expressed as detail, which catches and bends light and leads the
eye on an i maginative j ourney over, under, and around the visual
image. The " painted form " of the Portland Building only works as
detail when v iewed from a substantial distance, such as from
across the river or from the perspective of an airplane. The building
then begins to establish a sense of detail in the mind of the
viewer, especially when contrasted to the smooth modern buidings
surrounding it. But the city dweller, with his feet, hopefully,
planted on the ground, and without the benefit of this generalized
sense of scale and detail, can see that Graves has substituted paint
for form and sacrificed detail to illusion. In doing so, Graves has
demonstrated that his ideology of historical eclecticism is rooted
more in graphic form than in architecture.
Had Graves not used paint on his buiding, the integrity of his
historical language m ight have had an opportunity to be revealed.
But even then, his attention to form and detail are weak. This
can be seen when the early prepainted concrete shell is compared
to the fine unpainted detail of the two neighboring buildings. The
Portland detail '' reads " as crude molded form . Just as the molded
plastic hull of a fiberglass sailboat resembles the sleek lines of a
hand-made wooden hull to some, to others it conjures up images
of "Fido" pushing his sturdy plastic dog dish across the kitchen
floor. The point is, the plastic hull is neither a wooden hull nor a
dog dish, but an allusion in danger of becoming an illusion. The
Portland Building has a difficult time explaining what is real,
because the translation of ideology into architectural terms has
really never been made. This private ideology with its inaccurate
interpretation through the use of paint has left the public out in
the rain .
T h e classical allusions to t h e past, which Graves h a d hoped t o
convey in his building, m ight have been more fully realized if he
had put greater emphasis on aedicula and less on paint. Classical
allusions represented in miniature three-dimensional form could
have been substituted for Classical illusions represented in color,
and Michael Graves could have expressed his feelings of time and
place as an architect rather than a painter.
·
Although, as we have seen, the Portland Building is designed
around a limited ideology, and fails to honestly convey a sense of
historical continuity through the use of pure form and elegant
detail, one can , nevertheless, see the intent of Graves to accomplish
these obj ectives through symbolism. However, by no stretch
of the i magination can one see any attempt by Graves to establish
rapport between the "public building" and the public realm. I
believe this to be the major criticism of the Portland Building as
public architecture.
Rearing its post-modern head above the tree tops of Loundsdale
Park, the Portland Public Services Building confronts a public
place in the most visible and yet inaccessible way. The paradox of