The Leftbank projects is, in their words, “the pairing of a building and a vision: the commercial development of a Portland landmark with a community of mission-driven tenants.” It is my understanding that the building was destined for demolition and re-development. Previous to Leftbank, it was a manufacturing building for many years. I can only imagine that over time, the building fell into disrepair. For the past ten years, it has been boarded up, a target for squatters and taggers. Leftbank changed all that. They went in and — aside from cleaning it up and obviously making it a safe and stable building — they reclaimed some of its storied past.
The main room pictured here is huge with 20′ ceilings and amazing plaster work. From the looks of it, this is all original, probably covered up over time by dropped ceilings or wallpaper. The restoration is amazing. Throughout the building, you can see that the design was to reuse, recycle and preserve. Exposed recycled beams, refinished wood floors, original windows repaired and re-used. I bet the contractor and the Rebuilding Center are good friends by now. On the second floor, the arched windows everyone sees driving by have been fully restored. Oh to have that room.
The building is one of the last remaining buildings from Portland’s Black Jazz history. The Dude Ranch, a jazz club that saw many of the greats perform, used to reside in the building back in the heyday of this neighborhood. Most of that period was bulldozed to build the Memorial Coliseum. Talking with a Leftbank associate, she informed me that the Dude Ranch was actually on all three floors throughout its history. It kept getting busted by the Portland Police for interracial mingling, so they would move from the first floor to the second floor and re-open. Then to the third floor. I wonder if they ever got to the roof. I did…
The highlights of the night for me were A) the building itself and B) Upright Brewing. I’m a sucker for old buildings and old architecture and reclaimed anything. Put a 30yr old beam in front of me and I’ll see a garden structure waiting to be build. Upright Brewing is Portland’s newest brewery and are housed in the basement. Currently, you can find them on tap at a few locales in Portland. They are specializing in traditional Belgian style beers, so keep an eye out for them, they are playing in an area of brewing not many brewers are willing to go. There are rogue bacteria and yeast at play in that there basement. And their beer is pretty darn tasty.
So great to see an old venerable Portland building reclaimed and reused for something other than condos. I’m thankful for being invited. If you’re down there, drop on by. There is a cafe and the brewery will offer you tastings…all you have to do is ask. Also, there are space left available for lease if you are looking. Such a great location.
Here’s a shot of the building prior to Leftbank doing their magic. As you can see, it needed some TLC:
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Upright Brewing was excellent. They rye beer was really tasty and the Farm House was delicious.
http://pdxstump.com/site/Upright_Brewing/fb948ccfe5399499ac2caaf1
Other things of interesting….
Portland Farmers Market offices are now housed in Leftbank
Justin Gorman designed the directory at the main entrance as well as all the sub directories on each of the floors.
The cafe on the first floor serves Stumptown coffee as well as taps with Upright Brewing, Roots, a Lompoc that was brewed at 5th Quadrant and some other local I can’t recall. The Upright Brewers made comment that the tap list was hyper-local with everything being within a couple miles.
Fun times.
What about the roof, where we did not go. There was no climbing up wooden ladders to the roof.
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