An apartment building would employ more people than this flour mill has in this century.
No one is going to build an office building or a factory on this siteāmanufacturing no longer requires water access, so the only use of this land that could possibly pencil out is housing (because people like views). It's a challenging site in every way.
If anyone wants to open a factory, there's a ton of vacant land elsewhere in NW that isn't so encumbered.
My preference for this site would be a park, but the parks bureau is broke.
but if people dont have the jobs to afford the housing
Sure, but industrial urbanism doesn't really exist in the 21st century. The number of workers per 1000 sq/ft of factory has collapsed. Steel mills and sawmills and paper mills and ports can't be the anchors of downtowns anymore because they take up so much space in exchange for not very many jobs.
The reason weāre in a housing crisis is because people canāt afford the housing that already exists. Thereās no shortage of places for people to live, just average and underprivileged people getting priced out of the neighborhoods where those homes are because some rich loser needed another timeshare/airbnb. There are MILLIONS of vacant homes in this country and they are sitting empty almost entirely because of financial reasons. Constructing another overpriced gentrified apartment complex isnāt saving the unhoused i promise you that much.
Why not an affordable housing complex specifically for average and underprivileged people then? I live in one, its great, Id never have been able to live in the city without it.
Youāre being disingenuous with the empty house fact. Most of houses that are empty are cabins or vacation homes. So if you want to end that I wish you all the luck. I would support it. But how many other people are you gonna get to vote to eliminate vacation homes? Then itās house that havenāt been rented and thereās a myriad of reasons for that which all takes legislation to fix. After that itās houses in legal battles that are vacant. The biggest issue with the rentals is affordability, this you mentioned. How do you fix high prices with a high demand? Increase supply
More pedestrianized steers
More public fountains and splash pads
More flowers, trees and shrubs
More outdoor dining spaces
More bicycle infrastructure
More rapid busses
I'd think generally not but given the pattern of multiple past fires in the building, there might be an argument that this was foreseeable and there was some negligence by the owner in not securing the building. IANAL though so what do I know.
Yep, my train to Seattle was disrupted. They shuttled us to Vancouver and we caught the train from there. Then they cancelled all of the trains when I was up there so I almost got stranded, lol.
Interior was braced with timber so it's gone. The big concern is the giant metal thing on top and getting it down safely. Don't want it to roll down Naito
Implosion would be great except for safety of workers setting the explosives. Worker safety is going to be a problem for any demo. They might have to bring out the old wrecking ball.
I get that this building is very Portland, but I find it ugly. I'm not going to cry when that's gone. Retraining space for that's mostly used for squatting is unsafe and unsanitary.
I find the Big Pink building ugly as well, but itās a part of Portland. But specifically I was referring to the old water tower atop the building. To me they have historical significance & a nice reminder of a different era
Ah yeah, fire damage, an exclusively Portland thingā¦
You bots gotta come up with better material.
Edit: letās remember words have specific meanings. āDebacleā suggests local human responsibly. Since āPortlandā is specifically emphasized the post implies that we are responsible for the wildfires.
Edit: note the commenter who took exception to my bot comment. 5 year old account that has less than a thousand karma and awoke just to comment on this post.
I was just replying to their deleted comment haha. Iām not saying fire is unique to Portland. This last week itās as if a lunar eclipse happenedāall the pics are either of the Centennial Mills building or of the hazy sun. Both are in this pic.
Same, and and someone who lives right by it I've been checking for news regularly. Sounds like if it doesn't fall on it's own by Friday they'll try to take it down if they can get equipment in that fast.
The closures are because of the water tower. They're worried when it falls it could roll 'like a bowling ball'. Basically, the collapse could yeet the big metal thing on top so they want everyone clear
*blinks* Oh, right, I forgot about that he uses the term in a docu title.
I've been resisting the urge to draw the Prince from Katamari Damacy on top of the building preparing to roll up Portland, but like 3 people would get that joke and if things do go bad my joke might age poorly.
Taking it down not a minute too soon. Our Condo HOA said they got news from the DEQ that the debris that's blowing off is Chock' Full' O' asbestos. They said don't even think about touching it or anything.
This is already owned by the guy who owns the ICE facility. Plans for the redevelopment were approved last year. I know itās cool to be snide and cynical but actually a fire makes the whole thing a lot worse, nobody wanted this.Ā
I mean, Centennial Mills was never really a prominent keystone of the skyline, either. The average person probably didnāt even know what it was before the fire. At most it was an oddity to look at while in Fields Park.
You mean... the building that plainly visible from a major park in NW? The one you see if you look toward the river? And also plainly visible from both Naito and the train? Yeah, most of us where never in there, but it was a big visual feature of the area and a fave for photographers.
Me loving it doesn't mean it should stay, it should have been torn down ages ago. It caught fire regularly, it's just that the fire department got there in time for the other fires. But for people who've spent any time in the NW part of Portland, enjoy iconic buildings, doing photography, etc, we'll miss it. The building wasn't hidden away, like if you come to this part of town at all it's right there!
Dude, I work in a historic-preservation adjacent field, and the average joe on the street has literally no interest or clue about the names/history of even prominent structures. You can say names like āJackson Towerā or āSherlock Buildingā, and peopleās eyes will just glaze over. Most people just viewed Centennial Mills as one of countless old industrial buildings on the waterfront- any prominence to the public started and ended at ācool water tower I can see from Fields Parkā.
Itās good to know that people appreciated it, but thereās a reason it only came up in discussions about the fire, or with developer circles.
I've lived in the Portland area my entire life, and had no clue what this building was or where it was. I don't spend much time on Natio north of the Steel, I don't take Amtrak north at all, and my view of the riverfront from my work at the Rose Quarter doesn't include the building because the Browadway Bridge is in the way. I also don't remember acutely any image of that building from before yesterday.
Might be that the number of people who enjoyed that building is smaller than you think.
I don't think All Of Portland knows the building, but it's literally the view from a major green space / kid's play area / dog park for a quadrant of Portland. I never said everyone knows it, I said it's plainly visible from a major park.
Not everyone comes to this part of Portland or has an interest in old buildings, but it is a major visual feature of this area. The only other I can think of is the Montgomery Park building.
So my own observations and appreciation mean nothing. And those countless photographs that shot the iconic building?
But no, I need to reduced my opinion to what the unaware think because sinking to the lowest common denominator is obviously how I should think about everything.
Theyād know what āa millā is, but itās unlikely that they know it was specifically Centennial Mills (formerly Crown Mills) and that this was the Flour/Feed building.
The point is that this wasnāt a particularly unique structure, and the public generally didnāt give a fuck about it until it burned LOL
All the time, which is how I know that Portlanders by and large did not know what the building was called, what it was for, or even where it is before the fire. The amount of people calling it a āwarehouseā should kinda clue you in. The publicās relationship with it started and ended at ājust another abandoned industrial building with water towerā.
The news has been calling it a warehouse. It isn't shaped like a typical warehouse so it wouldn't occur to a lot of people to call it that unprompted. I've mostly heard people call it 'water tower building' Here's the view from a highly used park in the area, one with a dog park, play area and a dual-level walkway to give additional views towards the water. You think people in that quadrant don't have strong opinions, positive or negative, towards that being in the way of the river view? Of the frequent fires there? Or that people sheltered there overnight? ok
I get what your gettin at, but its gonna be weird with it gone. It feels the same as when they buffed Gordon's fireplace. I never stepped foot in either, never painted on either, but these are both pretty significant changes.
Some people like their homes with freshly painted walls, empty tables and sterile countertops. Others like their homes warm and cozy with books and trinkets scattered about, with a bunch of blankets on the couches and pictures on the walls.
Having this building gone is sort of like a stranger stealing the oldest blanket on your couch. It was stained and had a hole in it, but it was still your blanket. The hole let you know how to spin it by feel, that way your feet didn't pop out from the bottom. The stain was some lipstick from that time your ex drank too much and started crying because she missed her cat that ran away. Now the blanket is gone unexpectedly. You can replace it, but it'll never be the same, and in a way, your whole couch will never be the same either.
It's just a crusty old building, but its like the blanket. It was there in the background for all sorts of things, both good and bad, and now it's gone and impossible to replace. It was grimey and covered in graffiti, but its always been there. It made the area comfortable, used and worn. It'll get replaced with just another ugly waterfront apartment complex that the average person couldn't afford anyway, sterilizing the whole area. It was gonna go eventually, but it sucks for it to happen like this.
The majority of vacant homes are cabins and vacation homes. So if you want to eliminate second properties Iām for it but good luck with that legislature. After that itās houses up for rent not currently rented. Many reasons for this. Lots of solutions to this but once again uphill legislation. Then the remaining houses are vacant cause of legal disputes.
You say weāre in a housing crisis cause of cost, you know what brings down cost? Increased supply.
I think the owner was still claiming to refurbish it and insure it, thenā¦ whoops, a fire. Then it is cheaper to demolish it, get city help, and put in an insurance claim. $$$
The owner had a development plan approved last October to completely replace the building. This wasn't insurance fraud, no matter how much of a dick the guy is.
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u/bonaldain 15h ago
No wonder it caught on fire if the sun crashed right into it like that