{"id":1103,"date":"2008-09-07T12:43:58","date_gmt":"2008-09-07T19:43:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=1103"},"modified":"2013-02-07T19:02:14","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T03:02:14","slug":"whither-bricks-and-mortar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/09\/07\/whither-bricks-and-mortar\/","title":{"rendered":"whither bricks and mortar?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in the boom years of the dot-com bubble, technology start-ups bloomed like weeds in a vacant lot.\u00c2\u00a0 They marketed premises, and sometimes only even just their names, and got tons of funding for just the idea of being something.\u00c2\u00a0 We all know what happened to 99% of those corporations.<\/p>\n

Here in Portland, we’ve got the opposite problem: we’ve got genuine cultural assets that you can see, hear, touch, and feel.\u00c2\u00a0 But there’s not bricks-and-mortar support from the community.\u00c2\u00a0 With the exception of the new Gerding Theater at the old Armory (for Portland Center Stage<\/a>), there has been no new, major, purpose-built cultural building proposed for the Portland area.<\/p>\n

Here’s a snippet from an article<\/a> about the Dallas area and its support for the orchestra and other cultural institutions that I found to be quite telling:<\/p>\n

The Dallas Arts District is expanding with two long-awaited new facilities, both designed by international “starchitects.” The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts’ Winspear Opera House, by London’s Foster and Partners, and the Wyly Theatre, by Rem Koolhaas and Joshua Prince-Ramus, are both due to open in fall 2009. A year later, a smaller City Performance Hall will round out a concentration of visual- and performing-arts facilities unmatched anywhere.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“There’s a demonstrated commitment to the arts and culture and quality of life,” Mr. Adams says of Dallas, “and it’s demonstrated in a physical sense in the Meyerson Symphony Center, where the DSO plays, being one of the finest concert halls in America. The new buildings next door are further evidence of that commitment. The idea of Dallas being a can-do city is not just PR.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s time for Portland to step up and support a major, purpose-built, new home for the Oregon Symphony, with a recital hall and management offices all under the same roof.\u00c2\u00a0 We can talk about how much of a great, visionary, progressive city we are, but until we have a showcase for our primary cultural assets, it’s all still just talk.<\/p>\n

And, coincidentally, here’s an article<\/a> from today’s Seattle Times, telling the story behind their spectacular Benaroya Hall, which began with an organization in dire financial straits, and with no readily perceivable sources of public financing.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in the boom years of the dot-com bubble, technology start-ups bloomed like weeds in a vacant lot.\u00c2\u00a0 They marketed premises, and sometimes only even just their names, and got tons of funding for just the idea of being something.\u00c2\u00a0 We all know what happened to 99% of those corporations. Here in Portland, we’ve got […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[103,115,71,25,2],"tags":[955,131,19,3662,3674],"class_list":["post-1103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fundraising","category-music","category-politics","category-portland","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-benaroya-hall","tag-concert-hall","tag-philanthropy","tag-portland","tag-seattle"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-hN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":427,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/09\/04\/journalism-101\/","url_meta":{"origin":1103,"position":0},"title":"journalism 101","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 4, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I was at my favorite coffee haunt today (Crema bakery+cafe) when I spied a stack of the free monthly PDXmagazine. I like it as an antidote to the slickly produced Portland Monthly, so I took a look at what was on offer. There was a section entitled \"Downtown Cultural District:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":506,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/10\/30\/world-class-portland-mutually-exclusive\/","url_meta":{"origin":1103,"position":1},"title":"world-class + portland (mutually exclusive?)","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I was involved in a discussion today that made me think about the unique nature of Portland and its problems of self-effacement and inferiority (much of which I've discussed elsewhere in this blog) - more specifically, does Portland need world-class institutions (maybe a better term of art might be \"top-rate\"?),\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":423,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/08\/25\/first-concert-of-the-season\/","url_meta":{"origin":1103,"position":2},"title":"first concert of the season","author":"Charles Noble","date":"August 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"We had a great first concert of the year - the weather was great, if a bit chilly and windy - and there was a terrific turnout at the Oregon Symphony's neighborhood concert in Arbor Lodge Park in north Portland. I'm horrible at estimating the size of crowds, so I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7125,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/12\/09\/st-paul-expands-existing-hall-for-orchestra\/","url_meta":{"origin":1103,"position":3},"title":"st. paul expands existing hall for orchestra","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 9, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The situation in St. Paul, MN reminds me of the scheduling problems with the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall here in Portland. I wonder what the economic impact of an added concert hall in downtown Portland would be. By providing a new home for the SPCO, the renovation will free up\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2229,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/03\/24\/how-much-orchestra-can-portland-afford\/","url_meta":{"origin":1103,"position":4},"title":"how much orchestra can portland afford?","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Can Portland afford the Oregon Symphony as it currently exists? There - that's the elephant in the room.\u00c2\u00a0 The question that is probably on everyone's lips who has a real stake in keeping the Oregon Symphony a vital and powerful force in the cultural scene of Oregon and the Pacific\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "fundraising"","block_context":{"text":"fundraising","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/fundraising\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17820,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2020\/03\/11\/coronavirus-hits-nw-arts-hard\/","url_meta":{"origin":1103,"position":5},"title":"coronavirus hits NW arts hard","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 11, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I will update this page throughout the coming days as I learn of additional postponements or cancellations. Running list of Portland-area cancellations and postponements. UPDATE: 3\/14\/20 10:00AM Basically, everything is canceled, and if it isn't, it's being live streamed. UPDATE: 12:13AM Oregon Governor Kate Brown announces all schools will close\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1103\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}