In 2000 the
Portland Development Commission (PDC) purchased the four-acre Centennial Mills
site for $12 million. After two botched development
proposals, PDC’s return on investment is approaching “boondoggle.” The PDC has
paid out $550,000 to consultants after rejecting their plans. This loss is not insurmountable, but the loss
of trust just might be. Harsch Investment Properties (HIP), which prepared the latest
plan, was not allowed to gather public input. Jordan Schnitzer, who heads HIP,
finally shared the firm’s vision with a crowded gathering in the Pearl
District. The presentation was well
received, which only added to Schnitzer’s lament. “The city has lost its way,” he
concluded.
PDC once had
direction. In 2006, it funded a
six-month public process that set the framework to turn Centennial Mills into a
community focal point that captured history, embraced sustainability, complemented
nearby parks, and provided connections to the waterfront. http://www.pdc.us/Libraries/River_District/Centennial_Mills_Framework_Plan-Feb_07-2007_pdf.sflb.ashx HIP's plan effectively integrated these
points, but its $38 million subsidy was too much for PDC. Schnitzer, a
philanthropist rooted in the community, is not without hope. He proposed moving the Oregon Historical
Society to the site, an idea that foundations and corporations could support.
It also has precedent.
In
1944 after a scheme to develop Portland’s West Hills foundered, a Committee of 50
was formed to establish the “Forest Park” the Olmsted Brothers identified in
their 1903 park plan. Four years later, Forest Park opened to the public. Can history repeat itself?
Once again, the Olmsted Brothers offer guidance. They warned against confining creeks to “large underground
conduits at enormous expense” when they could provide “delightful local
pleasure grounds.” Tanner Creek suffered this fate and its outflow abuts
Centennial Mills. Schnitzer’s team
proposed restoring a portion of the riverine wetlands. Revitalizing nature would strike a synergy
with Tanner Springs Park, as its restored marsh recalls the natural
pre-engineered landscape.
Centennial Mills also has a rich cultural history. The mill
business established Portland. Lucrative wheat exports turned a frontier
settlement into a prosperous city, and this wealth procured a definitive civic
realm that was progressively expanded. Pioneer Courthouse, Olmsted parks, and the
city’s sustainable environs are the product, historian Carl Abbott writes, of a
“moralistic political culture that valued the public good over
individuals.”
Centennial
Mills should tell this story. It would
make the perfect bookend to Portland State, a center of civic education that
celebrates the past and envisions the future.
As the world becomes more urban, retrofitting abandoned industrial
properties is essential, and Centennial
Mills would be Portland’s exclamation mark.
Access
is the key. Plans exist to bridge the
railroad, and the structure, like New York City’s High Line, should provide pedestrians
with a visceral experience. In addition,
students could walk from Jamison Square to the Willamette River and learn how wetlands
were transformed into a rail yard and then an urban neighborhood, where wealth
and poverty co-exist. Despite its
reputation, 33%
of the Pearl District’s residents earn less than $25,000 annually (the city average
is 25%).
It’s time for a
public discussion. In the meantime, Mr. Schnitzer could secure a new Committee
of 50 to rescue a fading vision. Centennial
Mills is a test. Integrating parks and urbanism is not just about “business
prosperity,” the Olmsteds wrote, it measures a city’s “intelligence, degree of
civilization and progressiveness.”
For more on the Olmsteds in Portland see: http://www.pbs.org/wned/frederick-law-olmsted/learn-more/john-charles-olmsted-the-pacific-northwest/
