Little Bangkok
When I arrived at nonbox in 2002, the view from my perch 20 feet above SW Third Avenue was pretty banal: a City Center Parking lot packed with cars and a sidewalk of white-collar workers passing by from point A to Point B. Today that parking lot has become “Point B” due to the popularity of food carts. As I gaze down on the corrugated beauty embraced so fervently by our city’s leadership, and despised so much by the legitimate restaurant industry, I can’t help but recall a little brouhaha that now seems laughable that relates to what we do here at nonbox–brand imaging.
Back in 2002, the PDC was presented with the opportunity to embrace the arrival of Tiffany’s to the downtown retail scene. As a global badge of prestige and sophistication, it would be hard to argue that a little spot of Tiffany Blue® would somehow take Portland’s image downstream, but a few folks on the Portland Development Commission felt differently.
“Having a dispute about the size of the windows at Tiffany’s created a bad taste in the business community,” said Commissioner Jim Francesconi. The rub: according to one source at PDC was that windows in Tiffany’s are the same all across the country; it’s their signature, large windows and a small display in the middle of that window. But those large windows didn’t fit the city’s code. Neither did the moving hands on Tiffany’s clock. The city wouldn’t allow moving hands on a sign. To move things along, Tiffany’s compromised by covering up a portion of their windows and displaying their clock without moving hands. Many recall then Mayor Vera Katz looking embarrassed at the store’s grand opening with the frozen clock.
Fast Forward to present day and it’s Mayor Sam Adam’s who should look a little red in the cheeks. Whether food carts have a right to compete for dining dollars is not the point of this rant. Check out the Willamette Week if you want an education on that war. My argument, as someone who believes in the power of design and imaging to attract and retain customers, is that the the city’s leadership is severely crippling the economic vitality of the downtown core by fostering a brand image that conjures up notions of Bangkok over that of 5th Avenue. I am no fan of mass merchants homogenizing downtown with their shareholder driven design ideas, but with Pioneer Place and the Meier & Frank makeover, the skins that house downtown’s large retail brands retain what I love most about great retail execution: creating a special and memorable shopping experience. Look, if I want to get my fix for third-world travel I can Netflix some Anthony Bourdaine or call my travel agent, but kicking Tiffany’s to the curb for another Pad Thai shack is destroying a little slice of Americana that Portland needs. I like the treelighting downtown (sans the Al Queda factor), I like that people still wear suits into the Nine’s and I love the sign at Mary’s club––all of which are symbols of an established metropolitan scene. And powerful symbols that stand for something are what customers use to make decisions–whether it be what clothes to buy or what part of town to shop in. The Pearl has it’s icons, as does Southeast and the Northside, but don’t tell me that parking lots of old trailers adorned with some Christmas lights, a plywood sign and some Krylon are what the southwest quadrant of downtown PDX needs to revitalize its sagging retail environment. Onward, Flood
