The slowness in posting of late can be blamed on my recently broken camera, and all the heartaches that accompany it... but now I've begun experimenting with a camera on a new phone, and it's not so bad. Maybe a a fix or replacement (don't get me started on the noxious nature of our throwaway culture) for the other will be in the cards soon...
Here, the fountain and wavy reflection all belong to the Standard, of course-- once the tallest building in Portland, and indeed once the tallest concrete structure in the world. There's a fascinating construction exhibit on it at the Architectural Heritage Center, I believe, showing just what an engineering feat this was (imagine the HVAC issues alone).
The reflection is displayed on the Congress Center building, so named for the long-gone Congress Hotel (1912-1980), designed by Herman Brookman and decidedly less shiny than the current structure. I doubt the hotel had a subterranean fondue restaurant to claim, either, especially as the arches over the stairway now leading down to The Melting Pot seem to be an architectural remnant of the original structure.
Perhaps the most interesting trivia about the hotel brought up by a brief search is that, according to the Rosicrucian Society Digest, in 1941, there were regular meetings of the Rosicrucian Society held in the hotel's Green Room on Thursday nights at 8:00. Those crusaders really were everywhere. Anyone have a good grail story about the Pacific Northwest?
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