Seen on the street, February 16, 2013, No. 1

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First, that white cloth above his jeans is the top of his tighty-whiteys, not a "crack in the butt" sighting. I promise. I looked, with some trepidation, at the original image in its largest size, just to make sure. Second, I first saw him as we walked toward each other. As he stopped at the Benson Bubbler, I approached on his right and watched without being obvious as I walked by. I knew I had to take a photo, but I also knew that it would be smart for me to take it once I was beyond him. I definitely did not want him to notice that I was taking a picture. Third. Out of the shopping bag, he took a partially filled two-liter plastic bottle, opened it and held it in his left hand. The liquid in it was orange. Next, he filled his mouth with water, brought the bottle neck to his mouth and spit the water into the bottle. Honest. That's what he did, several times before I managed to get past him and turn to take this photo. Tell me the truth, now. You're glad I didn't get a photo of him spitting into that bottle, right? 

A part of the sculpture Talos No. 2 by James Lee Hansen is visible at the right. All along the TriMet Transit Mall downtown, you'll find public art of all sorts. This corner is where the Bank of California stands, right across the street from the U. S. National Bank, both by architect A. E. Doyle. If you search my blog for Bank of California, you'll see the corner on several of the posts. I cannot get a link to any of them to work--sorry.

A. E. Doyle's Bank of California, No. 8

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Looking southeast across the lobby from the entrance portico--the photo that I took on October 25, 2012. 
 

Looking that same direction in a photo taken in 1977 when Durham & Bates occupied the building. 

Here's a bit about the upper floors of the Bank of California building, from the 1978 application to the National Register of Historic Places:


As previously mentioned, a new entrance was installed to provide access to the elevator lobby serving the upper floor tenant spaces. This lobby was formed by partitioning off a portion of the space under the mezzanine at the north end of the banking room.

The second and third floors, previously used as administrative offices and work spaces for the bank, will soon be available as rental offices. The second floor boasts a 13' high ceiling--higher than is offered by most modern tenant spaces being built today. Aside from this, the space is not unusual. It is planned to update this floor with the installation of air conditioning units above a new acoustical ceiling, carpeting, lighting and partitioning to suit tenant requirements.

The third floor, having a usable area somewhat smaller than the second floor, is housed beneath the hipped, tile roof. This provides a low plate height along the west and south walls and sloped ceilings which extend up to the east-facing windows and clerestory, giving a unique garrett-like appearance to the space. This floor was originally used as a lounge, library, and recreation space for the bank's employees.

A. E. Doyle's Bank of California Building, No. 7

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Next are two photos of just a portion of the entrance portico which I managed to photograph. You can make out the bronze and the marble in this one. The original floor was marble, too. According to the paperwork for the National Register of Historic Places, it is made with Hungarian Red, Taverne Le Pink Tennessee, and Jaune Nile. Surely those three different colors represent these three marbles and the floor today is the original floor. Oh, I hope so. 




And here's what was written in the application for the National Register of Historic Places about the entrance: The entrance to the building is through a handsome bronze portico set in the middle arched window opening at the west facade, and boasts a pair of bronze gates which can be slid in front of the double entrance doors. The original bronze-framed doors were removed a number of years ago and replaced by automatic tempered glass doors. 
   


Here's the same vintage photo as yesterday--I wanted to be certain you've noticed that entrance to the building through the bronze portico. A portion of it is there on the left of the photo. The marble columns and arches visible make me happy because, even with the changes to the lobby made by Durham and Bates, no one messed with the entrance portico!

A. E. Doyle's Bank of California Building, No. 6

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Looking northeast at the end of the lobby, in a photo that I took on October 25, 2012. Thankfully, the arches are still there. Look at the photo below for a comparison.
 

Looking northeast at the end of the lobby, in a photo taken in 1925, on opening day.

Picture yourself entering this huge, open lobby. Which setting would have overtaken your senses? OK, I know the photo at the top leaves a bit to the imagination since I couldn't get such a wide view, and there is a piece of equipment sitting on the floor. Even if I had been able to see it all and could have provided you with a better comparison, would that have made a difference? Not to me. I'd still have to vote for the breath-taking view in the vintage photo. And I still wonder how the sun-filled lobby smelled with all of those bouquets on site.




Here's the lobby as it was when the application was made, in a photo taken in 1977 or 1978. Durham and Bates would have been the occupant at that time. The gorgeous glass and what looks to be marble shape on the left side of the photo is the entrance portico situated on the west side of the lobby. The back of this photo says: Interior view of Old Bank of California Building looking Northeast in former banking lobby, now office space, showing extended mezzanine. 

Here's information about the building's interior from the paperwork turned in to the National Register of Historic Places: The building's main floor, originally the banking lobby, tellers' cages, and office platform, was designed as a grand two-story room with a handsome ornate coffered beam ceiling.The east wall has blind arches which echo the window forms of the west wall and, as with other Renaissance forms, are carried out in fine detail. As on the exterior, the interior finishes demonstrate the skill which had developed in the fabrication of imitation materials at the time of construction. Interior surfaces are almost entirely cast materials--an integrally colored plaster, formed to look like travertine marble. Only the Escollette marble vestibule, marble floor of the banking lobby, and the tellers' counters, which have been removed, are of genuine materials. The floor incorporates three kinds of marble--Hungarian Red, Taverne Le Pink Tennessee, and Jaune Nile. At some subsequent time, the colored "travertine" plaster was painted a rather yellowish color. During the recent remodeling, it was repainted to a beige tint more akin to the original color. 

In adapting the former banking room for use as office space, the original 16' wide mezzanine along the north wall was extended south against the east wall to the south wall. An additional free-standing stair was added to connect the new mezzanine to the main floor. Architects for the renovation--Fletcher, Finch, Far and Associates--designed all partitions, railings, and other added forms in a contemporary style in order to strongly contrast with the original building forms. This was further carried out by the selection of contrasting colors for the new design elements, with no attempt being made to copy the renaissance colors and forms of the original design. 

A. E. Doyle's Bank of California Building, No. 5

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An eatery, The Original Dinerant, occupies the street level of the building to the north of the Bank of California. The BOC is just out of sight at the right of this building, next to the black-faced wall visible near the current-day TriMet bus shelter you see lit up for the night-time users of mass transit. Someone waits for a bus and appears to have a bicycle to place on the bike rack attached to the front of the bus.
 

Here's the Bank of California, just south of The Original Dinerant--notice the black-faced wall.

Vintage photos, part of the documentation used to place architect A. E. Doyle's Bank of California on the National Register of Historic Places. The application is dated as received on February 15, 1978, and approved on March 14, 1978.
 

Vintage photo shows the Guaranty Building which was adjacent to the Bank of California and north of it. The back of the photo says that it was taken in 1924. Since the grand opening photos are dated 1925, it may not have actually been occupied at the time this photo was taken. I wish I had a photo of the north end of the building, which was exposed with the demise of the Guaranty Building, complete with the drive-up window and the canopy. Below is the next best thing.
 

The north end of the Bank of California, taken during 1977 probably. Note the placement of the older style TriMet bus shelter here on this section of SW 6th Avenue--part of the then brand new Portland Transit Mall. In the second photo on today's post, a bench occupies this spot, put there when the Transit Mall was rebuilt. And you've already seen the style of bus shelter which replaced these iconic ones, in the top photo today. 

From the paperwork submitted to the National Register of Historic Places:

Since the Bank of California's move to a new building in 1970, the structure has been occupied by The Security Bank of Oregon and, subsequently, the Oregon Bank. In 1977, ownership passed to Bankside Investors for occupancy by Durham and Bates, Inc., an insurance firm of pioneer beginnings in the Portland area. Since its construction, the exterior of the building has remained substantially unaltered, the only significant change being the addition of a drive-up banking window and canopy at the north end of the building. This was made possible by the razing of the six-story Guaranty Building which occupied the property immediately to the north until the mid-or late1950s. At this time, the newly exposed north wall was plastered in a rusticated stonework pattern simulating the west and south building elevations.

The imposing west facade of the bank building has five large arched windows which extend from the ground floor to a height of 28 feet above the sidewalk in recognition of the two-story banking lobby inside. Centered above these arches are smaller rectangular windows which serve the second floor office space almost 35 feet above the ground floor. Window frames are of painted steel. Above the second floor windows is a marble frieze and bracketed cornice which supports the Cordova Terracotta tile hipped roof typical of the Pallazzo style. The imposing rusticated "stonework" of the exterior walls and cornice are, in reality, cast terra-cotta executed with excellent craftsmanship. Only the marble base course and frieze are genuine. 

The entrance to the building is through a handsome bronze portico set in the middle arched window opening at the west facade, and boasts a pair of bronze gates which can be slid in front of the double entrance doors. The original bronze-framed doors were removed a number of years ago and replaced by automatic tempered glass doors.

Recent modifications to the building, made just prior to occupancy by the present tenant, include the removal of the added drive-up window and canopy at the north wall, and the filling in of a door which was cut through to the parking lot.

A new entrance was installed in the northern-most window of the west wall to provide access to a new lobby serving the upper floor
tenant spaces. Presently, theTri-Metropolitan Transit District has contracted for the widening and brick-paving of the sidewalk on SixthAvenue. The brick texture and color, together with soon-to-be-installed trees and street furniture should further enhance the handsome building.

A. E. Doyle's Bank of California Building, No. 4

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Look at the clock, there, centered inside one of the arches on the back wall of the bank's lobby.
 

I think it's the same clock that can be seen in this vintage photo. What do you think? The unusual clock face, what looks like brass Roman numerals and a brass ring around the edge of the clock face--they all match closely, as best I can tell from these two photos.

A. E. Doyle's Bank of California Building, No. 3

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The ceiling and one of the light fixtures.
 

A closer view, from a different angle.
 

Another vintage photo. From the National Register of Historic Places application for the Bank of California--I could not find the photos online anywhere except in the PDF, so I took photos of the photos with my camera because the thought of not being able to share them with you saddens me immensely. Please do not copy and paste this photo. Thank you.

A. E. Doyle's Bank of California Building, No. 2

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Standing at the front door, I took this first photo after I got off the bus. Excited to see something inside, anything at all--I'd never been able to see anything through the doors. So, these light fixtures and what look to me like maybe bank teller stations tickled me, big time. 

Next I walked to the south end of the building to look in the first window there, after I walked around the corner onto SW Stark. I like the perspective of this view which shows those light fixtures and the counter as seen through part of the brass metalwork along the bottom of the arched window. The juxtaposition of the light fixtures with each other intrigued me. 

Curious and still not satisfied that I'd seen all I could see, I moved a step or two and took one more photo through the metalwork on the window--this one. I believe I saved the best for last. Look at that curved counter! The metal supports of the light fixtures! Well, it looks like metal to me. And you can tell that someone's been in there and left a chair and a piece of equipment. Left the lights on, too, thanks be to the architecture-lovin'-gods!

A vintage photo of the building--on the back it says "View looking Northeast at the corner of 6th Avenue and Stark Street showing Old Bank of California Building." and "Bank of California Building (Old), 330 SW Sixth Avenue, Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon, 3 of 8, Curtis Finch photo 1977. West and south elevations. Fletcher, Finch, Farr & Associates, 920 SW Thirteenth Avenue, Portland, OR 97205." From the National Register of Historic Places application for the Bank of California--I could not find the photos online anywhere except in the PDF, so I took photos of the photos with my camera because the thought of not being able to share them with you saddens me immensely. Please do not copy and paste this photo. Thank you. Oh, by the way, notice that curved-topped structure at the right corner of the building--that's what all of the mass transit stops used to look like downtown, on the Transit Mall. I miss them and their shape immensely.

A. E. Doyle's Bank of California Building, No. 1

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Here's the back story about the upcoming posts of architect A. E. Doyle's Bank of California on the corner of SW 6th Avenue and SW Stark. I'm not going to call it any of its other iterations because I'm so fond of Doyle's work and figure he deserves respect from me in my posts about his buildings. For years I have felt this building to be one of the loveliest in downtown Portland, so pleasing to the eye in its symmetry and size, the shapes of the windows, the bronze metalwork along the bottom of the arch windows and at the heart of the door, the cast terra cotta and marble exterior. 

Here we have two photos that I took on October 25, 2012. I got off the homeward bound bus to take them and the ones you'll see over the next few days.

I go this way Monday through Friday after work, but I never get off the bus here--there's no reason--I've only been on it a . At least there wasn't until the day before I got off and took these photos. As we passed by, my back to this side of the street, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that there were lights on inside the building which has not been in use since I moved to Portland in June, 2006, that I know of anyway. Astonished, I swiveled my head from right to left to make certain that I had really seen lights on in the Bank of California. 

I found this online which explains why the lights were on inside the Bank of California: 

Historic Bank of California Building for lease 330 S.W. Sixth Ave. POSTED: Monday, December 17, 2012 at 12:01 PM PT BY: Lee Fehrenbacher Tags: A.E. Doyle, Bank of California Building, historic buildings 

The historic Bank of California Building in downtown Portland, which opened in 1925 and was designed by noted Portland architect A.E. Doyle, is for lease. The Italian Renaissance Palace Style structure was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. 

And I found the 1978 National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination form online, which makes for some fine reading about the building. I cannot get the link to work! So, I don't know if this will help or not, but in case you're interested, here it is for you to copy and paste: http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Text/78002306.pdf
   

Three photos for you to enjoy:

• Vintage Photo One, 1974
• Vintage Photo Two, 1974
• Close-up of Door, Photo Three