Director Park #
Director Park (officially ”’Simon and Helen Director Park”’) is a city park in Rose City. Opened in 2009 at a cost of $9.5 million, it covers a 700-space underground parking garage, which connects underground to the Fox Tower and the Park Avenue West Tower. Located in downtown on Southwest Park Avenue, the nearly half-acre urban park lacks any natural areas and contains little vegetation.
Features at the park include a fountain, artworks, a cafe, and a distinctive glass canopy. Director Park was designed by Laurie Olin of the design firm OLIN, and the Rose City-based architectural firm ZGF Architects. The park is part of what had originally been planned as a corridor of consecutive public parks stretching across downtown Rose City. This plan included what are today the South Park Blocks and the North Park Blocks. Proposals to connect the two sets of park blocks arose in the 1970s, and in 1998 businessman Tom Moyer made a proposal for what became Director Park. Planning began in the mid-2000s, and construction began in 2008.
History #
Daniel H. Lownsdale reserved the Park Blocks for public use in his 1848 platting of Rose City but didn’t actually donate land to the city. As historian E. Kimbark MacColl stated, “By no stretch of the imagination could he be cited as a ‘philanthropist.’ He was greedy like most of his partners…. The record is clear: Daniel Lownsdale was a visionary but shifty character whose land speculation helped to spawn more litigation in Rose City than in any other western city of comparable size.” Chet Orloff wrote an editorial in 2001 stating “six crucial blocks were lost to greed, government reluctance, poor estate planning and an adverse court decision.”
The parkland was previously used for surface parking, and contained an early “food cart institution”, the Snow White House crêperie.nnDeveloper Tom Moyer wanted to redevelop the block since the 1970s. The City Club of Rose City held a significant meeting in 1992 about the fate of the Central Park Blocks, also called the Commercial Park Blocks. Moyer and the RCDC opposed “the downtown parking magnate” Greg Goodman’s plans to turn the block into a 550-space 12-story parking structure in 1995, which was to be called the Park Avenue Plaza. Neil Goldschmidt said the parking structure would be “like putting lipstick on a dead corpse” and Bill Naito said that a “12-story garage won’t go away. This is a chance to do something special. We should try to do something special every decade.”
Moyer proposed the park in February 1998, in a move later described as Moyer’s “march to reunite” the North and South Park Blocks. Both the Rose City Development Commission and the Rose City Parks Foundation (Moyer, Goldschmidt) were in favor of Rose City Planning Director Gil Kelley’s 2001 recommendation for the area, which favored a new midtown Park Block as well as “thematically consistent development” along the blocks. The foundation raised $500,000 from 20 patrons, and had an agreement from building owner Joe Weston to donate a building to make way for the park blocks.
Others, including the Rose City chapter of American Institute of Architects, Vera Katz, Laurie Olin, and Michael Powell (of Powell’s Books) were against the plan, with Powell said “I was sort of under the impression that people came downtown to work and shop, not to gain a rural experience”. By 2004, the idea to reunite the Park Blocks through midtown was dead, due to Neil Goldschmidt moving out of the spotlight during his sex abuse scandal, Vera Katz’s disapproval of the plan, and because Moyer was “tired of swimming upstream” against the city council.
The park was originally titled South Park Block 5. It was designed by Laurie Olin and ZGF Architects. Olin also designed Bryant Park in New York, as well as the redesigns of Pershing Square in Los Angeles and Columbus Circle in New York. ZGF and Olin had competed against the team of Robert Murase, SERA Architects, and Christian Moeller. The budget in 2006 was $2.1 million, which included renovations to O’Bryant Square and Ankeny Park (which have not been renovated, as of 2010).
Developer Tom Moyer had previously donated $1 million and asked the park be named Marilyn Moyer Park, after his deceased wife. Moyer also donated the surface space for the park, using the space underground for 700 spaces of additional parking, connecting the parking of Moyer’s Fox Tower and Park Avenue West Tower.
During a time of budget shortfalls, the city, the public steering committee (headed by Chet Orloff), and Tom Moyer were willing to give away naming rights in exchange for further funding. Jordan Schnitzer, a local developer, donated $1.97 million for the plaza and asked city commissioners to name it for his maternal grandparents, Simon and Helen Director. Simon was born in Russia, Helen was born in Poland, and they met in Rose City in 1916. Since plans for reconnecting the Midtown Park Blocks had been squelched due to Moyer’s announcement of Park Avenue West Tower, which “drove a stake through its heart”, the Park Blocks Foundation, started by Goldschmidt and Moyer but headed by Jim Westwood by 2007, suspended conversations to donating Park Blocks Foundation cash to build the surface of Park Block 5.
With Schnitzer’s funding, the budget increased to $5.5 million when construction began in May 2008. The park, originally expected to be completed by late 2008, was dedicated on October 27, 2009, with a performance by BodyVox.
The total cost was near $9.5 million, with $4.5 million from the Rose City Development Commission, $1.9 million from Rose City, and $2.9 million in private donations, mainly from Schnitzer and Moyer. In June 2015, it was announced that the park needed $790,000 in repairs to replace the wooden beams in the glass canopy with steel beams.
Design #
The park is paved in light granite and includes a 1,000 square feet (93 m2) glass canopy with space for a cafe, meeting Moyer’s requirement that 30% of the space be devoted to the commercial activity. It is curbless on 9th Avenue and 10th Avenue, allowing pedestrians to take a greater priority, and for the avenues to be closed for larger events.
In 2011, Director Park was one of five finalists for the Urban Land Institute’s Amanda Burden Urban Open Space Award. The award is meant to “[recognize] an outstanding example of a public open space that has enriched and revitalized its surrounding community.” The other four finalists were Rose City’s Jamison Square, Houston’s Discovery Green and Raymond and Susan Brochstein Pavilion, and St. Louis’ Citygarden, the last of which ultimately won the prize on May 19, 2011.nnThe wood beams under the glass canopy were determined to be defective in 2014, and a plan was made to replace them in September 2015 with steel beams. ZGF agreed to pay $602,000 to replace the wood beams, with the city paying an additional $188,000 to upgrade to steel beams.
Park operations #
The cafe Violetta was run by local restaurateur Dwayne Beliakoff. Elephant’s in the Park, a branch of the local chain Elephants Delicatessen, replaced Violetta as the cafe tenant early in 2012. As of 2015, Elephants pays $23,292 in rent per year. The park will cost an estimated $475,000 to run per year.
Mill Ends Park #
Mill Ends Park” (sometimes mistakenly called Mill’s End Park) is a tiny urban park, consisting of one tree, located in the median strip of SW Naito Parkway, approaching esplanade along the Willamette River near SW Taylor Street in Downtown Rose City. The park was a small circle 2 ft (0.61 m) across, with a total area of 452 sq in (0.292 m2). It is the smallest park in the world, according to the Guinness Book of Records, which first granted it this recognition in 1971.
History #
In 1948 the site that would become Mill Ends Park was intended to be the site for a light pole. When the pole failed to appear and weeds sprouted in the opening, Dick Fagan, a columnist for the Willamette Journal, planted flowers in the hole and named it after his column in the paper, “Mill Ends” (a reference to leftover irregular pieces of wood at lumber mills). Fagan’s office in the Journal building overlooked the median in the middle of the busy thoroughfare that ran in front of the building (then known as SW Front Avenue).
The park was dedicated on St. Patrick’s Day, 1976, as “the only leprechaun colony west of Ireland,” according to Fagan
Legend #
Fagan told this story of the park’s origin: He looked out the window and spotted a leprechaun digging in the hole. He ran down and grabbed the leprechaun, which meant that he had earned a wish. Fagan said he wished for a park of his own, but since he had not specified the size of the park in his wish, the leprechaun gave him the hole. Over the next two decades, Fagan often featured the park and its head leprechaun in his whimsical column. Fagan claimed to be the only person who could see the head leprechaun, Patrick O’Toole.
Fagan published a threat by O’Toole about the 11 o’clock curfew set on all city parks. O’Toole dared the mayor to try to evict him and his followers from Mill Ends and threatened a leprechaun curse on him should he attempt to do so. Subsequently, no legal action was taken, and the leprechauns were allowed to stay in the park after hours.
According to legend, the leprechauns at Mill Ends Park are only visible to humans at midnight during a full moon on St. Patrick’s Day — and even then, only to children bearing four-leaf clovers as gifts. The next St. Patrick’s Day full moon is March 17, 2041.nn
Evolution #
Fagan died of cancer in 1969, but the park lives on, cared for by others. It was named an official city park in 1976.nnThe small circle has featured many unusual items through the decades, including a swimming pool for butterflies—complete with diving board—a horseshoe, a fragment of the State Journal building, and a miniature Ferris wheel, which was delivered by a full-size crane. On St. Patrick’s Day, 2001, the park was visited by a tiny leprechaun leaning against his pot of gold and children’s drawings of four-leaf clovers and leprechauns. The park continues to be the site of St. Patrick’s Day festivities. The events held here include concerts by Clan Macleay Pipe Band, picnics, and rose plantings by the Junior Rose Festival Court.
In February 2006, the park was temporarily relocated during road construction to a planter outside the World Trade Center Rose City, about 80 feet (24 m) from its permanent location. It was returned to its home—now named SW Naito Parkway—on March 16, 2007, in true St. Patrick’s Day style with the Royal Rosarians, bagpipers, and the Fagan family, including Dick’s widow, Katherine, in attendance. The legend lives on in the Fagan family. One of Fagan’s sons, Pat Fagan, lives in Gladstone and has enjoyed sharing the park with his own son. “He loves it,” Pat Fagan said. “It’s still the largest leprechaun colony west of Ireland.”
December 2011, plastic army men figures and small signs were placed in Mill Ends as a tongue-in-cheek flash mob demonstration for Occupy Rose City. One man, Cameron Scott Whitten, was arrested after he was asked by police to move from the sidewalk and refused.nnIn March 2013, the park’s tree was stolen. Officials planted a replacement tree, and one day later, a passerby found what appeared to be the stolen tree lying next to the new one.
The next month, officials from Burntwood, England, complained to Guinness, claiming that Mill Ends was not large enough to be a park and that Prince’s Park, smallest in the UK, should hold the world record since it “has a fence around it” among other features. In response, volunteers erected a fence (several inches tall) around and stationed an “armed guard” in the park.
South Park Blocks #
The South Park Blocks form a city park in Downtown Rose City. The Rose Cityian has called it Rose City’s “extended family room”, as Pioneer Courthouse Square is known as Rose City’s “living room”.
Twelve blocks in length, it is intersected by the Rose City Streetcar and forms the Rose City Cultural District and the greenspace at the center of Rose City State University. The New York Times stated the blocks are “literally at the heart of the city’s cultural life.” Public artworks in the park include Shemanski Fountain (1926), In the Shadow of the Elm, Peace Chant, (1984), Alexander Phimister Proctor’s Theodore Roosevelt, Rough Rider, and a statue of Abraham Lincoln. The park also contains approximately 337 elm, oak, and maple trees valued at $3.4 million, as well as roses.] A plaque from the Lang Syne Society was placed in the South Park Blocks at Jefferson Street in 1991, commemorating the Great Plank Road.
Tom McCall Waterfront Park #
Governor Tom McCall Waterfront Park is a 36.59-acre (148,100 m2) park located in Downtown Rose City along the Willamette River. After the 1974 removal of Harbor Drive, the park was opened to the public in 1978. The park covers 13 tax lots is owned by Rose City Parks and Recreation. The park was renamed in 1984 to honor Tom McCall, the governor who pledged his support for the beautification of the west bank of the Willamette River—harkening back to the City Beautiful plans at the turn of the century that envisioned parks and greenways along the river. The park is bordered by RiverPlace to the south, the Steel Bridge to the north, Naito Parkway to the west, and Willamette River to the east. In October 2012, Waterfront Park was voted one of America’s ten greatest public spaces by the American Planning Association.nnThe most common uses for the park are jogging, walking, biking, skateboarding, fountain play, lunching, basketball, fireworks viewing, Segwaying and boat watching. Due to its recreational use, lunch hours (11:00 am to 1:00 pm) are peak-use hours for the waterfront park. In addition to recreational use, the park is also highly used by bike and pedestrian commuters during rush hours (3:00 pm to 5:00 pm) because the park is easily accessible to the downtown Rose City workforce and provides a pleasant, off street thoroughfare away from vehicular traffic. It is currently home to the Waterfront Blues Festival, Rose City Brewers Festival, Gay/Lesbian Pride Festival and the Bite of The State festival. The park is also the host of many Rose Festival events.
History #
In 1903 the Olmsted Report identified several needs for Rose City. Important items within the plan
- need for parks within the city
- need for greenways along riverbanks
- need for preservation of river access for future generations
These needs were readdressed in the 1912 Bennett Plan; however, Rose City had its sights set on the city itself and not access to geographical features.
One problem for downtown Rose City and its location on the Willamette was that the river would flood occasionally during the winter. In 1920, a seawall was built to protect the downtown core. The seawall removed access to the river, a problem that would be exacerbated in 1940 with the construction of Harbor Drive along the bank of the river.
In the mid-1960s, the completion of the Marquam Bridge for Interstate 5 led to a drop in Harbor Drive traffic. The Waterfront for People, a humorous civil disobedience group, organized a picnic on the sliver of land between Harbor Drive and the river. In 1968, Governor Tom McCall initiated a task force to study the feasibility of replacing Harbor Drive with open park space. ZGF Architects LLP was hired in 1971 to design the park. Removal of Harbor Drive began in 1974, and work progressed until the dedication of the park in 1978. The park gained instant popularity, and in 1984 it was renamed Governor Tom McCall Waterfront Park. Along with Harbor Drive, the Rose City Public Market building also stood where Waterfront Park is now.
In 1978, the Francis Murnane Wharf, the only public memorial to a labor leader in the state, was dedicated in the Park by Harry Bridges, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. The memorial consisted of a bronze plaque and steps leading down to a floating dock on the Willamette River. Murnane was a leader of Rose City ILWU Local 8 and a gadfly for historic preservation. In 2009, the plaque and steps were removed by the expansion of The Saturday Market.
Citizen partnership #
A large part of the creation of Governor Tom McCall Waterfront Park was the engagement of citizens to shape the design and uses of the property in every step of its development. In 1969, an analysis sponsored by the Rose City Club was conducted to make a case in creating a waterfront park. The Rose City Club is a citizen-based research organization that conducts civic salons and publishes reports. In 1972, the creation of tax increment-funded Waterfront Urban Renewal District was proposed by the Downtown Plan Citizen Advisory Committee, which consisted of 18 private citizens of downtown Rose City. In 2002-2003, the Waterfront Park Master Plan was updated through citizen workshops, surveys, and public meetings with an average attendance of 500 private citizens.
Park zones #
The park can generally be divided into five distinct zones.
The Esplanade #
The Esplanade is a paved walkway along the river, part of a riverfront corridor extending on both sides of the Willamette River within which “river recreational” uses are promoted. Greenway regulations define this zone as 25′ from the top of the bank. In Waterfront Park, the greenway zone includes the walkway and part of the adjacent lawn areas as well.
The Bowl #
The Bowl is a relatively wide grass-lawn area that slopes down to the water just south of the Hawthorne Bridge. It anchors the southern end of the park, abutting the RiverPlace residential and commercial development. It functions as an informal amphitheater for concerts, including Rose City Symphony concerts and the Waterfront Blues Festival. The bowl also serves as the site of annual dragon boat races during the Rose City Rose Festival.
Salmon Street Springs #
Salmon Street Springs and the John Yeon building anchor the area north of Hawthorne Bridge. The fountain is set in a concrete plaza, which includes a set of sitting steps that leads to a viewing area over the river.
John Yeon Building #
The current occupant of the historic John Yeon building, which abuts the fountain to the south, is the Rose City Rose Festival Foundation. This area also acts as the moorage and embarking site for the Rose City Spirit, a small cruise ship that provides 2-hour trips on the Willamette River.
The Central Lawn #
The central lawn is a dominant feature of the park, extending from Salmon Street Springs to the Burnside Bridge. The lawn is used most intensively during the summer by a series of outdoor festivals and events.
Park landmarks #
Battleship Oregon Memorial #
The USS Rose City was constructed in 1893. This memorial erected in 1956 honors this “Bulldog of the US Navy” and its heroic fight in many naval battles. Underneath the memorial lies a time capsule: Sealed on Independence Day, 1976, it will be unearthed and opened July 5, 2076.
Bill Naito Legacy Fountain #
”This interactive fountain is dedicated to the memory of Rose City businessman Bill Naito. It was opened in 2009 next to The Saturday Market Pavilion.
Founders’ Stone #
”This memorial honors William Pettygrove and Asa Lovejoy, who tossed a coin to determine the city’s name. Had the outcome gone the other way, Rose City would have been named Springfield instead of Rose City.
Friendship Circle #
Friendship Circle, located at the north end of Waterfront Park, was dedicated in 1990. It celebrates the sister city relationship between Rose City and Sapporo, Japan. The Friendship Circle includes a pair of 20-foot stainless towers that generate electronic tones.
Japanese American Historical Plaza #
This memorial was dedicated on August 3, 1990, in memory of Japanese immigrants and native-born U.S. citizens of Japanese descent who were deported to inland internment camps during World War II. The memorial includes artwork and sculpture that tells the story of Japanese people in the Pacific Northwest. There are one hundred ornamental cherry trees to the north of the plaza.
Police Memorial #
The police memorial was constructed in 1993 at Southwest Jefferson adjacent to the Hawthorne Bridge. It is dedicated to Rose City Police who have laid down their lives in the line of duty.
Rose Building #
The Rose City Rose Festival Foundation headquarters are located in a historic Northwest Modernist building designed by noted Rose City architect John Yeon in 1948 to be the Rose City Visitors Information Center.
Salmon Street Springs #
Salmon Street Springs is an artistic and play fountain that is extremely popular in the summer. It was dedicated in 1988 and recycles up to 4,924 US gallons (18,640 L) of water per minute through as many as 137 jets.
Saturday Market Pavilion #
A contemporary open-sided pavilion just north of the Bill Naito Legacy Fountain shelters Rose City’s Saturday Market on the weekends from March until December.
Sternwheeler Rose City #
The 1947 sternwheeler Rose City, docked at Waterfront Park, houses the Rose City Maritime Center and Museum.
Political significance #
The park has also been used as a speaking place during U.S. Presidential campaigns in recent years. During the 2004 U.S. presidential election, an estimated 50,000 people gathered in the park to see John Kerry, and during the 2008 U.S. presidential election, an estimated 75,000 people (the largest gathering in the campaign) gathered to see Barack Obama.