Director Park, downtown Portland, blue sky and clouds

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October 8, 2011, a Saturday. Walking around Director Park, I looked up at the glass canopy and decided to take this photograph. I liked how the blue sky and clouds looked beyond the various buildings north of the park. Especially pleasing to me is the Big Pink peeking at me over towards the right edge of the photo. I'm standing at a diagonal from it, near the corner of SW Yamhill Street and SW 9th Avenue.  Click here for  Director Park Commonly Asked Questions. Gosh, I like that phrase a whole lot more than FAQ.

The short-lived snag

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I know I promised this on Sunday, but I didn't feel very well all day--felt a chill, didn't even make it to my Northwest Film Center's Reel Music Festival documentary, THIS AIN’T NO MOUSE MUSIC!



I walked to the corner of SE Grand Avenue and East Burnside. When I stopped at the bus shelter, I immediately noticed that the Burnside Bridge was up. The snag. I'm on the east side of the Willamette, waiting for an eastbound bus which is coming from the other side of the Willamette River. I took this photo at 3:02 p.m. By 3:07, the bridge was closed and traffic appeared in the eastbound lanes. Naturally, I don't know the entire length of time that the bridge was open, just the span of time from when I saw it completely open until it was completely shut--I'd say five minutes is a short snag when something that huge is involved! Soon the bus came and I rode home. In another example a serendipitous positioning of structures in a photo, look at the line up here--the Big Pink, the Burnside Bridge's Italian Renaissance tower where sometimes there is an operator inside, and the open bridge structure. I'm a huge fan of serendipity!

I'll never forget the first time that I drove west on Burnside back when we lived in Northwest Portland. I was headed across the river, can't remember why now, but as I got closer to the bridge, my mind filled with confusion as I realized cars were stopped in front of me. Then I saw a big shape on the horizon and thought, "They're moving a house across the bridge. Nope! That's the bridge! It's up!" My first time ever to approach an open bridge in Portland. What a treat!

Here's information from the Multnomah County Web site about the Burnside Bridge:

One of four Willamette River crossings built in Portland during the "Roaring Twenties," the Burnside Bridge stands in age right behind the County's Hawthorne and Broadway bridges.

This 1926 structure is located on one of the longest and busiest streets in the Portland area. The five-lane Burnside is a direct connection between downtown Portland, Beaverton to the west and Gresham to the east. Last year, about 40,000 vehicles a day used it. So did more than 1,000 pedestrians and bicyclists each day.

In addition to its important daily work load, Burnside plays a key role during emergencies. Burnside Street and bridge are designated as an official emergency transportation route. The bridge, as part of this "lifeline corridor," is the one non-freeway river crossing which emergency vehicles and suppliers are asked to use.

Burnside's artistic side

The three-span Burnside is a historically significant structure. It is the only Willamette River bridge in Portland designed with the help of an architect, a result of the early 20th century City Beautiful Movement that called for adding architectural ornamentation to engineering designs. The bridge's distinctive Italian Renaissance towers reflect the trend. Burnside is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places and protected by preservation laws. Originally designed by the firm of Hedrick and Kremers, Burnside was completed by Gustav Lindenthal (1850-1935). Burnside's opening mechanism, or bascule, was designed by Joseph Strauss (1870-1938), whose Golden Gate suspension bridge would open 11 years after Burnside.

The Burnside Bridge main river structure consists of two 268-foot side span steel deck truss side spans and a 252-foot double-leaf Strauss trunnion bascule draw span. The bridge originally had six lanes of traffic, but in 1995 the City of Portland requested that bike lanes be added to the bridge, so one lane of traffic was converted into two bike lanes. There are sidewalks on both sides of the bridge. The overall width of the structure is 86 feet. Vertical clearance of the closed bascule span is adequate for the majority of river traffic, with openings necessary only about 40 times per month.

Only minor modifications have been made to the bridge since its construction. Electric street car rails were removed in the late 1940’s, lighting and traffic control devices were updated in the late 1950’s, automobile traffic gates were installed in 1971 and the bascule pier fenders were replaced in 1983. Several deck resurfacing projects and expansion joint repairs have also taken place.

The east approach to the bridge is approximately 849 feet long and has two distinct types of construction. The first eight spans consist of steel plate girder spans ranging from 75 feet to 106 feet in length. The steel girders and steel interior floor beams are completely encased in concrete. A concrete deck spans the floorbeams. The next seven spans are composed of concrete stringers spanning continuously over concrete columns and floorbeams. Six of these spans are 22 feet long and one is 40 feet long.

The west approach is approximately 604 feet long and consists of 19 reinforced concrete spans ranging in length from 22 feet to 62 feet. The first 13 spans average 22 feet and consist of reinforced concrete stringers acting continuously over concrete columns and floorbeams. The next three spans average 40 feet in length and are of similar construction. The last four spans are 62 feet long and consist of four main simple span concrete girders that carry interior concrete floor beams and stringers. A concrete deck is cast with the girders, stringers and floorbeams.

And a bit about a bascule bridge:

Bascule bridges have sections that rotate upward and away from the centerline of the river, providing clear passage for river traffic. Side-by-side on the Willamette River in downtown Portland, the Morrison and Burnside Bridges are two examples of bascule bridges. These two bascule type bridges have a very clean, uncluttered look to them because the counterweights and operating machinery are located out of sight in the piers supporting the bridge. The Morrison Bridge is a Chicago-type bascule bridge, and the Burnside Bridge is a Strauss-type bascule bridge.

Fall foliage and the Big Pink--can't get much better on a blue sky Saturday

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Last Saturday after my volunteer work at the Architectural Heritage Center was done, I walked north on SE Grand from SE Alder to East Burnside. My intention, to catch the next 12 or 19 bus home, struck a short-lived snag, but on the way I got to take this fall foliage, Big Pink, colorful Central Eastside Industrial District photo. Crossing SE Ash, I noticed that if I stood in just the right spot, I could make it seem that the Big Pink came up out of the corner of that vintage building painted a pale butter yellow. (I read something recently about plans to tear down the pale butter yellow building and put up some sort of taller building. I am not happy about that. I hope it doesn't happen.) Anyway, I check the traffic signals and the traffic, then stood in the street and took myself this photo. Success! By the way, the Big Pink is on the west side of the Willamette River, and I'm over on the east side taking this photo, almost a mile away! Come back Sunday for a photo or two of the short-lived snag.

April 10, the movement of pigeons and automobiles. Where have they gone?

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On January 26, 2013, I noticed the pigeons once again swirling above the intersection of NE MLK and East Burnside, at the west end of the used car lot. I've seen them off and on since I moved to Northeast Portland in January, 2011, flying in all directions at this intersection, sitting on the wires between utility poles and on the billboard above the mid-century roof of the used car lot. Once I had seen the pigeons being fed by a man as I stood at the bus/streetcar stop just a few steps to the right, out of this photo. On this particular day, I happened to discover that the man feeding them came out of the office at this used car lot. See several photos on this topic, below.
 

The evening of March 23, on my way home after the members' party at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center which is south of here, imagine my surprise when I saw this sight  from the bus shelter on East Burnside. No used cars beneath the roof, just a few left at the back edge of the lot, far from the street. When had someone moved the cars? Why? A quick Google revealed no online evidence of going out of business connected with this business. A mystery.
 

Here's a photo that I took on March 29, trying to capture the vast emptiness of the lot. I like that the Big Pink towers in the background, several blocks past the other end of the Burnside Bridge, less than a mile from where I stood to take this photo.



Back to the pigeons and their movement. The original billboard, pigeons perched, taken on January 26. 
 

The pigeons take flight because the man who feeds them has come out of the office and is walking west, to feed them across MLK, just south of the bus/streetcar shelter where I had seen once while I waited to transfer from one bus to the other. Can you see him? He's towards the bottom left corner of this closely cropped photo, smack dab between two poles. 



Once he's tossed all of the bird food onto the sidewalk, the man crosses the street and goes back to the office. The pigeons ignore his movement, way more interested in eating  than in following him. I suppose the actions of these pigeons prove that they are capable of learning. 
 

The original billboard, minus the pigeons along its top edge--they're over to the right on the utility wires. I bet they're wondering what's happened to the man who used to come out of that yellow structure with the blue roof, carrying an orange bucket of bird food for them. 



Another surprise. The new billboard, photographed on April 2. One pigeon perched.

Seen from the Portland Streetcar

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Since the streetcar has a dedicated lane for its tracks right beside the sidewalk, taking photos through its windows can result in some good shots, unless the reflection overpowers what you're trying to photograph. Luck was with me when I took this photo on Saturday, September 29, 2012, while riding east over the Broadway Bridge on the Portland Streetcar's Central Line. 

Notice the bicyclist in the lower left? Many Portlanders commute across Portland's bridges, the ones which have bicycle lanes and/or sidewalks and are open to more than vehicles. Lots of folks ride on the weekends, too. And don't think they only ride in blue sky weather. Nope. I see them riding in the rainy, cold days throughout winter.

For me, a highlight of this photo is the 1896 Union Station and its recently renovated roof--an article in The Oregonian identified the work as an upgrade, pointing out that it was the first one since the 1930s and that it was needed because of the roof's condition which meant that buckets could be found here and there inside the station, filling up with dripping rain. 

The Big Pink, the tall building to the right of center, stands within walking distance of the railroad station--seven blocks--or a short ride on the MAX Yellow Line which is the MAX line that I take from downtown to the Portland Trail Blazer home NBA basketball games at the Rose Garden Arena--the MAX Yellow Line crosses the Willamette River on the Steel Bridge which is south of the Broadway Bridge and just out of sight to the left of this photo.

The curving street is NW Broadway, until it crosses West Burnside at about the vanishing point of the pavement in this photo, then it becomes SW Broadway. Burnside divides Portland into north and south, while the Willamette divides it into east and west. 

On the right edge of the photo, the building you see a portion of is the main US Post Office for Portland. 

Northwest Hills, March 6, 2012

Deja vu? Sort of. Here's the same view as yesterday’s post. No snow. The Portland Oregon sign's not lit. Still, that bluish tint near the tops of the hills caught my eye, so I had to get my camera out and take a few shots. I am so blessed to have that camera with me in either my backpack or my purse. Blessed. Taking photos adds a large part to however sane I am at any given time.

Northwest Hills, March 1, 2012

I change from one bus to another at the intersection of SE MLK and SE Couch. I'm standing in Northeast Portland when I wait for that second bus. Often I look west across the Willamette River, towards the Big Pink and the venerable Portland Oregon neon sign. The Big Pink is south of West Burnside, so it is in Southwest Portland. The Portland Oregon sign is north of West Burnside, so it is in Northwest Portland.

This particular morning snow had fallen at the higher elevations. The wintry view enticed me to quickly get my camera out of my backpack and take a few photos. Would that I had had more time. Alas, the bus arrived. My responsibility--to get to work on time.

Big Pink, another modern piece of architecture which totally fascinates me.

I cannot remember the term used to describe what's going on with the building in the left corner, the Embassy Suites which started out as the Multnomah Hotel. I believe the same thing impacts the building (a parking garage maybe) which stands between the hotel and the Big Pink. You see, my simple goal as I stood facing west on SW 3rd Avenue on Saturday, February 18, 2012, was to enjoy the glory of that huge blue sky, a sight almost unseen during a Portland winter. Naturally I noticed the Big Pink. Had to take photos, just had to take photos, hoping to catch the sky and the building at their best.

Once I had downloaded the photos to iPhoto, I noticed a bit of serendipity--at first glance the alignment of some floors of the Big Pink seem to meet the building to its left in the photo, the one which I think is a parking garage. Makes it look like the two buildings are connected, doesn't it? Actually they rise on opposite sides of SW 5th Avenue.

Image altered at Picnik, Basic Effects, Sharpen and Color.

It's all in how you look at it.

Big Pink and a parking lot sign. The sign is on the southeast corner of SW Broadway and West Burnside. Big Pink is exactly one block east of the sign. I used the tilt feature of my camera so that I could take a satisfactory look from this unusual angle. I've cropped the photo and used the HDR-ish special effect at Picnik. By the way, Big Pink is either 536 or 546 feet tall and is the second tallest building in Portland. I found both heights on the Internet, so who knows. I do know I've been on the 30th floor, which is not the top floor, to the Portland City Grill. See views from the PCG here and here.

A few more views from on high

August 23, the afternoon found Milton, Kay and me in downtown Portland on the 30th floor of the Big Pink, at the Portland City Grill. After a snack and a drink, I stood up and walked from the bar to the dining room to take a few more photos.


Looking northeast across the Willamette River. The rust-colored bridge is the Broadway Bridge. The sweeping arched bridge is the Fremont Bridge. And in the foreground is the magnificent Union Station which is undergoing some sort of work on its exterior. I altered the photo in Picnik with the exposure and the sharpness tools.


Looking more north than east across the Pearl in the forefront and a sort of light industrial area that brackets the train tracks as the head north out of downtown Portland, not far from the river. See there in the distance where the hills meet the river? Two dark, upright shapes? Just to the left of the leftmost one, there's a dimmer upright shape. And between the two dark, upright shapes there is a dim shape that goes from the dimmer upright shape on to in between the two dark, upright shapes and parallel with the surface of the river. OK. The two dark, upright shapes are part of the Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge, a truss bridge with a vertical lift. The dimmer upright shape and the dim shape parallel with the river are part of the St. Johns Bridge, a photo of which is included in my September 19 post. When I rode the SP 4449 on July 3, we crossed the Willamette River using that railroad bridge. Milton and Kay crossed it as they entered Portland. I altered this photo with the HDR-ish effect and put a frame around it.


Looking straight down to the east at Voodoo Doughnuts' original location on the corner of SW 3rd Avenue and SW Ankeny Street. See the tiny people in line from the red truck, along the front of the building and ending almost beneath the pink sign? Those are a few people in line for doughnuts in the middle of the afternoon--that's the hold that Voodoo has on folks, some folks anyway; to tell you the truth there are usually a whole lot more people in line. And the small, almost school-bus-colored items side-by-side in SW Ankeny are actually wooden picnic tables, while the black and white spots farther on are actually umbrellas over additional picnic tables. Portland decided in late July to make this portion of SW Ankeny car-free, a sort of patio area. The bit of a bridge that you can see on the left is the Burnside Bridge. See the MAX train in the trees, about two thirds of the way up from the bottom of the photo? It's crossing alongside the Skidmore Fountain in what's known as Ankeny Plaza. All through those trees where the three cars are parked you'll find the Portland Saturday Market which continues to the white arches topped with bricks and across the street and beneath the rest of the trees. The gray area between the trees and the river is the sort of plaza just south of the rest of the Saturday Market.

Out and about with Milton and Kay, Tuesday, August 23

Up early, coffee and protein drink, and then to the bus for a ride north of the apartment to try out the Cadillac Cafe on NE Broadway. I found it on the Internet and thought it looked worth a shot, plus it was near a Goodwill that we didn't make on Monday, one we could walk to after brunch.


While we waited across the street from the Lloyd Center, a great big shopping center, to transfer to our third and final bus for the trip, this hard-working young woman road through the intersection on her Soup Cycle.


We boarded the bus, and on the way to NE Broadway, I took this photo of another busy bicyclist.

Here you see my glass of orange juice, Milton's omelette, and my breakfast. Kay got the same thing I did, but with fried eggs. I forgot to take a photo of her plate. I did get two photos of the Cadillac that has its own special space inside the cafe.



We walked to the Goodwill after we ate, then walked over to the Barnes & Noble at Lloyd Center so that Milton and Kay could look for a DVD, "Oregon Splendor," that they'd watched with friends at home. They wanted their own copy to take back to Mississippi with them. There was one copy of it in the store. On the way to Lloyd Center we walked by this sculpture, "In the Tree Tops" by Margarita Leon.


After we left the shopping center, we walked south to the MAX stop so that we could get on board and ride to catch MAX Yellow Line at the Rose Garden and then ride north to Lombard where we boarded a bus that we rode to St. Johns. We got off there and walked a couple of blocks so that we could see the St. Johns Bridge. It's a beautiful bridge.


Soon we retraced our route, bus back to MAX and got off downtown so that we could make our way to the 30th floor of the Big Pink and hopefully get to sit at the windows in the bar at the Portland City Grill where we planned to have something to drink and a little snack to tide us over until supper time. From the MAX car, I took this photo of an art car at a service station. It's a hoot!


Speaking of art, here is a photo of two of the cairns on NW 5th Avenue which are part of the public art that one finds here and there along the MAX lines. I took it from inside the MAX car.

Here's what the TriMet pamphlet has to say about the Cairns:

Christine Bourdette, Cairns, 2008 Silver ledgestone, NW 5th and 6th between Irving and Glisan
My inspiration for Cairns came from the man- made stacks of stones that have historically served as landmarks for navigation, memorials, rituals and commemorative markers all over the world. Travelers on cross-country hiking trails traditionally add stones to cairns as they pass, resulting in animated and sometimes precarious stacks of rocks and pebbles. This evidence of our comings and goings, often in rather comical human form, signify safety and reassurance in the wilderness. In the urban wilderness, finding one’s way through the various stages of hurry-up-and- wait is just as significant. I am fascinated with all the ways my fellow citizens and I learn how to navigate our surroundings. My specific intention for these stacked stone forms was to mark the path to the light rail stations as well as to celebrate points of arrival and departure.
Masonry: Cliff Townsend Masonry, Inc. Oregon City, OR

Oh, before I forget. We got a table at the windows. Come back tomorrow for the views!

Friday's photos for you

Our Secret Santa Pot Luck happened Friday at 12:30 p.m. I stuffed this small crockpot, the Kraft BBQ sauce, the Hillshire Farms Lit'l Smokies, and the plastic container of cookies into my large, water-repellent tote bag and carried them to work. All I brought home was about half of the cookies. Whooee, did we have the food! By the way, I didn't take the Wilton Holiday Cookie Set with me, although it is in the corner of the photo, behind the BBQ sauce. Another by the way, I can report that I made a tasty, popular choice with that Kraft Thick/n Spicy BBQ Sauce--I knew I had the minute I got to top off and started glug-glug-glugging it into the crock pot, on top of the cocktail wienies (my favorite name for those little goodies).

Right before I left the building, I took this photo of the intersection so that you could see that the snow continued to fall during the night, light accumulation in my neighborhood.

About 10:30 a.m., I noticed large flakes falling, so I knew I needed to try to get a photo or two. I mentioned what I found to WendyB, creative blogger who designs gorgeous jewelry, and she instantly named it for me, Split personality weather! See, it's snowing on the east side of the river and the sun is shining on the west side of the river--unreal. The flotsam-looking gray specks are actually snowflakes! You're looking west-northwest, with the Big Pink on the right end of the panorama of buildings.

Here are some proper-looking snowflakes, shot against the rock wall that separates the roof garden from the patio.

And here's that stretch of sidewalk, again, as of about 5:45 p.m. Friday. The big flakes didn't really accumulate around the city. But we have predicted as much as six inches in Portland, over the weekend. Six inches!

Fog on the Willamette

On the morning of Nov. 21, after I got off the bus and crossed the street, I overheard a couple of people in front of the building talking about something they'd seen. It didn't come through to me just what they were talking about, but I did hear, "KOIN Tower," so I knew it must have been either on the east side of the river or at least in an eastward direction. When I got upstairs and looked out the window, I saw immediately what had caught their eye--the fog sitting on the Willamette River. In my almost two and a half years here in Portland, I've never seen fog like this.

I went to the sixth floor to take some quick photos. You can really tell that the fog is on the east side of I-5 in this shot. I like how the fog follows the curve in the river, shorter at each side of the photo, taller in the middle.

This shot is directly south of the one above; you can see the upper and lower decks of the Marquam Bridge which carries I-5 across the Willamette River.

Look how the bridge disappears into the fog.

That's the KOIN Tower, the one with the point.KOIN is Channel 6, the local CBS affiliate.

This photo is to the north of the first one. The tall building is nicknamed The Big Pink.