Slideshow

Slide Show: PNCA's 511 Building: Exclusive First Look

October 7, 2014

Designed in 1913 by Lewis Parsons Hobart, who also designed Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, the 511 Building was originally Portland's central post office. Coming on the heels of the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, the building is one of the first in

Photography by Matthew Miller

PNCA began work on the building in February. The $34 million project is made up of $20.3 million in bridge and long-term financing from the Portland Development Commission (PDC technically also owns the building but gave the college a 300-year lease at $

PNCA president Tom Manley receiving the keys of the city (or at least to his car) from City Commissioner Nick Fish on the front steps of the main entrance off the Park Blocks.

Visitors enter into the restored Grand Corridor—what PNCA is calling the Ann Payne Edlen Creative Corridor after a recent gift—with its Rococo flourishes. The original marble walls and terrazzo-style flooring had long been covered in plaster and carpet f

The hall opens up to the college's airy main atrium and performance court. Our tour was the first to see the massive skylight, which the Post Office covered up during a 1960s remodel. A 200-seat black box theater called the Mediatheque sits on the far en

Much of the construction work has been about revealing windows and skylights that were long covered up and then playing off the light with the architecture (in the case of the atrium, the roof was actually pumped up). "Cloepfil is a master of using light

The architectural rendering of the atrium, showing the mezzanine and its cable system and the entrance to the Commons on the top floor.

Photography by Allied Works Architecture

On the north and south sides of the atrium are mirrored spaces. Set off by a glass wall on the north is the Solheim Library, which houses books, reading and study rooms, and a writing center. On the south, separated from the atrium by a glass exhibition

Like any historic renovation, the 511 building has been full of surprises as the construction crews have peeled back walls, drop ceilings, and carpets to reveal the original building materials. Originally the library designs called for new flooring, but

A poured concrete mezzanine supported by a cable system runs throughout the first floor, uniting the two libraries with the atrium.

The architectural rendering for the object studies library

Photography by Allied Works Architecture

The Main Gallery will sit on the south side of the Creative Corridor across from the atrium. You can see some of the many viscous seismic dampers PNCA has had to install from the basement to the second story to retrofit the building.

The school has not decided whether to keep the elevator's salmon color.

Construction workers are allowed to graffiti the plywood protecting the inside of the elevator as long as it has something to do with safety. Being an art school, it gets a little esoteric.

The new commons will be on the upper floor of the main building, its entrance overlooking the atrium.

The commons is where the US Citizenship and Immigration Services once swore in new citizens.

There will be movable walls for exhibition and lecture space. On the back side will be seminar rooms and MFA arts spaces.

The rendering for the commons

Photography by Allied Works Architecture

The post office had a number of vaults. PNCA tore many out, but President Manley is leaving the one off his office (on the modest second story) to serve as a book vault.

Manley wants to turn the historic stairwells into galleries. One would feature student work and installations chosen through a student vote, and the other would exhibit historic material displaying the building's and school's history.

As the construction crews ripped out the drop ceilings on the travertine marble-lined upper halls, they discovered transom windows.

The fourth and fifth floors have a series of large, fir-floored rooms that will serve as classrooms, lounges, and critique studios, something PNCA's current building doesn't have room for.

Photography by Allied Works Architecture

The view from one of the critique studios

Manley has a fantasy of running LEDs through the mail tubes that can display the names of donors in place of the more traditional donor wall.

A painting studio is at the top of the tower. The building is designed to be gradually more opaque. The first floor is public, then as you move up, the floors become "private," in the sense that they're meant for student and faculty.

What the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design will look like when all is said and done.

Photography by Allied Works Architecture

If you’ve visited the North Park Blocks or the main Post Office in the last couple of months, you’ve likely noticed the construction crane and trailers in the parking lot on the west side of the historic 511 Federal Building. Originally built as the city’s central post office and most recently housing the Department of Homeland Security and immigration services, the building will open on January 20, 2015 as the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design. The Pacific Northwest College of Art acquired the building in 2008 with the long-term goal of centering its urban campus around the North Park Blocks—a goal that will be mostly realized when 511 opens its doors just in time for Spring Semester. Take a tour of the renovation by Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works Architecture, and try not to dream about going back to college. We dare you.

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