Synopses & Reviews
A graceful combination of eccentric and traditional architecture.
Portland, Oregon, is a city widely known for its civic planning, preservation of historic buildings, attractiveness, and inviting atmosphere.
Within the five-mile downtown district can be found skyscrapers, nineteenth-century cast-iron-front buildings, a riverfront park, old brick warehouses and breweries still in operation, a train station with a 150-foot clock tower, five bridges, and a rich assortment of museums, government buildings, and shops. With more than 250 entries, this comprehensive guide includes the following:
Pioneer Courthouse
Union Station
Chinese Classical Garden
U.S. Bancorp Tower
Historic Bridges
U.S. National Bank Building
Additional updates and expanded information can be found at: teleport.com/ kilm2/home.html
Review
"[The book is] witty, informative, and accurate. I suspect it will be in
print for a long time and a very useful addition to books on Oregon
architecture...your perceptive view of Portland architecture is fresh
and informative and you have my profound congratulations on a job well done." Wallace Kay Huntington
Review
"Take a tour of my favorite city with this guide in hand and learn about
Portland's architecture (the good and the bad), its history, its
personalities, and its beauty. Bart King has provided a comprehensive look
at Portland's architectural heritage." Vera Katz, Mayor, City of Portland
Review
"Don't be fooled by the title
An Architectural Guidebook to Portland.
While it is true that the book identifies designers...it is also true
that the text is rich in Portland history, anecdotes, and just plain
stories. As a bonus, teacher Bart King isn't afraid to wax downright poetic
when the mood strikes him.
This wonderful book discusses more than 250 sites throughout Portland....Its contents include descriptions of buildings and other structures, but
King never rests on that sort of information...
This book is a plethora of riches, an irresistible read and a fine guide to
many of Portland¹s unique buildings and areas. It is full of useful maps and
lots and lots and lots of black-and-white photographs by the author. The
photos are a treasure in-and-of themselves." Dan Hays, The Statesman Journal
Review
"How well do you know Portland? Here's a test: Do you know where the Rose
Festival crown is stored? Or what the "Made in Oregon" sign originally
advertised? Which Portland church was modeled after yogurt cups?
These are just a few of the quirkier facts found in An Architectural
Guidebook to Portland. Bart King's book is Architecture 101, but a little
more fun. It provides brief historical descriptions of approximately 250
Portland structures 'that have distinguished or disgraced themselves in some
interesting fashion.'
...for casual observers who have found themselves admiring the wide
variety of architectural styles abundant throughout the city, it offers the
perfect amount of interesting and enlightening information in a very
accessible format." Sarah Gianelli, The Oregonian
Review
"As author Bart King says in his introduction, this book is not a listing of
all or even most of Portland's buildings, but rather a collection of
buildings that have distinguished or disgraced themselves in some
interesting fashion.
And so it is that in the 310 pages that follow, we find the cracker box
designs of the Standard Insurance Center, the Security Pacific Building and
the Union Bank of California keeping company with the octagonal wooden
cupola atop Pioneer Courthouse, the rococo facade of the Hollywood Movie
Theater and the turret of the Queen Anne-style Johan Poulsen House, just as
they do in the city itself.
Some of the building descriptions are even more intriguing than their
accompanying black-and-white photos. Toni Stroud, Chicago Tribune
Review
"...As King's comprehensive survey of Portland architecture reveals, ours
is not a place for landmarks, but rather a fabric of smaller-scale new and
historically preserved projects that achieve collective harmony. It's not
flashy, but it works....take a stroll through Portland (either
literally or in King's book) and you'll find an array of small treasures
that might have fallen victim to the wrecking ball in other cities.
King not only examines the city's architecture, but provides the social
history behind it as well, such as the famous dialogue between Pietro
Belluschi and Frank Lloyd Wright that gave birth to the Art Museum....If
other cities have diamonds, we have a string of pearls." Brian Libby, Willamette Week