a sneak peek at the beginnings of the new northwest studio @ leftbank…
Tag Archive for 'the leftbank project'
yeah, that’s the Daily Journal of Commerce, sucka!
Leftbank has come a long, long way. After a good 30 months of attention, the building officially opened its doors a couple weeks back to much fanfare and hullabaloo. I’ve had the opportunity to do a bit of just about everything on the project, but one role unanticipated in the beginning is that of the ’sign guy’. It began last year with an unforgettable (though occasionally unreadable) leasing ‘installation’, and segued into building signage thereafter. One apparent success was the simple, white vinyl ‘leftbank’ above the door. More recently, the focus has been inside with a collaboration w/Justin Gorman for the super-hot directories and general directional signage. All told, it’s been a side show to the more demanding design, vision or dumb logistical aspects of the project, but a welcome one side show, for sure.
Of all of ‘em, I think I take the most pride in the signs I just made for the aforementioned opening… Signs intended to guide people through the building, giving them basic information about things that make leftbank unique, spaces that are available, and tenants already contributing to the community. It was an enjoyable project for two reasons: one is that it pulled from so many things I’ve been intimately involved with, a chance to recap and retell the story for folks unaware. The other is a bit more simple - it allowed me to get my hands dirty once again.
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
These signs are crafted from wood reclaimed from one of the past lives of the building. Placed in the lobby area of each floor, they feature floor plans for direction, and lists of tenants, spaces, and interesting points on the floor. The floor plans were printed 11×17 on bright white cardstock and spray mounted directly to the wood planks (which were planed, sanded, and treated with linseed oil). The other materials, however, are always subject to change - available spaces get leased, new tenants come in, etc - so they were designed to be changed easily. Formatted 8.5×5.5 (half a standard 8.5×11), this allows for anyone to type up a modified list and print it, cut it in half and then mount it. The mounting is achieved with magnets, which connect to ¾” #8 wood screws embedded in the wood. The signs are mounted with good ol baling wire - easy to use, cheap and elemental.
Graphically, the informational sheets were designed to reference the floor plan. Many points of interest have companion signs scattered throughout the building - their locations are marked with asterisks on the mounted floor plan (again, since they would never change). Knowing that tenants are subject to change or be added, the reference there is achieved with creating an ‘icon’ for each listed tenant, and then pinning a second corresponding icon directly onto the floor plan on the suite they are occupying.
There was also a welcome sign, hanging now in the main lobby - it uses the same vocabulary, but also has a portion dedicated to the mission of the Leftbank. This part was achieved with white vinyl lettering and an utterly painstaking application. Recalling the way we cut our teeth for a good month and a half just crafting the words articulated there, the tedium seemed justified.
here’s a link to a post I did on Leftbank’s site wrapping up the events that went down last year in the building…
We had quite a few, and it was a wicked good way to work — loads of people and interesting happenings– and while I’m no pro-blogger, I think this one was some of my best .. uh, …bloggin. There are a couple of groovy video clips in there, too, so even if you don’t want to read, check out the movies!!
a few kind words from Brian Libby’s Portlandarchitecture.org about the leftbank…
a commercial for TBA:08… starring our one and only Hazelwood building and the creative scheming of Mr. Justin Gorman. It was a riff on his recent work, results under action. Justin’s been documenting the evolution of the building for months now, and most of the interior shots you find on the leftbank site were framed by his eye and clicked by his finger. In preparation for Results Under Action, he executed several pieces within the building as well… (see bangbang). Anyway, enjoy the show… oh, and hey- dig me in the blue shirt, and jason in black in the back!
In the soggy Portland days of January 07, we got a tip. Someone came in to Someday one night, for some now-anonymous show, and liked what she saw. She was going to open a speakeasy on the other side of the river in some old, neglected (but beautiful and landmark) building over there. She asked the door lady, Ms.Mensen, about who made it and lo and behold, it was the guy who was in the back, fixing the toilet.
…I was reluctant to come out. The toilet needed attention. After 4 1/2 months of running a construction site that was a performance art bar by night, and nightly coming to the question: ’should I keep working, or should I…(insert art-bar distraction here)’ I had developed a somewhat regrettable ability to keep working. An hour later, after a third reminder from Mensen, I came out, grabbed a beer and said Hello.
That hello led ultimately to the aforementioned building, some saturday morning weeks later. There we found Maria, and a big guy named Daniel. Daniel turned out to be the owner of the building, which turned out to be enormous, and unbelievably rich in character. He wanted to heal it- it was on the tail end of about 30 years of neglect- and to make something meaningful there. And to make this story short, I’ll say this: the speakeasy gig didn’t work out for us, but the building did. And now, a year and a half later, it’s emerging from its long slumber with a new name and a reason to live. It’s called The Leftbank Project. Today marks the day its website goes live, and it’s quite lovely. It’s one thing of many that we’ve spent an enormous amount of time on up here, and I sincerely hope you check it out.
[from portland]