Emerging Future
This week a group of local business people and government representatives took a little bus trip over the mountain to visit a North Portland neighborhood. The tour was guided by MicheleReeves who is an urban planning consultant. Reeves has given a couple of well attended talks in Astoria addressing downtown revitalization. In those talks she showed examples of the kind of redevelopment that has been successful in blending different kinds of uses in the same neighborhood to encourage a kind of symbiotic environment.
On this trip we visited the areas she had talked about and heard first-hand from the owners and business people just what kind of changes are being made and how what was once a less than desirable area of the city is emerging to become a more popular, vibrant community.
Mississippi Avenue was a collection of older homes and small warehouses and rundown buildings pinched between an industrial and residential district. Today it has a renewed sense of purpose and an increasing number of people throughout the city are coming to recognize Mississippi as a destination location for restaurants and unique shopping experiences. They have a ways to go before achieving what Astoria already has but at the same time provide valuable real-world lessons on things Astoria could embrace.
Re-purpose is a major theme. Building owners that invested in the idea of remodeling spaces to create store spaces with smaller floor space that a start up business can more easily afford to lease while at the same time creating open spaces that encourage the passerby to stop and linger. The use of color and the retention of interesting architectural features like exposed brick and exposed heavy beam construction married with renovations that keep a kind of industrial feel provide a design flow that is pleasing and upscale.
While there are several businesses doing well in the district now there are at least a couple of stand-outs that are worth a trip to see. The Rebuilding Center is an impressive operation. It is owned by a non-profit organization that takes advantage of the tons of building materials that would otherwise end up in a dump somewhere. They take just about anything you could think of when it comes to construction. I saw lots of windows from just about every era to reclaimed lumber and fixtures of every description. Only a small percentage is vintage but it's still an impressive collection of first quality. Nothing sits on the floor for very long. While we were there people were loading up items they had purchased while others were dropping off all in a fairly steady stream of activity. Shane Endicott is the founder of the operation. He was quite generous with his time explaining the philosophy that drives the business and he takes pride in the community connections including a very unusual entrance area that was built by people in the neighborhood. It resembles a forest. The materials are natural, or recycled and the area features curved seating areas and some unusual personal items tacked up in the trees. Those items came from the neighbors and were contributed as a way to memorialize a family member, or just to show a family's involvement in the neighborhood and the project. The building exterior is made entirely of recycled building materials and made to look more like row-houses than a warehouse.
The other business I would mention here is Mississippi Pizza. The owner wasn't a pizza guy when he started. Philip Stanton is a real estate guy who loved the old building. When it came on the market he bought it. he turned the second floor into apartments and got those rented but then came the first floor. He said he wasn't quite sure what to do with that at first. After attempts at commercial leasing failed he decided to take another approach and open small pizza place. After a great deal of trial and error he said he figured out how to make pizzas consistently and stopped losing money but he wasn't making any money until he fell on the idea of using part of the space for live music. Today Mississippi Pizza is the place to have lunch, go listen to music at the bar, or join in on the weekly bingo game. The decor is quirky and charming.
It was a very educational trip and certainly helped those who came along to more fully understand what might be possible here to create a revitalized downtown core for Astoria with the cooperation of both government and business. Now the question is: What will work for Astoria? What do we want to look like?
After 200 years, what will we be when we grow up?
This week a group of local business people and government representatives took a little bus trip over the mountain to visit a North Portland neighborhood. The tour was guided by MicheleReeves who is an urban planning consultant. Reeves has given a couple of well attended talks in Astoria addressing downtown revitalization. In those talks she showed examples of the kind of redevelopment that has been successful in blending different kinds of uses in the same neighborhood to encourage a kind of symbiotic environment.
On this trip we visited the areas she had talked about and heard first-hand from the owners and business people just what kind of changes are being made and how what was once a less than desirable area of the city is emerging to become a more popular, vibrant community.
Mississippi Avenue was a collection of older homes and small warehouses and rundown buildings pinched between an industrial and residential district. Today it has a renewed sense of purpose and an increasing number of people throughout the city are coming to recognize Mississippi as a destination location for restaurants and unique shopping experiences. They have a ways to go before achieving what Astoria already has but at the same time provide valuable real-world lessons on things Astoria could embrace.
Re-purpose is a major theme. Building owners that invested in the idea of remodeling spaces to create store spaces with smaller floor space that a start up business can more easily afford to lease while at the same time creating open spaces that encourage the passerby to stop and linger. The use of color and the retention of interesting architectural features like exposed brick and exposed heavy beam construction married with renovations that keep a kind of industrial feel provide a design flow that is pleasing and upscale.
While there are several businesses doing well in the district now there are at least a couple of stand-outs that are worth a trip to see. The Rebuilding Center is an impressive operation. It is owned by a non-profit organization that takes advantage of the tons of building materials that would otherwise end up in a dump somewhere. They take just about anything you could think of when it comes to construction. I saw lots of windows from just about every era to reclaimed lumber and fixtures of every description. Only a small percentage is vintage but it's still an impressive collection of first quality. Nothing sits on the floor for very long. While we were there people were loading up items they had purchased while others were dropping off all in a fairly steady stream of activity. Shane Endicott is the founder of the operation. He was quite generous with his time explaining the philosophy that drives the business and he takes pride in the community connections including a very unusual entrance area that was built by people in the neighborhood. It resembles a forest. The materials are natural, or recycled and the area features curved seating areas and some unusual personal items tacked up in the trees. Those items came from the neighbors and were contributed as a way to memorialize a family member, or just to show a family's involvement in the neighborhood and the project. The building exterior is made entirely of recycled building materials and made to look more like row-houses than a warehouse.
The other business I would mention here is Mississippi Pizza. The owner wasn't a pizza guy when he started. Philip Stanton is a real estate guy who loved the old building. When it came on the market he bought it. he turned the second floor into apartments and got those rented but then came the first floor. He said he wasn't quite sure what to do with that at first. After attempts at commercial leasing failed he decided to take another approach and open small pizza place. After a great deal of trial and error he said he figured out how to make pizzas consistently and stopped losing money but he wasn't making any money until he fell on the idea of using part of the space for live music. Today Mississippi Pizza is the place to have lunch, go listen to music at the bar, or join in on the weekly bingo game. The decor is quirky and charming.
It was a very educational trip and certainly helped those who came along to more fully understand what might be possible here to create a revitalized downtown core for Astoria with the cooperation of both government and business. Now the question is: What will work for Astoria? What do we want to look like?
After 200 years, what will we be when we grow up?
