Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Portland Walks: Checking out the Gerding Theater

 Gerding Theater Stair

Since we've been very busy lately, this past weekend we just took a simple, but long, walk over to the Pearl District. Stopping in a few places, Storables, Cargo, and Cloud 7 Cafe for treats.  But we also stopped in the Gerding Theater to check out the lobby space. Since it's a neat old armory building I figured it would be pretty interesting inside, but it was even cooler than I expected. It's a LEED Platinum Building (the highest rating a building can get, so green it's the type of project they want to encourage so they waive the fees for projects that achieve platinum.) by GBD Architects based here in Portland.

Gerding Theater Red Glass Gerding Theater Structure Gerding Theater

Really great details old & new. A wall of red glass light fixtures behind the main stair. The original wood structure (painted white) is impressive, curved, lapped, bolted together. Metal ties span the space, supporting the original walls (visible in the upper left of the picture on the right above.) And light bulbs supported on oval shaped struts, which echo the oval shaped two story space. It's an appealing space to be in, and seeing a show here is now on my list of things to do in the very near future!

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