This was a fun post, albeit scary in the beginning. I also loved the video of the smoosh race. You know, teamwork and testosterone are what get it done. I'll bet those guys were buddies in the military.
Oh, and the brutalism. Santa Cruz, CA has a county admin building that is brutalism. In fact, my husband, Jeff, used to refer to it as "early Brutalism." It hadn't yet received the refinement and styling usually acquired over time. Oh wait! Brutalism doesn't do that. Anyway, the lower part of the building was on the flood plain along the river and, gosh, flooded in 1982, taking the emergency dispatch center with it. Fran, this is government at its finest. I'll bet they saved the taxpayers a few hundred bucks to built it THERE, but .....
Wow Fran - what an inspired post! I'm so sorry about the outage and cold! I LOVE that you finally told me the official style of Wurster ("wurst" in name is NOT a coincidence) is brutalism - hahhhh! I also never liked it. And the group-think of professors to fawn over it is classic. Did you ever hear the design is a cobra? with that front-top-poky-structure being the head and the rest the coiled body? Someone told me that in the 80s and it's always stuck with me, but I haven't heard it repeated much . .
That is terrible. I was just reading an Oregonian piece about people throughout Portland struggling due to power outages. Hope things improve soon. I wish I could help, but I’m 3000 miles away.
Thanks again, Fran, for sharing your ideas, images, and experiences with us.
Sometime in the mid nineteen-eighties, while riding the elevator in Wurster Hall at Cal, I saw this graffiti: "Bad, Worse, Wurster" Kind of summed the building up for me. Too much Brutalist architecture rejects the human scale and offers no congenial place for the activities of daily living.
I have friends who studied architecture at Cal and I've always felt somewhat sorry for the setting of their education.
The origins of the word "Brutalism" go back decades from the heyday of "Brutalist" architecture of the 1950s and 1960s to the Swiss/ French architect known as Le Corbusier who explored the tectonic expression of raw concrete (Béton Brut) in architecture. I loved visiting Marcel Breuer's UNESCO headquarters building in Paris as a kid; I think it influenced my decision to become an architect. It doesn't have to be ugly.
Raw kohlrabi is a satisfying addition to our winter salads. Grateful to have it in these lean months.
Thanks for the info! I went to the PSU library and checked out a book by Le Corbusier, “The Marseilles Block," and another about his work. I still have to explore them, but I like what he built.
I’m not sure Neuberger Hall was all that Brutalistic. Do you know of any other building in Portland that fit that label?
A better example of brutalism on the PSU campus is the parking structure on SW Mill Street between SW 6th and SW Broadway (where Green Zebra used to be).
I love kohlrabi. Ate it for the first time as a grade schooler at my friend Karen’s home. Her family grew it, we enjoyed it raw with salt. Hopefully you can boost its popularity. Your dino remark made me laugh out loud. Thank you for this post - I hope you are now warm and cozy.
Thanks, Jeff. It’s scary when you consider most folks here are frail. The average age is, like, 87. Although the figuring might have been skewed because we had one resident who was 107.
Water is still off, so I can’t cook in my room or do the dishes. The broken pipe is an old fixture, not made anymore. Not at the local Home Depot. Good luck formanagement finding a link to one on a holiday.
Re: "All my life, my self-worth has been tied up in being right, knowing the answer, fine-combing causes and effects. Nailing down the details." That's why I loved being a reporter and working at Intel and why, at 79, I still aggressively research and write for my blog, www.thinkingoregon.org. I get at most a few thousand readers of each post, which at one point discouraged me, until I recognized I was researching and writing for my own satisfaction.
That was a really long (and seemingly dangerous) time without heat and electricity. I'm glad you stayed warm enough -- I hope it's all on again now. (I see you noted to someone else you still don't have water.) You put your quilts to good use -- and it sounds like you enjoyed the altered pace of the days!
It's horrifying to think of you suspended in that chair for 34 hours. Did any of the staff check in on you and at least release the chair so you could function at all? When we visited my nephew, a quad in an electric chair, he asked me to push the power button on the chair before we left because it powered off if he doesn't move within a certain amount of time. The implications scared me to death. I hope you're safe and a lot warmer now.
Please, Sue, it wasn’t like that! I am mobile; I get around the apartment with a walker. I just ensconced myself in the chair (my recliner, not the power chair) with my blankets and quilts and had a series of delicious naps. Then I adjourned to my bedroom and slept under more quilts and blankets.
Still waiting on the water. Occasionally a staff member comes to dump a bucket of water in the toilet so it will flush. I would like to shower, though.
This was a fun post, albeit scary in the beginning. I also loved the video of the smoosh race. You know, teamwork and testosterone are what get it done. I'll bet those guys were buddies in the military.
Oh, and the brutalism. Santa Cruz, CA has a county admin building that is brutalism. In fact, my husband, Jeff, used to refer to it as "early Brutalism." It hadn't yet received the refinement and styling usually acquired over time. Oh wait! Brutalism doesn't do that. Anyway, the lower part of the building was on the flood plain along the river and, gosh, flooded in 1982, taking the emergency dispatch center with it. Fran, this is government at its finest. I'll bet they saved the taxpayers a few hundred bucks to built it THERE, but .....
Wow Fran - what an inspired post! I'm so sorry about the outage and cold! I LOVE that you finally told me the official style of Wurster ("wurst" in name is NOT a coincidence) is brutalism - hahhhh! I also never liked it. And the group-think of professors to fawn over it is classic. Did you ever hear the design is a cobra? with that front-top-poky-structure being the head and the rest the coiled body? Someone told me that in the 80s and it's always stuck with me, but I haven't heard it repeated much . .
Interesting, this cobra thing! Thanks for pointing that out.
That is terrible. I was just reading an Oregonian piece about people throughout Portland struggling due to power outages. Hope things improve soon. I wish I could help, but I’m 3000 miles away.
Thanks again, Fran, for sharing your ideas, images, and experiences with us.
Sometime in the mid nineteen-eighties, while riding the elevator in Wurster Hall at Cal, I saw this graffiti: "Bad, Worse, Wurster" Kind of summed the building up for me. Too much Brutalist architecture rejects the human scale and offers no congenial place for the activities of daily living.
I have friends who studied architecture at Cal and I've always felt somewhat sorry for the setting of their education.
The origins of the word "Brutalism" go back decades from the heyday of "Brutalist" architecture of the 1950s and 1960s to the Swiss/ French architect known as Le Corbusier who explored the tectonic expression of raw concrete (Béton Brut) in architecture. I loved visiting Marcel Breuer's UNESCO headquarters building in Paris as a kid; I think it influenced my decision to become an architect. It doesn't have to be ugly.
Raw kohlrabi is a satisfying addition to our winter salads. Grateful to have it in these lean months.
Take best care, J
Thanks for the info! I went to the PSU library and checked out a book by Le Corbusier, “The Marseilles Block," and another about his work. I still have to explore them, but I like what he built.
I’m not sure Neuberger Hall was all that Brutalistic. Do you know of any other building in Portland that fit that label?
A better example of brutalism on the PSU campus is the parking structure on SW Mill Street between SW 6th and SW Broadway (where Green Zebra used to be).
You are correct, and I did think of that. I decided to stick with structures that humans have to interact with beyond just parking their cars.
I love kohlrabi. Ate it for the first time as a grade schooler at my friend Karen’s home. Her family grew it, we enjoyed it raw with salt. Hopefully you can boost its popularity. Your dino remark made me laugh out loud. Thank you for this post - I hope you are now warm and cozy.
What an evocative story! You found an inspiring experience within the battle to stay warm.
Thanks, Jeff. It’s scary when you consider most folks here are frail. The average age is, like, 87. Although the figuring might have been skewed because we had one resident who was 107.
I understand the frailty. I have a raging cold ( thankfully not Covid) and I really don’t want to lose power in this ice storm heading our way!
Love the he Dino line! Also, so sorry to hear about the outage at RSM. Hope everyone is ok.
Water is still off, so I can’t cook in my room or do the dishes. The broken pipe is an old fixture, not made anymore. Not at the local Home Depot. Good luck formanagement finding a link to one on a holiday.
Re: "All my life, my self-worth has been tied up in being right, knowing the answer, fine-combing causes and effects. Nailing down the details." That's why I loved being a reporter and working at Intel and why, at 79, I still aggressively research and write for my blog, www.thinkingoregon.org. I get at most a few thousand readers of each post, which at one point discouraged me, until I recognized I was researching and writing for my own satisfaction.
That was a really long (and seemingly dangerous) time without heat and electricity. I'm glad you stayed warm enough -- I hope it's all on again now. (I see you noted to someone else you still don't have water.) You put your quilts to good use -- and it sounds like you enjoyed the altered pace of the days!
Got the water back after 48 hours. Now I appreciate it!
It's horrifying to think of you suspended in that chair for 34 hours. Did any of the staff check in on you and at least release the chair so you could function at all? When we visited my nephew, a quad in an electric chair, he asked me to push the power button on the chair before we left because it powered off if he doesn't move within a certain amount of time. The implications scared me to death. I hope you're safe and a lot warmer now.
Please, Sue, it wasn’t like that! I am mobile; I get around the apartment with a walker. I just ensconced myself in the chair (my recliner, not the power chair) with my blankets and quilts and had a series of delicious naps. Then I adjourned to my bedroom and slept under more quilts and blankets.
Still waiting on the water. Occasionally a staff member comes to dump a bucket of water in the toilet so it will flush. I would like to shower, though.
Sorry I misunderstood. And yes, a shower ... a HOT shower ... would be luxurious.