 of 4

The local architecture firm which handled the 1997 seismic upgrade study of the US Custom House for the GSA became a great source for informations. Two architects with personal experience with the building were able to produce their research findings as well as photographs and architectural documents.

3.3 Performances: With the help of the conversations from individuals with personal knowledge or access to knowledge of the US Custom House, both elements of the Cultural Memory of the U.S. Custom House were comprehensively compiled and illustrated. The third phase of this research process became an exercise to gauge the public opinion of the US Custom House, as well as to provoke an embodied response from the building as to ascertain what the new program of the Custom House might be. A week-long performance schedule was adopted to make the Cultural Memory of the Custom House available to the public and explore the programmatic possibilities of this 100,000 square foot building. 5 performances were planned, one to take place each evening the week of March 7, 2011. 5 Installations Day 1 [Awaken] Day 2 [Inform] Day 3 [Exchange] Day 4 [Distribute] Day 5 [Celebrate]

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

methodology III : PERFORMANCES

Methodology II: Performances

Day 1: AWAKEN

Images from the eveningâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Installation

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

Projection Media

3.3.1 DAY ONE In order to perform this week-long series of performance the identity James Knox Taylor, the chief architect for the Department of the Treasury who had designed the US Custom House in 1897, was taken. Costumes were constructed for myself as well as one for my assistant, under the identity of Edgar Lazarus, the local architect of record for the completion of the Custom House, he would rise to local architectural for completion of such buildings as the Vista House along the Columbia River.

Some mentioned the rumors about it’s supposed sale, many naming building uses that were not factual. Some pretended as if nothing was happening as they casually strode by, others took notice when they were blinded by light of the projector.

DAY ONE’s installation was an experiment on projected media. A slide-show of animated images was constructed, detailing the history of the “time ball” and the building’s connection to the waterfront. A projector was set up in front of the Pendleton building, opposing the Custom House on Broadway. This performance was an exercise to AWAKEN the building and the public, preparing them both for a week long series of events. The slide-show was broadcast for an hour to mixed attention from the public. Many reacted to the building as of they had never seen it before.

Day 2: INFORM

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

Countries Represented:

3.3.2 DAY TWO DAY TWO was an experiment in user engagement, observing how the public reacts to found artifacts. Census data was sifted through to compile demographic research based on populations that have immigrated to Portland/Beaverton/Vancouver, WA (this is how the government groups our port of entry.) The information compiled is origin based on place of birth. Demographic data for the permanent residency for 2009 became the test data.

The flags were placed into large red envelopes and placed in the evening along the front gates and steps of the US Custom House, the public reaction to this installation was recorded the following morning.

The census data logs each country population individually, the list became endless. In order to make the results more manageable Countries were narrowed down to only those with more than 100 people who had established residency, this brought the total number of countries to eleven.

Public engagement the following morning

The flag of the country of origin was printed along with the number of people who had established permanent residency and the year it was established.

Day 3: EXCHANGE

Images from the eveningâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Installation

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

3.3.3 DAY THREE DAY THREEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s installation was based off the public reaction to the demographic information they were able to engage with envelopes. The countries that were represented through the census data became the inspiration to create an installation based around artifacts of culture. The question became: What are objects that represent a culture? At first the question stumped me, slowly the answer became evident: EVERYTHING!

I walked away quickly. I returned later that afternoon to find that a necklace missing that morning had been returned. Also, many people stopped mid stride in front of the building to observe what had been left on its front steps. Cultural exchange, according to the public reaction, became the most provocative installation that week. Cultural exchange would become the basis off which the new building program would be formed.

Food, clothing, literature, religious items, pottery, jewelry... An offering to the building was made, highlighting that buildings past as a center of trade and exchange. The installation became a discovery of the US Custom House as place of cultural exchange. This installation, according to rousing public reaction was the most successful. The following morning when cataloguing the overnight reaction, I was interrupted by an approaching City of Portland work vehicle, that stopped in front of the building with its lights flashing, looking straight at me. Public engagement the following morning

Day 4: DISTRIBUTE

Images from the eveningâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Installation

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

3.3.4 DAY FOUR DAY FOUR’s installation was based around public claiming the US Custom House as their own. In remembrance of the building and its 100 year+ life in Portland 100 buttons were hand-made, fashioned from a self-designed graphic, allowing the public to take with them their own memory of the building.

I wondered to myself if the buttons had been taken by delighted passer-bys or if the city had come by and “cleaned up” after the altar exhibition. I still wait to see someone unknown wearing a button.

The swath of red created by the exchange altar made was replaced by a sea of these buttons climbing up the entrance stairs. A plaque reissuing the statement from the night previous proclaimed: “THIS IS A PLACE FOR CULTURAL EXCHANGE.” By morning everything had disappeared

With each following morning came the documentation of how the public had intervened in each of the installations. After the encounter with the City of Portland officials the day previous I was interested to see what awaited me at the entrance to the Custom House. Walking past the Park Blocks approaching 8th avenue I could not yet make out what had happened to the installation. The closer I came the clearer it became that the entire installation had disappeared, including the wood block proclaiming cultural exchange.

Day 5: CELEBRATE

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

3.3.5 DAY FIVE DAY 5, the final installation, became one to CELEBRATE the clarity to which the installations had extracted the embodied response of the building re-emerging as a place for cultural exchange. A toast in front of the building was organized at sunset and the public was invited.

The toast took place at the front steps of the US Custom House

The toast was to celebrate the past 110 years the building had experienced and usher in its proposed period of federal use and reemergence as a necessary and relevant building to Portland. The the image that had been made onto the buttons distributed the night previous was stenciled onto the Cultural Exchange shroud and draped onto the front gates of the Custom House. A collection of images from the selfconstructed archive were distributed along the steps as well as additional buttons.

The toast given remarked upon the past weeks frenzy of construction and dissemination of installation material. The guise of James Know Taylor was left behind for this event. Now it was time for me to make my perspective of the building known and begin the process of designing the new US Custom House.

3.3.6 Performance Exhibition Winter Term Final Review

Inspirational collages became the design driver for each nightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s installation

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

Following the conclusion of the installations an exhibition of the installation material was constructed to make this portion of the methodology research public. The (5) large wood-board collages that were the inspiration for each evening’s installation were presented. Accompanying these boards were artifacts from each evening’s event: envelopes stuffed with flags, jewelry, buttons and a bottle of sparkling cider were but a handful of objects present. Photographs were hung as well as interspersed with these artifacts cataloguing the process of installation as well as the recording process of how the public had engaged with each installation. The jumpsuits, hats and gloves of James and Edgar were hung in proof of the individuals who had conducted these installations.

These installations had proven that the US Custom House has a modern purpose to the city of Portland as a place of cultural exchange. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement as successor of the Customs Service would take part in making this exchange happen. To make sure that it was not just the voice of the government informing this exchange a cooperation of Portland Non-Governmental Organizations have been identified to occupy the Custom House. The government would carry out the bureaucratic process of immigration, while the NGO system would drive the cultural public based program. Places in the building such as a library of foreign language literature as well as a cultural kitchen to share recipes as well as teach others how to make dishes specific to one’s country of origin. Rotating exhibition space for foreign artists had also been identified. 54

4.0 Entering the Building 4.1 Journal Entry March 23, 2011 At 2:14pm I left my home for a run along the waterfront esplanade. Living on Everett Street I run by the Custom House every time I make my way to the esplanade. When I reached Park Avenue, the westerly street lining the North Park blocks, I saw that there were several large moving trucks stationed in front of Custom House. Running towards 8th street I saw that a ramp into the courtyard had been built and that the moving trucks were hastily unloading large equipment into the building. One of the trucks was labeled professional grip equipment, my familiarity with “grips” is that it’s a term used with filming. I pondered this and decided to let them work some more as I proceeded on my run, in observing the building I saw that no other entrance point to the building had been touched, only the main stair leading to the courtyard. As I ran thoughts flooded my head as to what the meaning of these trucks and their construction could be. “Had my installations woken up a public awareness to the building such that it would play the setting for a large production to occur?” “Had I been wrong about PREM defaulting on the building, was this there was of announcing their occupancy of the building?”

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

My mind reeled. I could hardly wait to see the state of affairs the building was in when I returned. Closing in on the building I realized that the sidewalk in front of the building lining 8th Avenue had been closed to the public. I slowly walked over 8th avenue diagonally, heading for the park block. I made eye contact with one of the workers tending to the building, I smiled, he smiled back. I took this as my cue to engage him as to what was happening to the building. He told me that NBC was going to be shooting the pilot episode of a TV show called “Grimm,” a police drama. I asked him about the intent of using the building for filming, he replied that only the building’s interior would be shot, only a room on the first floor would be used for the filming. He referred to the building as a soundstage. Thinking of the large mass of the building, its quiet vacancy, the idea of it living as a soundstage, an empty warehouse, made sense. I thanked him and proceeded across the street to the park block, directly across from the center arch over the entrance. The film crew had built a ramp in from the sidewalk on 8th avenue into the courtyard in order to more easily haul equipment into the building, another ramp had been installed leading into

the far left main door of the building. I pondered the possibility of entering the building, but why would they let me in, I thought. After having just gained entrance into the office of Tom Kundig in Seattle by just asking I saw my chance when the gentleman I had spoken to previously reemerged from the building. I struck up another conversation with him, telling him I had been researching the building and wished I could get inside. He nonchalantly replied “Why not?” that’s when he motioned for me to join him on the ramp, and we proceeded into the courtyard. He told me to act like I was a part of the film crew, we made it by the first checkpoint, a lady sitting at a table just outside of the building, then I ascended up the ramp and into the entrance vestibule, the corridor that separates the courtyard from the grand stair.

My mind was swimming, I couldn’t believe I was here, I remember the blue paint on the walls, and the rich dark wood, the brass chandeliers were all lit and the vestibule seemed to sparkle. I followed the crewman into the space just before the grand stair; my heart skipped a beat. This is THE staircase of the Custom House.

The scale was too big for words, marble steps flanked by monumental balustrades of carved dark wood, the awareness that these are iron stairs struck me. We proceeded to the room that the pilot would be filmed in. The smell of fresh paint was overwhelming. The setting for the filming was the southern “exam” room that the Custom Service occupied when the building was completed. The ceiling was lofty, and was supported by freshly painted light green columns, the color of a soy frappuccino. I pointed out the columns and told the crew member that the building was the first steel building in Oregon, and that the circular column shape was just a façade to the actual I beam nature of the structure. He thought that was interesting, as they had thought of using the columns as support to for some of the rigging. He then led me to the room adjacent on the western side was playing the role of storing a lot of the steel tubing for the set. I was shown the safe that existed in the room a large steel compartment that is buried into the wall. I asked if it was alright to photograph and he replied sure.

staining of the porcelain, the crumbling of the ceiling tiles and the various states of affairs the window coverings were in. After finishing with that wing of the first floor I went back to the crew member and asked him if I could proceed through the building, he said sure, and reminded me of the security guard stationed at the base of the grand stair.

I began my tour through this wing of the building, documenting the small marble clad office lavatories of the executives who used to work in this space, observing the age of the building, the

My knowledge of the building had just become an invaluable tool in my journey through it!

I walked over to the staircase and caught view of the security guard, sitting just to the other side of the stair, at this point mostly hidden by the balustrade. I saw the stair access to the basement and decided I would go into the depths of the building first. It was dark and artificially lit. I made my way around the snake like winding of corridors, small dark rooms that housed nothing, the old cafeteria, dark and vacant. I tried to wrap my head around how I would be able to sneak around the guard in order to access the upper floors. Then it struck me, the egress stair! The egress stair had been added when the daylight well was sectioned off and the office floor expanded.

With the guard stationed at the bottom of the stair I decided to travel all the way to the fourth floor and begin

there, thus not making my presence known too early. I proceeded out of the stairwell and onto into the dim corridor, the ceiling height of this space was much lower than that of the other floors, as this space was never apart of the formal office space of the original design. I was greeted by the door to the women’s rest room and proceeded to go inside. Once inside I realized that there was a window. Where it looked out to I had no idea due to the treatment of the glass. I opened the window observing the counterweight system that allowed it to operate. The window, opened out onto the roof. I took this opportunity to climb out. The thought crossed my mind that this was probably not the permission that the crew member would think he was giving me. But, this being possibly my only experience inside the building I wanted to use it for all it was worth. The roof space was contained by the exterior of the building and held mechanical equipment. There was a door that led back in to the building, I used it instead of possibly having a mishap going back through the window. I walked through the rest of the fourth floor and noticed the utter state of vacancy the building was in. I was accompanied by the absolute quiet of the building. I made it into the room three floors above where the film

crew would be shooting. This is where an entire floor of office was created from the sectioning off of the double height space of the third floor below, what was to be a courtroom. A large skylight in the middle occupies the room. I marveled at this element and the otherwise low nature of the general ceiling plane. I lied on the floor in order to capture the skylight. In leaving this room I proceeded back to the rear of the building. I found a small room with a window that looked out along the roof, I took this opportunity to climb back out onto the roof. This time I was on the main part of the roof with access to all parts, I was greeted with spectacular view of Big Pink, and the Old town/ Chinatown district. I then saw am iron stair that led the very platform on the roof that the weather bureau had used to operate the Time Ball from. I slowly ascended the stair and relished in the moment of sharing this history with the building. Upon reaching its pinnacle I looked out towards the waterfront where ships were at one point able to see the building. I made sure not to proceed to far onto the platform as that would make me visible to those working at the main entrance and passing through the courtyard. The entire time I was waiting to be disturbed from my audience with the building and escorted out of the building.

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

The story continuesâ&#x20AC;Ś I descended down the iron stair and continued my journey through the building. Wandering through the North side of the building, I found an additional stair that lead to a higher floor, I was not aware of a 5th floor within the building. I wanted to see where it lead, the stair was dark, I had to use my cell phone to light the way. Light peeked through the bottom of two doorways, I chose the one directly ahead of my path. The room behind was attic storage, there were partitions made from wire and wood, the space was pyramidal following the slanting of the roof and the large shape of the skylight-well took up most of the room. Upon leaving the room I decided to leave the light on, I wanted to leave the room just as I had found it, just as the building had left it. I was now ready to travel down to the third floor. I had two options, either take the ceremonial stair down or the egress route. I admired the ceremonial stair but realized at this point it was too early to risk my being seen this far into the building. I decided on the egress stair. Proceeding to the second floor, I was greeted by a vast expanse of vacant former office space, the room stretched to the far northern perimeter wall. Carpet had been partially removed, exhibiting the wood parquet floor

that existed beneath, under a cloudy haze of the carpet glue that had been applied. The ceiling tiles had partially self destructed exposing the underside of the floor slab above. In a corner interior wood doors had been gathered like grouping of dominoes laid against the wall. Entering what were to be the proposed 1901 courtrooms, the scale and grandeur had been completely diminished by the addition of the floor above. It makes me wonder the glorious opportunities for the space if it was opened back up and offered the addition of the skylight above. As in the first floor it seemed that many of the office wings ended with a large safe, there to keep important documents, I suppose. The southern side of the third floor had been compartmentalized, rooms had been divided into smaller rooms, raising the questions to what success were the organizations able to function in this makeshift space? In completing my way around the third floor it was time again to travel down the stairs, this time I had to use the grand stair, I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t travel within this building and not use the grandiose staircase. I slowly crept back to the stair, and with the security guard in mind kept myself to the far balustrade and against the wall of the stair when I made my turn. The massive scale of the stair made the ability to hide excellent. I landed

at the base of the stair and walked to directly the windows opposite the stair. Once again the brass lights shimmered and I was in awe. I snapped photos of the stair as well as its detail. In moving towards the next room, I caught sight of a person in my peripheral view, I looked to my left and saw the security guard sitting in the distance, talking on his phone! I slowly turned to my right and proceeded to go through the south wing, making the most of my time, because I was almost certain it was going to be short lived. I noticed the outdoor balcony and remembered that it had no access to it, which it doesn’t the window sill begins three feet from the floor, just a little over the floor of the balcony, curious… I traveled further into the second floor, into what was an executive office, the door read “organized crime division,” being that this was an Army Corps of Engineers office from 1968 on, and the Customs Service before that, made me wonder as to the legitimacy of these signs. Are they apart of the building’s use for filming? Have they renamed parts of the building? Upon leaving the office room, I heard footsteps shuffling through the space, I knew my time was up. Shortly I was told that I wasn’t supposed to be up here, and that I would need go downstairs. I proceeded to the staircase along with the officer and made my

way to the first floor. I tried to head in the direction of the north wing, where I had not been previously. I was stopped again as I was starting to enter and told to only be on the other side where the crew was working. I paused, looked at the staircase, and when the officer asked me if I was in fact part of the production company, why yes I said, I’m documenting the building. As I was dressed in my gym clothes, I decided it would be best if I made departure, I headed through the vestibule, pausing for men bring construction supplies in, and proceeded across the courtyard and onto the park blocks. With a sigh of relief, I played the last couple of hours in my head. I had just had an audience with my building, the Custom House had greeted me and opened itself up to discovery. I had descended into the dark depths of the building as well as climbed up to its very peak. How magnificent!

4.2 2011 Architectural Drawings

US Custom House 220 NW 8th Avenue Portland, Oregon

2011

FIRST FLOOR scale: 1/8” :1’

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

US Custom House 220 NW 8th Avenue Portland, Oregon

2011 SECOND FLOOR scale: 1/8” :1’

NORTH

4.2 2011 Architectural Drawings

US Custom House 220 NW 8th Avenue Portland, Oregon

c d

b a

e f a

2011 THIRD FLOOR scale: 1/8” :1’

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

NORTH

* Photo from 4th floor.

US Custom House 220 NW 8th Avenue Portland, Oregon

f a b c

2011 FOURTH FLOOR scale: 1/8” :1’

NORTH

4.2 2011 Architectural Drawings

The current building has found itself with various additions and deletions. Some walls have been removed to open space for more offices, while the ground floor has found itself with many more walls in order to partition the former warehouse space. The day light well that used to light the grand stair as well as the interior core of the building has been closed in to supply a new egress route. Originally designed as double height courtrooms, these two spaces have been subdivided into two floors, creating a very low ceilings, tremendously diminishing the quality of the spaces.

1901

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

US Custom House 220 NW 8th Avenue Portland, Oregon

2011

US Custom House 220 NW 8th Avenue Portland, Oregon

1901

Section scale: 1/8” :1’

2011

Establishment of Permanent Residency and Naturalization 2010-‐2004 Establishment Portland, of Permanent Beaverton Residency and Vancouver, and Naturalization WA 2010-‐2004 Portland, Beaverton and Vancouver, WA

Establishment of Permanent Residency and Naturalization 2004-2010

Portland, Beaverton, Van.

Portland, Beaverton, Van. Portland, Beaverton, Beaverton, Van. Van. 2007 Residency 2007 Naturalizations Portland, Portland, Beaverton, Van. Portland, Beaverton, Van. 2010 Residency 2010 2010Residency Naturalizations 2010 Naturalizations Portland, Beaverton, Van.2007 Naturalizations Portland, Beaverton, Van. 2007 Residency Data Analysis 2007: Mexico 776 Mexico 538 2007 Residency 2007 Naturalizations Mexico 819 Mexico 470819 Mexico China, People's Republic 600 Mexico Vietnam 510 Mexico 776 Mexico 538 Vietnam 773 Ukraine 366773 Ukraine Vietnam 540 Vietnam China, People's Republic 362 Residency: Mexico 776 Mexico 538 China, People's Republic 600 Vietnam 510 China, People's Republic 622 India People's Republic 352622 India1. Mexico, 776 Ukraine 497 China, India 357 China, People's Republic 600 Vietnam 510 Vietnam 540 China, People's Republic 362 India 402 India Vietnam 329 402 Vietnam Philippines 338 Ukraine 342 Vietnam 540 China, People's Republic 362 2. China, P.R. 600 Ukraine 497 India 357 Philippines Ukraine 354 China, People's Republic 283354 China, People's Republic India 316 Philippines Soviet Union, former 250 497 India 357 3. Vietnam, 540 Philippines 338 Ukraine 342 Ukraine 238 Russia 234238 Russia Russia 259 Ukraine Russia 228 Philippines 338 Ukraine 342 India 316 Soviet Union, former 250 Ethiopia 176 Philippines Soviet 215176 Philippines Canada 204 Ethiopia Philippines 215 India 316 Union, former 250 Russia 259 Russia 228 Citizenship: Iraq 149 Romania 127149 Romania Guatemala 194 Iraq Korea 168 Russia 259 Russia 228 Canada 204 Philippines 215 1. Mexico, 538 Russia 139 Canada 124139 Canada Korea 170 Russia Romania 138 Canada 204 Philippines 215 Guatemala 194 Korea 168 2. Vietnam, 510 Korea, SouthGuatemala 127 Ethiopia South Korea 110127 Ethiopia Romania 163 Korea, Canada 106 194 168 Korea 170 Romania 138 3. South China, P.R. 362 Canada 124 Canada Korea, South 80 124 Korea, Ethiopia 149 Korea 170 Romania 138 Romania 163 Canada 106 Romania 121 121 Uzbekistan 138 Romania Romania 163 Canada 106 Ethiopia 149 Cuba 110 110 United Kingdom 115 Cuba Ethiopia 149 Top 7 countries Uzbekistan 138 Thailand 100 100 Somalia 104 Thailand Uzbekistan 138 represented by the United Kingdom 115 Taiwan 103 United Kingdom 115 Somalia 104 immigration Establishment of Permanent Residency and Naturalization 2010-‐2004 Portland, Beaverton and Vancouver, WA statistics 2009 Residency 2009Residency Naturalizations 2009 Naturalizations Japan 102 2009 Somalia 104 Establishment of RPesidency ermanent Residency and Naturalization Portland, eaverton Vancouver, A Taiwan 103 Establishment of Permanent Residency and and Naturalization 2W010-‐2004 Portland, Beaverton and Vancouver, WA Establishment of Permanent and Naturalization 2010-‐2004 2P010-‐2004 ortland, B eaverton aBnd Vancouver, W A Taiwan 103 Japan 102 Establishment of Permanent Residency and Naturalization 2010-‐2004 Portland, Beaverton and Vancouver, WA Ukraine 739 Mexico 555739 Mexico 2006 Residency 2006 Naturalizations Japan 102 Ukraine Portland, Beaverton, Van. Portland, Beaverton, Van. Vietnam 576 Vietnam Ukraine 416576 Ukraine Portland, VBan. eaverton, Van. Portland, eaverton, Van. Residency 2006 Naturalizations Portland, Beaverton, Van. Portland, Beaverton, Van.Philippines 2006 Portland, Beaverton, Beaverton, VBan. 2010 Residency 2010 Naturalizations Portland, 409 Vietnam 402409 Vietnam Ukraine 1,087 Philippines Vietnam 411 2006 Residency 2006 Naturalizations 2010 Residency 2010 Naturalizations Portland, B eaverton, V an. Portland, B eaverton, V an. 2010 Residency 2010 Naturalizations 2010 Residency 2010 Naturalizations China, People's Republic 406 China,People's People's Republic Republic 363406 China, People's Republic Mexico 827 China, Mexico 335 Ukraine 1,087 Vietnam 411 2010 Residency 2010 Naturalizations Data Analysis 2010: Mexico 819 Mexico 470 India 350 India Russia 285 350 Russia China, People's Republic 629 China, People's Republic 282 Data Analysis 2006: Ukraine 1,087 Vietnam 411 Mexico 819 Mexico 470 Mexico 827 Mexico 335 Mexico 470 Mexico 819 Mexico 470819 Vietnam 773 Mexico Ukraine 366 Somalia 266 India 238266 India Vietnam 516 Somalia Ukraine 275 Mexico 827 Mexico 335 Vietnam 773 Ukraine 366 China, People's Republic 629 China, People's Republic 282 Mexico 819 Mexico 470 Ukraine 366 Vietnam 773 Ukraine 366773 China, People's Republic 622 Vietnam India 352 Ethiopia 245 Philippines China, 212245 Philippines Residency: Moldova 369 Ethiopia India People's Republic 252 China, People's Republic 629 282 Residency: China, People's Republic 622 India 352 Vietnam 516 Ukraine 275 Vietnam 773 366 Republic India 1. Mexico, 819 352 China, People's Republic 622 India People'sUkraine 352622 India 402 China, Vietnam 329 Thailand 195 Romania 133195 Romania Philippines 313 Thailand Russia 172 Vietnam 516 Ukraine 275 1. Ukraine, 1,087 India 402 Vietnam 329 Moldova 369 India 252 China, People's Republic 622 India 352 Vietnam 329 India 402 Vietnam 329402 Philippines 354 India China, People's Republic 283 Russia 182 Korea, SouthIndia 128182 Korea, South Russia 298 Russia Philippines 170 Moldova 369 252 2. Vietnam, 773 Philippines 354 China, People's Republic 283 Philippines 313 Russia 172 India 402 Vietnam 329 2. Mexico, 827 China, People's Republic 283 Philippines Ukraine 354 China, People's Republic 283354 238 Philippines Russia 234 Korea, SouthPhilippines 180 Korea, Iran South Russia 104180 Iran India 271 Romania 165 313 172 3. China, P.R. 622 Ukraine 238 Russia 234 Russia 298 Philippines 170 Philippines 354 China, People's Republic 283 3. China, P.R. 629 Russia 234 Ukraine 238 Russia 234238 Ethiopia 176 Ukraine Philippines 215 Canada 172 172 Guatemala 210 Canada Soviet Union, former 162 Russia 298 Philippines 170 Ethiopia 176 Philippines 215 India 271 Romania 165 Ukraine 238 234 Philippines 215 Ethiopia 176 Philippines Russia 215176 Iraq 149 Ethiopia Romania 127 Cuba 144 144 Ethiopia 184 Cuba Bosnia-Herzegovina 109 India 271 Romania 165 Citizenship: Iraq 149 Romania 127 Guatemala 210 Soviet Union, former 162 Ethiopia 176 Philippines 215 Romania 127 Iraq 149 Romania 127149 Russia 139 Iraq Canada 124 Moldova 136 136 Romania 182 Moldova Korea Union, former 108 Guatemala 210 Soviet 162 Citizenship: 1. Mexico, 419 Russia 139 Canada 124 Ethiopia 184 Bosnia-Herzegovina 109 Iraq 149 Romania 127 Canada 124 Russia 139 Canada 124139 Korea, South 127 Russia Ethiopia 110 Burma 131 131 Korea 162 Burma Ethiopia 184 Bosnia-Herzegovina 109 1. Vietnam, 539 Korea, South 127 Ethiopia 110 2. Ukraine, 366 Romania 182 Korea 108 139 Canada 124 Korea, South 127 Ethiopia 110 Korea, South Russia 127 Ethiopia 110 Canada 124 Korea, South 80 Romania 129 129 Cuba 157 Romania Romania 182 Korea 108 Canada 124 Korea, South 80 Korea 162 2. Ukraine, 364 Korea, South 127 110 India, 352 Korea,3.South 80 Canada 124 Korea, South Ethiopia 80124 Romania 121 Canada United Kingdom 128 128 Canada 142 United Kingdom Korea 162 Romania 121 Cuba 157 Canada 124 Korea, South 80 3. Mexico, 327 121 Romania 121 Cuba 110 Romania Guatemala Cuba 125 125 Somalia 132 Guatemala 157 Cuba 110 Canada 142 Romania 121 110 Cuba 110 Thailand 100 Cuba Japan 120 120 Iran 119 Japan Canada 142 Thailand 100 Somalia 132 Cuba 110 Thailand 100 Thailand 100 Kenya 115 Kenya 115 Kazakhstan 112 Somalia 132 Iran 119 Thailand 100 2009 Residency 2009 Naturalizations Uzbekistan Iran 102 102 Soviet Union, former 109 Uzbekistan 119 2009 Residency 2009 Naturalizations Kazakhstan 112 2009 Residency 2009 Naturalizations 2009 Residency 2009 Naturalizations Kenya 108 Kazakhstan 112 Soviet Union, former 109 2009 Residency 2009 Naturalizations Ukraine 739 Mexico 555 2008 Residency 2008Residency Naturalizations 2008 Naturalizations Thailand 100 2008 Soviet Union, former 109 Ukraine 739 Mexico 555 Kenya 108 Mexico 555 Ukraine 739 Mexico 555739 Vietnam 576 Ukraine Ukraine 416 Kenya 108 Data Analysis 2009: Vietnam 576 Ukraine 416 Thailand 100 Ukraine 739 Mexico 555 Ukraine 416 Vietnam 576 Ukraine 416576 Philippines 409 Vietnam Vietnam 402 Mexico 1,110 Mexico 1,231 1,110 Mexico 2005 Residency 2005 Naturalizations Thailand 100 Mexico Philippines 409 Vietnam 402 576 Ukraine 416 Vietnam 402 Philippines Vietnam 409 Vietnam 402409 China, People's Republic 406 Philippines China, People's Republic 363 Vietnam 668 Vietnam Vietnam 709668 Vietnam China, People's Republic 406 China, People's Republic 363 2005 Residency 2005 Naturalizations Philippines 409 Vietnam 402 People's Republic China,Residency: People's Republic 363 China, People's Republic 406 China, People's Republic 363406 India 350 China, Russia 285 China, People's Republic 634 China, Ukraine People's Republic 655 634 Ukraine Ukraine 1,895 Vietnam 539 2005 Residency 2005 Naturalizations India 350 Russia 285 China, People's Republic 406 China, 363 Russia1. Mexico, 1030 285 India 350 Russia 285350 Somalia 266 India India People's Republic 238 Ukraine 595 China, People's Republic 497595 China, People's Republic Mexico 775 Ukraine Ukraine 364 Somalia 266 India 238 Ukraine 1,895 Vietnam 539 India 350 Russia 285 India 1. Ukraine, 739 238 Somalia 266 India 238266 Ethiopia 245 Somalia Philippines 212 India 371 India 416371 India Data Analysis 2005: China, People's Republic 664 India Mexico 327 Ukraine 1,895 Vietnam 539 Ethiopia 245 Philippines 212 Mexico 775 Ukraine 364 Somalia 266 India 238 Ethiopia 245 Philippines 212 Ethiopia 245 Philippines 212 Thailand 195 Romania 133 Philippines Mexico 282 Russia 387282 Russia Russia 564 Philippines China, People's Republic 323 2. Vietnam, 576 775 Ukraine 364 Thailand 195 Romania 133 China, People's Republic 664 Mexico 327 Ethiopia 245 Philippines 212 Romania 133 Thailand 195 Romania 133195 Russia 182 Thailand Korea, South 128 Russia 266 Russia Philippines 385 266 Philippines Vietnam 490 Russia 226 China, People's Republic 664 Mexico 327 Russia 182 Korea, South 128 Residency: Russia 564 China, People's Republic 323 Thailand 195 133 Korea,Citizenship: South 128 Russia 182 Korea, South Romania 128182 Korea 1 Korea 1 Korea, South 180 Russia Iran 104 Cuba 203 204203 India 366 Cuba Philippines 209 Russia 564 China, People's Republic 323 Korea, South 180 Iran 104 Vietnam 490 Russia 226 Russia 182 Korea, South 128 1. Ukraine, 1,895* 1. Mexico, 555 Iran 104 Korea, South Canada 180 Iran South 104180 172 Korea, Canada 183 Canada 170183 Canada Canada 246 Canada Romania 183 Vietnam 490 Russia 226 Canada 172 India 366 Philippines 209 Korea, 180 Iran 104 2. China, P.R. 664 172 Canada 172 2. Ukraine, 416 Cuba South 144 Canada Uzbekistan India 181 Romania 159181 Romania Moldova 239 Uzbekistan India 172 366 Philippines 209 Cuba 144 Canada 246 Romania 183 1 Canada 172 144 Cuba 144 Russia, 564 Korea1 Moldova 136 Cuba 178 United Kingdom 139178 United3.Kingdom 3. Vietnam, 402 Romania 200 Korea Bosnia-Herzegovina 151 Canada 246 Romania 183 Moldova 136 Moldova 239 India 172 Cuba 144 136 Moldova 136 Burma 131 Moldova Guatemala Moldova 166 Soviet Union,India former 134166 Soviet Union, former United Kingdom 172 Guatemala Korea 149 239 172 Burma 131 Romania 200 Bosnia-Herzegovina 151 Moldova 136 Burma 131 Burma 131 Romania 129 Somalia 165 Bosnia-Herzegovina 125165 Bosnia-Herzegovina Citizenship: Korea 170 Somalia Canada 105 Romania 200 Bosnia-Herzegovina 151 Romania 129 United Kingdom 172 Korea 149 Burma 131 129 Romania 129 United Kingdom 128 Romania Ethiopia 151 Laos 125151 Laos 1. Vietnam, 411 Bosnia-Herzegovina 162 Ethiopia United Kingdom 172 Korea 149 United Kingdom 128 Korea 170 Canada 105 Romania 129 128 United Kingdom 128 Guatemala 125 United Kingdom Iran 130 Iran 107130 Iran 2. Mexico, 335 Ethiopia 145 Iran Korea 170 Canada 105 Guatemala 125 Bosnia-Herzegovina 162 128 125 Guatemala United 125 Japan Kingdom 120 Guatemala Moldova 129 Guatemala 103129 Guatemala Guatemala 134 Moldova Bosnia-Herzegovina 162 3. China, P.R. 282 Japan 120 Ethiopia 145 Guatemala 125 120 Japan 120 Kenya 115 Japan United Kingdom 129 Ethiopia Kingdom 100129 Ethiopia Japan 126 United Ethiopia 145 Kenya 115 Guatemala 134 Japan 120 115 Kenya 115 Uzbekistan 102 Kenya Romania 128 Romania 128 Cuba 116 Guatemala 134 Uzbekistan 102 Japan 126 Kenya 115 * 2005, Orange Revolution Uzbekistan 102 Uzbekistan 102 Taiwan 107 107 Germany 108 Taiwan Japan 126 Cuba 116 Uzbekistan 102 in the Ukraine. 2008 Residency 2008 Naturalizations Cuba 116 2008 Residency 2008 Naturalizations Germany 108 2008 Residency 2008 Naturalizations 2008 Residency 2008 Naturalizations Germany 108 2008 Residency 2008 Naturalizations Portland, Beaverton, Van. Portland, Beaverton, Van. Mexico 1,110 Mexico 1,231 Mexico 1,110 Mexico 1,231 1,110 Mexico 1,231 Mexico 1,110 Mexico 1,231 Vietnam 668 Mexico Vietnam 709 Data Analysis 2008: Vietnam 668 Vietnam 709 Mexico 1,110 Mexico 1,231 2004 Residency 2004 Naturalizations Vietnam 668 Vietnam 709 Vietnam 668 Vietnam 709 China, People's Republic 634 Ukraine 655 China, People's Republic 634 Ukraine 655 Vietnam 668 709 People'sVietnam Republic Ukraine 655 China, People's Republic 634 Ukraine 655634 Ukraine 595 China, China, People's Republic 497 Ukraine 595 China, People's Republic 497 China, 634 Ukraine 655 Mexico 1,042 Vietnam 434 China,Residency: People's Republic 497 Ukraine 595 China, People's Republic 497595 India People's Republic 371 Ukraine India 416 India 371 India 416 Ukraine 595 China, People's Republic 497 1. Mexico, 1,110 Ukraine 858 Ukraine 290 India 416 India 371 India 416371 Philippines 282 India Russia 387 Data Analysis 2004: Philippines 282 Russia 387 371 India 416 Vietnam 591 China, People's Republic 240 Russia2. Vietnam, 668 387 Philippines India 282 Russia 387282 Russia 266 Philippines Philippines 385 Russia 266 Philippines 385 Philippines 282 387 China, People's Republic 485 Mexico 240 Philippines 385 Korea 11 Russia 266 Philippines Russia 385266 Cuba 203 Russia 204 3. China, P.R. 634 Residency: Korea Cuba 203 204 Russia 266 Philippines 385 Korea 1 Korea 1 India 485 Russia 213 204 Cuba 203 204203 Canada 183 Cuba Canada 170 1. Mexico, 1,042 Canada 183 Canada 170 Korea 1 Cuba 203 204 Russia 298 Bosnia-Herzegovina 168 Canada 170 Canada 183 Canada 170183 Uzbekistan 181 Canada Romania 159 Citizenship: 2. Ukraine, 858 Uzbekistan 181 Romania 159 183 Canada 170 Philippines 258 Romania 167 Romania 159 Korea11 Uzbekistan Canada 181 Romania 159181 178 Uzbekistan United Kingdom 139 1. Mexico, 1,231 Korea 1 178 United Kingdom 139 1 3. Vietnam, 591 Uzbekistan 181 Romania 159 Korea Korea Canada 173 Philippines 160 United Kingdom 139 178 United Kingdom 139178 Guatemala 166 Soviet Union, former 134 1 2. Vietnam, 709 Guatemala 166 Soviet Union, former 134 178 139 Moldova 166 India 157 Soviet Union, former 134 Guatemala Korea 166 Soviet Union,United formerKingdom 134166 Somalia 165 Guatemala Bosnia-Herzegovina 125 3. Ukraine, 655 Somalia 165 Bosnia-Herzegovina 125 Citizenship: Guatemala 166 Soviet 134 Romania 162 Korea 141 Bosnia-Herzegovina 125 Somalia 165 Bosnia-Herzegovina 125165 Ethiopia 151 Somalia Laos Union, former 125 Ethiopia 151 Laos 125 Somalia 165 Bosnia-Herzegovina 125 1. Vietnam, 434 Korea 152 Laos 125 Ethiopia 151 Laos 125151 Iran 130 Ethiopia Iran 107 Iran 130 Iran 107 Ethiopia 151 Laos 125 2. Ukraine, 290 Ethiopia 127 Iran 107 Iran 130 Iran 107130 Moldova 129 Iran Guatemala 103 Moldova 129 Guatemala 103 Iran 130 Iran 107 Cuba 117 Moldova 129 Guatemala 103 Moldova 129 103 3. China, P.R. 240 United Kingdom 129 Guatemala Ethiopia 100 United Kingdom 129 Ethiopia 100 Moldova 129 103 United Kingdom 110 KingdomGuatemala Ethiopia 100 United Kingdom 129 Ethiopia 100129 Romania 128 United Romania 128 United 129 Ethiopia 100 Japan 107 128 Romania 128 TaiwanKingdom 107 Romania Taiwan 107 Romania 128 Taiwan Bosnia-Herzegovina 104 107 Taiwan 107 Taiwan 107 Guatemala 101

Based on Origin of Birth Portland, Beaverton and Vancouver, WA | Countries with more than 100 residents / naturalizations

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

Portland, Beaverton, Van.

470 366 352 329 283 234 215 127 124 110 80

555 416 402 363 285 238 212 133 128 104

1,231 709 655 497 416 387 385 204 170 159 139 134 125 125 107 103 100

5.0 Immigration Research for Metro Portland In order to understand who would be using the center for immigration, Immigration Data from the Department of Homeland Security. A data table was created to showcase the countries which had the largest populations acquiring permanent US residency for US citizenship in the Portland, Beaverton, Vancouver, WA metro Area. This data which spanned seven years identified seven countries as the primary foreign-born cultures represented by this study. In order they are: Mexico, the Ukraine, Vietnam, China, India, the Philippines and Russia.

left: Immigrations Research based on Place of Birth, self-compiled from the Department of Homeland Security, ranging from 2004-2010.

The knowledge that proved Portland to have a very diverse foreign population was limited to numerical means, having no geographical index to display where the cultures reside in the Portland metro area. To strengthen the argument for the ICE to remain in a central, transportation rich location a second exploration of mapping where these cultures lived was undertaken. Having no precedent for how to construct these maps, the Population Research Institute at Portland State was contacted. Through communications, data from the US Census Bureau was compiled from foreign born population

research compiled from 2005-2009. The census data contained census tract geographies to locate where the information was gained. Three countries were mapped for this study from the seven mentioned previously, they are: Mexico, Russia and the Philippines. The ten highest census tract locations by population for these countries was mapped by selfconnecting several census tracts and layering them over a map of the metro Portland Area, including Multnomah, Washington, Clark and Clackamas counties. These three maps alone confirmed the understanding that the largest foreignborn populations do not exist close to downtown Portland but along its outer boundaries. These studies substantiated the need for a central, transit rich ICE office, as the US Custom House would be connecting population networks living on opposite ends of the Metro Portland area.

Mexico 2005-2009 Foreign-Born Population Excluding Population Born At Sea: Americas; Latin America; Central America; Mexico (Estimate) Geography Identifier 41067032403 41067032002 41067032902 41067032500 41051009604 41067031300 41067031005 41051010406 41005022903 41005022201

Geography

Census Tract 324.03, Washington County, Oregon Census Tract 320.02, Washington County, Oregon Census Tract 329.02, Washington County, Oregon Census Tract 325, Washington County, Oregon Census Tract 96.04, Multnomah County, Oregon Census Tract 313, Washington County, Oregon Census Tract 310.05, Washington County, Oregon Census Tract 104.06, Multnomah County, Oregon Census Tract 229.03, Clackamas County, Oregon Census Tract 222.01, Clackamas County, Oregon

Population 2745 2522 2153 1383 1362 1268 1218 1209 1115 964

Russia 2005-2009 Foreign-Born Population Excluding Population Born At Sea: Europe; Eastern Europe; Russia (Estimate) Geography Identifier 53011040706 53011040405 53011040804 41051009102 41051008202 53011041105 53011041314 41051008901 53011041316 41051008301

Geography

Census Tract 407.06, Clark County, Washington Census Tract 404.05, Clark County, Washington Census Tract 408.04, Clark County, Washington Census Tract 91.02, Multnomah County, Oregon Census Tract 82.02, Multnomah County, Oregon Census Tract 411.05, Clark County, Washington Census Tract 413.14, Clark County, Washington Census Tract 89.01, Multnomah County, Oregon Census Tract 413.16, Clark County, Washington Census Tract 83.01, Multnomah County, Oregon

Population 367 338 294 275 253 242 222 218 201 200

the Philippines 2005-2009 Foreign-Born Population Excluding Population Born At Sea: Asia; South Eastern Asia; Philippines (Estimate) Geography Identifier 41067032406 41067031609 41005022204 41005022203 53011041315 53011041700 41067031610 53011041314 41005023300 41005022103

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

Geography

Census Tract 324.06, Washington County, Oregon Census Tract 316.09, Washington County, Oregon Census Tract 222.04, Clackamas County, Oregon Census Tract 222.03, Clackamas County, Oregon Census Tract 413.15, Clark County, Washington Census Tract 417, Clark County, Washington 166 Census Tract 316.10, Washington County, Oregon Census Tract 413.14, Clark County, Washington Census Tract 233, Clackamas County, Oregon 155 Census Tract 221.03, Clackamas County, Oregon

Population 257 185 183 176 173 163 163 149

2005-2009 Census Data, Maps Based On Year 2000 Census Tracts

PDX Metro Map:

5.1 Census Tract Maps Ten Most Populous Census Tracts based on: 2005-2009 Foreign-Born Populations Excluding Populations Born At Sea: Mexico, Russia and the Philippines

Including Multnomah, Washington, Clark and Clackamas Counties

Mexico

Russia

the Philippines

Office of Public Affairs U.S. Department of Homeland Security

FACT SHEET

August 12, 2010

A Day in the Life of ICE Enforcement and

Removal Operations

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the largest investigative agency in the Department of Homeland Security. ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) directorate is responsible for the agency’s efforts to enforce the nation’s immigration laws in a fair and effective manner.

Each day, ERO employees work to uphold the agency’s mission by ensuring the removal of aliens who pose a threat to national security or public safety through fair and effective immigration law enforcement. ERO’s mission is broad and requires a diverse workforce made up of law enforcement officers, medical professionals, administrative specialists and many others to ensure the success of that mission. On an average day (based on a 365-day year) in early 2010:  ERO managed six Service Processing Centers, oversaw seven contract detention facilities, and housed aliens in over 240 facilities under intergovernmental service agreements. The average length of stay in a ERO detention facility was approximately 32 days.  ERO housed an average of 29,343 illegal aliens in these various facilities nationwide.  ERO personnel managed over 1.64 million aliens in the various stages of immigration removal proceedings.  ERO processed 1,051 aliens into detention centers. The intake process includes an initial health care screening that is completed within 12 hours of arrival at the facility. This is followed by a comprehensive health assessment that includes a physical examination and the completion of a detailed medical history within 14 days of arrival.  ERO health care professionals conducted approximately 677 intake health care screenings in facilities staffed by ERO health care providers.  ERO facilitated 295 physical examinations and 80 dental examinations.  Health care professionals conducted 303 chronic disease interventions and 144 mental health interventions. Page 1 of 2

ICE is one of two federal agencies that are the successors of the US Customs Service..

Proposed New ICE offices at the South Waterfront (Image courtesy of the Oregonian)

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

www.ice.gov

Two Portland NonGovernmental Organizations aiding those in the process of immigration.

Flyer posted at the Portland Central City Concernâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Community Engagement Program, located on block from the Custom House on Davis Street, between 6th and Broadway.

5.2 Arousing Cultural Debate The contemporary research of Cultural Memory aided the selection process of the proposed agency for the US Custom House. Downtown Portland is no longer a port of trade; current operations for the Customs Border Patrol (CBP) are located at the Portland International Airport and the shipping ports of the Columbia River. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a federal government agency still exists in downtown Portland, and still has offices in the Old Federal Post Office Building, three blocks North of the US Custom House. The very same building the US Customs Services vacated the Custom House for in 1968.

ICE currently is seeking to consolidate its Portland offices to one central location, a currently planned as a 50,000 square foot federal compound in the South Waterfront District (opposite page). The current downtown location of the offices offer ease of access for those arriving to ICE via mass transportation such as by MAX or by bus. The South Waterfront is currently an isolated transit hub and does not connect the outer reaches of Portland, Beaverton, Gresham and Vancouver, WA well. Thus strengthening the argument for ICE to remain downtown in a central transit rich location.

The federal building that houses the current ICE offices

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

Image courtesy of Google

5.3 Using the Current Model to Inform a New One After visiting the current ICE offices in the Old Federal Post Office I decided that this center, acting with the mind-set of celebrating cultural diversity for its immigrations support services, would function much differently. A barricade blocks entrance to the ICE office at the Corner of NW Glisan and Broadway. One must enter the building next to a to a chain-link enclosed parking lot for government workers, located off of 8th avenue. In order to enter the building one must past through two-levels of screening, the first the physical screening, the second is being screened by the architectural experience. Similar to the traveling through an airport one must pass through inspection in order gain entrance through the building, proceeding through a metal detector and having my belongings x-rayed. I proceeded past the security guards to what I had thought was the ICE office on the ground floor. It was not until I spoke with an employee that I realized I was in the wrong place. I was in the United States Custom and Immigration Services office (USCIS). Remarking on the difference between the government entities, he stated that they (USCIS) were the “nice” guys. I was informed that the ICE office was actually located on the sixth floor of the building. Making my way back to main hall I made my way through the mass of the building to find a stair case to lead me up to the sixth floor. The only stair I found was an egress stair, I proceeded up to the sixth floor, making my way into a deserted dimly lit hallway.

A long narrow corridor was my only tool for finding the right office. I made my way up and down the hallway, not finding the right room number. By chance someone emerged out into the hallway and ws able to point me in the right direction. The office was tucked off the main corridor into a corner. A woman entered before me and told me to knock, the door to the office was pin-pad controlled. I knocked and a secretary cracked the door open and asked what she could help with. I stated that I was an architecture student studying the ICE organization for my Master’s thesis and I had some questions regarding the current facility in Portland. She looked confused and said she would be right back, closing the door. She returned, again only opening the door a crack, she asked for clarification on my question, still seeming confused, she asked me to wait one more moment. I took a seat at bank of chairs located just next to the door. A more official, older woman emerged from the office. As she exited I could see into the office, it was a small waiting room occupied my quiet, solemn people. The woman, an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officer, sat next to me. I posed a questions about clarifying the organizational differences between the Customs Border Patrol (CBP) and the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agencies. She elaborate on enforcement issues of customs law, and the role this current office played in processing peoples going through deportation.

the building. I told her that through my research I am trying to make the Custom House relevant again to Portland. She responded to me saying that I would have to prove to her that it was relevant. Leaving the building, I thought about the experience I had just had. Beginning with entering the building, being screened through a metal detector, ending up in the wrong office and not locating the correct office immediately after I was told where it was. This was way of the architecture screening the individual. What captured my attention most was the brief encounter I had with the ICE waiting room behind the door I had never made it through. The solemn looks on the faces of the individuals touched me, I could see that they were pained. Being affected probably by a loved one who was in the process of possibly becoming deported. This experience became a primary driver in the orchestration of the programmatic elements of cultural exchange that the new US Custom(S) House would be comprised of.

I told her about my thesis, and the US Custom House. She was familiar with

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

Designing a Center for Cultural Exchange 6.0 Programmatic and Schematic Design

With the research methodology aggressively acquired and tested, the next step that become evident was putting this information to work as a case for the government to extend its use of this building as a federal building. The US Customs Service no longer exists having been disbanded in 2003 under the Homeland Security act. The two potential client agencies that currently operate as the successor of the original parent organization are the: US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Operations: Inspection, border and ports of entry responsibilities. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Operations: Customs Law enforcement responsibilities.

6.1 Tenants Toward a New Architecture

3 MAIN GOALS: 1. Through architecture, promote an internal conversation between government and nongovernmental organizations. 2. Through people, promote an external conversation of the US Custom House by offering spaces and programs with-in the building that would bring the public into the immigration process, who normally have no connection with it. 3. Use Cultural Memory as the tool to inform where the current architecture must change in order to both respond to the original use of the building as well as its proposed evolutionary use.

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

To facilitate the immigration of people’s to the United States would be the new mission of the US Custom House, helping specifically the populations living in the greater Portland/Beaverton/ Vancouver,WA area.

to the Portland area would find itself on as an exchange component, providing an economic outlet for peoples immigrating to the United States, as well as teaching others how to make such goods and crafts.

The US Custom House would be composed of the modern day US Customs Service organization: ICE (Immigrations and Customs Enforcement), as well as a cooperative of Portland based Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) whose main goals would be to help guide individuals through the immigration process.

With the concept of cultural exchange through teaching, the US Custom House would become a place for the sharing of language. A language institute such as Berlitz would be incorporated to teach English, helping equip those immigrating such that they would have the language tools to personally understand the bureaucratic process of becoming a legal resident or citizen. In turn, this would become a venue for those very same people to teach others their native language. Language exchange would lead to the creation of a small publishing house, releasing the words of local foreign-born writers to express themselves in their native language, as well as English. A library would come to house the published works of the US Custom House as well as that of other foreign born American writers. The library would become a node in this series of language spaces where people would gather for the exchange of written as well as spoken word.

To support the idea of cultural exchange this center would maintain services such as a rotating exhibition space of foreign born artists as well as foreign based art practices. These spaces would take advantage of the location of the center to an already existing Arts neighborhood as well as art events such as the local “First Thursday.” A cultural kitchen would also be incorporated, celebrating the cultural implications food. Here people could share recipes and teach the public, in small groups, how to make traditional cuisine staples from their country of origin as well as culture. A fair trade store showcasing goods and artifacts from the countries immigrating

Early drawing for a canopy covered plaza through middle of the building

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

3 MAIN DESIGN GOALS: 1. Through architecture, promote an internal conversation between government and nongovernmental organizations. 2. Through people, promote an external conversation of the US Custom House by offering spaces and programs with-in the building that would bring the public into the immigration process, who normally have no connection with it. 3. Use Cultural Memory as the tool to inform where the current architecture must change in order to both respond to the original use of the building as well as its proposed evolutionary use.

6.2 Initial Design Work Alongside the completion of the Performances methodology initial studies into the architectural response were begun. In order to reinforce the 3 main design goals of both internal and external conversation as well as adhering to cultural memory as a design catalyst, removal of the buildings middle section, exposing the inner workings of the building, became a major design move that addressed all three goals. Removing the middle section of the Custom House would expose freestanding cast-iron stair, exposing the main circulation through the building. By exposing the grand stair, the steel construction system of the building would be brought to public attention (cultural memory), having ICE located in one wing and the NGO cooperative in the opposite would make the

stair an informal meeting space where workers from both entities would have opportunity for chance encounters, sparking discussion (internal conversation.) Lastly opening up the interior as a public avenue moving from Broadway to the park blocks would reorient the main entrance to the building, taking advantage of the busy thoroughfare of Broadway. The ground floor plaza running through the center of the building would not only become the entrance point for those who have business with the building but create a new public space as well, allowing workers from neighboring offices to take lunch there as well as provide an alternative to accessing the park blocks from Everett or Davis street. Drawing the public through the core of the U.S. immigrations process. 78

Sketches of the material response of the new facade system

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

Deciding where the original architecture would remain

6.3 Designing for the Neighborhood Reinforcing an external conversation among people in Portland of this center, a rotating art exhibition hall has been designed for first floor.

Art galleries line Davis street opposite the US Custom House

The US Custom House is located on the fringe of the Pearl District which plays host to the First Thursday open gallery night in Portland. Directly across Davis street is block full of art galleries: The Augen, Charles Froelick, and Blue Sky galleries, as well as the Museum of Contemporary Craft. In order to take advantage of this abundance of creative energy an entrance has been located on Davis Street directly across from the galleries. In holding to the design principle of cultural memory the existing fenestration became a point of departure for entrance doors to be located. Stairs would be located on the interior in order to maneuver the 7â&#x20AC;&#x2122;2â&#x20AC;? grade change between the side walk and first floor.

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

6.4 Layering of Building Program The layering of program within building is tied to the historic pattern of building use. The ground floor being that of warehouse space, which saw the incoming and outgoing goods, the second floor being that of office space, a cooperative of the ICE and NGO agencies, historically the US Customs Service worked directly with the Internal Revenue Service. As those in the immigration process furthered along they would find themself traveling higher and higher into the ICE wing, until finally they reached an outdoor roof terrace located above the third floor. Hovering over the public thoroughfare of Broadway Street this space is where applicants would be awarded their residency/citizenship to the United States, making public their achievement to the city of Portland. 84

6.5 Programmatic Layout

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

South East Corner: Broadway

South Side: Davis Street

South West Corner: Davis Street and 8th Avenue

North West Corner: Everett Street and 8th Avenue

The grand stair as the collecting point between two wings of the building

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

6.6 Breaking the Middle The large move to help facilitate these goals of an Internal and External conversation as well as ideas of cultural memory have been to remove the interior core of the building exposing the grand cast-iron stair. This would allow the historic pattern of movement through the building to be exposed as well as incorporate a new path of movement, through the middle of the building from Broadway to 8th avenue, and further onto the Park Blocks. In response to the current urban situation of the US Custom House the main entrance path would be oriented towards Broadway. Broadway being the

predominant public access avenue, along transit lines as well as being public and automotive oriented. The public program of the US Custom House would draw people to exchange on a daily basis: conversation, artifacts, and recipes would act as elements of an informal waiting room for the people in the process of establishing residency or citizenship here in Portland. Those in the process would wait to be met by here by their lawyer from the second floor, guided to the ICE wing to be meet with their ICE officer.

Broadway

Park Blocks

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

Using the architecture to inform arrival NORTH

US Custom House Broadway Esplanade

Planter Beds

To ICE Planter Beds

Seating

Entry Plaza Main Entry Ramp, to Immigration Resource Center

Storm Water Retention Fountain North

6.7 Schematic Design Investigations for the Central Plaza In recasting the entry sequence off of Broadway the design of the plaza through the middle of building had to elevate 7â&#x20AC;&#x2122;2â&#x20AC;? by the time one reached the base of the grand stair in order to meet with the floor level of the first floor. The Beaux-Arts plinth of the

original building was rethought in order to allow universal access to the building. A series of ramps lined by planters and storm water retention features. Key to influencing design decisions was thinking about human situations that

could occupy this space as more than a thoroughfare: ladies playing Mahjong, children celebrating a birthday party with a Pinata, were two such scenarios identified.

Broadway

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

(a)

US CUSTOM(S) HOUSE 7.0 Final Design Solution The Final design solution was a culmination of the intended design principles. Situations through the building led the way in the design process, transforming this place of memory into a house customs. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A woman arrives to the new Custom(s) House from Broadway via the MAX transit station on 6th avenue, proceeding up a series of ramps, to the 1st floor of the South Wing. She stops for a Chai tea, taking in a current exhibition of African art while she waits for her lawyer to meet her at the central meeting point, and walk with her to her meeting with her ICE officer.

(a) bringing the public into the process

Her lawyer arrives, the two depart and make their way to the grand stair. Their meeting will take place on the second floor of the North Wing adjacent to the

park blocks. As the woman ascends the risers she hears children cheering loudly, a small child is swinging a bat in circles after a purple horse pinata. A birthday party is taking place. She smiles. A relief from her anxiety as there has been difficulty with the processing of her legal residency, further documentation is needed. At the door of the North wing two are met by the same gentleman they have been working with for the past two months. He has been very helpful and considerate through the process. The three walk together along the glass lined corridor towards their meeting room, all looking back on to the courtyard and the birthday party taking place. â&#x20AC;&#x153; 92

NW 8th Avenue

This is a Place for Cultural Exchange

Exhibition Hall

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

US Custom(S) House

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Ground Floor

b a>

Broadway

I.C.E.

NORTH

7.1 Realization of Programmatic Elements in the Final Design The design principles of Internal and external conversation as well as physically manifesting cultural memory led to a programmatic driven by human situations throughout the building. Utilizing the information gained as to what an artifact representing culture could be, spaces designed for these exchanges design in the final solution are: South Wing:

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

(b) creating spaces for community gatherings

(b)

Institute (such as Berlitz) a foreign language institute housing a small book publisher as well as foreign language library were designed atop the third floor of the South wing of the Custom(S) House. People immigrating to the US with limited English could strengthen their language skills, while in turn teaching others their native language. This language institute would also supply translators for the immigrations process of necessary. North Wing:

First Floor: Cultural Kitchen

The Hive: First- Third Floors

Located in the Southeast corner of the 1st floor of the South wing, the kitchen element allows individuals to share a recipes from their cultural backgrounds and teach others how to make them. A large work table is the central feature of this space, banked by a â&#x20AC;&#x153;Pantry of the World,â&#x20AC;? a 15â&#x20AC;&#x2122; tall shelving system that stores ingredients from around the world. Just outside the doors of the kitchen is a coffee stand that sources its coffee from around the world as well as serving drinks such as jasmine pearl tea and masala chai.

The Hive is the main offices for the officers of ICE. Each officer has an individual glass enclosed office that comprises a three story tower suspended over the archives of the immigration documents, located in the basement. The gathering of offices and tectonic response offers a physical to transparency to the inner workings of ICE and the Immigrations Process.

Second Floor: Collective of Immigration Lawyers US Custom(S) House

Third Floor: Foreign Language

Aiding those in the process of immigration, lawyers have become the watch dogs of immigration services, ensuring those entering the facility are exposed to the proper channels and procedures. Their offices flank the north side of the South wing overlooking the central plaza. Their desks are incorporated into directional window walls, offering them multiple vantage points, ensuring the security of those below

(b)

Third Floor: US Census Bureau The US Census Bureau gains office space in this complex in order to take advantage of the demographic data available through this center of immigration. The data generated will help aid population research efforts in documenting the global migration of peoples.

7.2 Final Design Plans SITE PLAN

Everett Street

Davis Street

8th Avenue

Broadway

US Custom(S) House

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NORTH

FIRST FLOOR

Central Courtyard

(g)

(f)

(d)

(h)

(c)

Main Entrance Plaza, Fountains

(b)

Grand Stair

(c)

Rear Courtyard, Pinata Platform

South Wing

(b)

(i)

(a) (e)

(a)

(d)

Art Exhibition Hall, Meeting Point

(e)

Cultural Kitchen, Coffee Stand

(f)

Fair Trade Craft Store, Community Arts Work Space

(g)

Administration

North Wing

(j)

NORTH

(h)

Immigration Introduction Point (Operated by USICS)

(i)

The “Hive”: ICE Offices

(j)

Immigration Document Archives

SECOND FLOOR

South Wing

(a)

(e)

(h) (b)

(d)

(g)

Non-Governmental Organization Cooperative

(b)

Lawyer’s Offices

(c)

Conference and Classrooms

(d)

Administration

(e)

Conference

(f )

(a)

North Wing

(b) (c)

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

(f)

The “Hive”: ICE Offices

(g)

Client, Lawyer, ICE Officer Meeting Spaces (Sensitive Information)

(h)

Client, Lawyer, ICE Officer Meeting Spaces (routine)

(i)

ICE Assembly Meeting Space

(i)

NORTH

THIRD FLOOR

South Wing

(f)

(e)

(d)

(h)

(a)

Foreign Language Library

(b)

Language Instructor/ Translators Offices

(c)

Conference and Classrooms

(d)

Administration

(e)

Language Sharing Commons

(f)

Publishing House for InHouse Generated Materials

(g)

(a)

North Wing

(b) (c)

(i)

(g)

Client, Lawyer, ICE Officer Meeting Spaces (Sensitive Information)

(h)

The “Hive”: ICE Offices

(i)

ICE Assembly Meeting Space

NORTH

Initial Design Sketch for the Experience of the Fourth Floor Space

US Custom(S) House

Cultural Memory transfiguring Adaptive Reuse

FOURTH FLOOR

North Wing

Open to Below

(a)

(b)

(a)

Plaza Overlook Threshold

(b)

Overlook of the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Hiveâ&#x20AC;?

(c)

Confirmation Point

(d)

Final Meeting Room

Open to Below

(d) NORTH

The highest point in the US Custom(S) House is reserved for those individuals who are completing the immigration process. This is where there last meeting will take place, and final document are signed. Their families are invited to the process. From this point in the building one is publicly present above the Broadway thoroughfare and has can take advantage of a 360 degree of the architecture of the Custom(s) House, observing the entire process from the beginning to the end. 100

7.3 Cultural Memory Constructed Thesis Exhibition

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101

The final installation created for this thesis research culminated in a physical construction of the Cultural Memory of the US Custom House. Three layers of drawings were hung from a selfdesigned and self-constructed apparatus secured to the ceiling.

The outermost layer is holds the future design of the US Custom(s) House. The historic, thick perimeter walls have poche in order to reinforce the design move to open up the interior of the building as a public gathering space and thoroughfare.

The original drawings at 1/8â&#x20AC;?:1â&#x20AC;&#x2122; scale of the 1901 Custom House design were became the base layer, the originating story of the building layered over on transparency film are the current 2011 drawings of the Custom House, with its additions and deletions.

This final installation brought the design full circle, and through representation media was able to physically illustrate the concept of Cultural Memory as being not only by the history of the building but also its contemporary situation.

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Conclusion

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103

8.0 Conclusion By gaining knowledge of cultural memory our cities become places enriched by the narrative of the structures that make up dense urban fabric. The architecture becomes appreciated for its individual uniqueness, separated from being solely a commodity. Cultural Memory understood, the architecture of historic buildings can evolve into the modern version of their original use. These evolutions are an acknowledgment of their past, while proceeding into the future functioning as more than vestiges with untold stories, serving our American society in the here and now. What was once a building on the General Service Administrationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s disposal list has become a center where federal immigration services are supported by celebrating cultural diversity. A novel idea surrounding contemporary immigration policy that constantly appears to restrict border control, in an expanding global society, rather than welcome the opportunity for cultural exchange. This research began as a study of a 1901 Italian Renaissance Revival Federal building, left vacant, and has ended with a critique of how architecture could aid the immigration process in the United States. Aided by Cultural Memory as a research tool, one is able to delve into the individual architecture for an embodied answer as to how an under-valued structure could reemerge as relevant to its contemporary context.

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SOURCES CONSULTED 9.0 Bibliography

PRIMARY SOURCES: Print: Bastéa, Eleni.Memory and Architecture . Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2004. Print. Downing, Frances. Remembrance and the design of place . College Station, Tex: Texas A & M University Press, 2000. Print. Heath, Kingston Wm.. The patina of place: the cultural weathering of a New England industrial landscape. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2001. Print Nora, Pierre. From lieux de mémoire to realms of memory. In: Nora and Kritzman 1996: XV-XXIV. Schulz, Christian, and Gennaro Postiglione. Sverre Fehn: works, projects, writings, 1949-1996. New York: Monacelli Press, 1997. Print. Steele, Harvey. Hyas Tyee: the United States Customs Service in Oregon, 1848-1989. Washington, D.C.: Dept. of the Treasury, U.S. Customs Service, 1990. Print. Treib, Marc. Spatial recall: memory in architecture and landscape. New York: Routledge, 2009. Print. Zumthor, Peter. Thinking Architecture (Third Edition). 2nd Edition. ed. Basel: Birkhauser Architecture, 2006. Print. Journals/Periodicals: Assman, Jan, and John Czaplicka. “Collective Memory and Cultural Identity.” New German Critique 65 (1995): 125-133. JSTOR. Web. 31 Jan. 2011. Internet Sites: “About Property Disposal.” Real Property Utilization and Disposal. GSA, n.d. Web. 7 Feb. 2011. <https://extportal.pbs.gsa.gov:443/ResourceCenter/content/ aboutPropDisposal.do>. Libby, Brian. “Portland Architecture: Custom House once again up for grabs.” BRIAN LIBBY. N.p., 23 Sept. 2008. Web. 8 Jan. 2011. <http://chatterbox.typepad.com/ portlandarchitecture/2008/09/custom-house-once-again-up-for-grabs.html>. “Real Property Disposal.” GSA Home . N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Feb. 2011. <http://www.gsa. gov/portal/content/105035>.

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The Oregonian. “When holding cells do not a jail make | OregonLive.com.” Oregon

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Local News, Breaking News, Sports & Weather - OregonLive.com. N.p., 28 Jan. 2011. Web. 27 Feb. 2011. <http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2011/01/ when_holding_cells_do_not_a_ja.html>. “U.S. Custom House, Portland, OR .” GSA Home . GSA.gov, n.d. Web. 6 Jan. 2011. <http://www.gsa.gov/portal/ext/html/site/hb/category/25431/actionParameter/ exploreByBuilding/buildingId/350>.

SECONDARY SOURCES: Print:: Baltanás, José.Walking through Le Corbusier: a tour of his masterworks. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2006. Print. Botton, Alain. The Architecture of Happiness . New York: Vintage Books, 2008. Print . Cullen, Gordon. The concise townscape . New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1961. Print. Curtis, William J. R.. Modern architecture since 1900 . 3rd ed. London: Phaidon, 1996. Print. Darley, Gillian. John Soane: An Accidental Romantic. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000. Print. Dorrian, Mark, and Adrian Hawker. Metis: urban cartographies. London: Black Dog Pub., 2002. Print. Friedman, Alice T. American Glamour and the Evolution of Modern Architecture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010. Print. Foster, Norman. Rebuilding the Reichstag . Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook Press, 2000. Print. Gamez, Jose, 2. Critical Mass. 2004, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The University of North Carolina at Charlotte: College of Architecture, 2006. Print. Gravagnuolo, Benedetto. Adolf Loos. Theory and Works. London: Art Data, 1995. Print. Huxtable, Ada Louise. Kicked a building lately? . New York: Quadrangle/The New York Times Book Co., 1976. Print. Lapidus, Morris. Too Much Is Never Enough: The Autobiography of Morris Lapidus, Architect. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1996. Print.

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Nora, Pierre. From lieux de mémoire to realms of memory. In: Nora and Kritzman 1996: XV-XXIV. Print. Pallasmaa, Juhani. The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses. 2Rev Ed ed. Chichester: Academy Press, 2005. Print. Petit, Emmanuel, Robert A.M. Stern, and Beatriz Colomina. Philip Johnson: the constancy of change. New Haven: Yale University Press, in ass. with the Yale University School of Architecture, 2009. Print. Ruskin, John. The Seven Lamps of Architecture . Boston: Dana Estea, 1946. Print. Journals/Periodicals: Aciman, Andre . “Shadow Cities by André Aciman | The New York Review of Books. “ Home | The New York Review of Books. New York Review of Books, 18 Dec. 1997. Web. 5 Jan. 2011. <http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1997/dec/18/ shadow-cities/>. Jacobs, Kerrie. Eye of the Beholder, Metropolis, 2010, September,54-58. Johnson, Philip. Whence and Whither: The Processional Element in Architecture. Perspecta. 1965. Vol. 9/10, 167-178. Retrieved, October 10, 2010, from http:// www.jstor.org/stable/1566915 Internet Sites: Unwin, Simon. “Architecture and emotion.” ScottishArchitecture.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2010. <www.scottisharchitecture.com/

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