The Portland City Council heard three proposals Wednesday about the future of the city’s oldest performing arts venue.
Keller Auditorium has been part of Portland for more than 100 years but the building, the only venue in the city big enough to host Broadway shows, is an “unreinforced masonry” building. A 2020 seismic study found that the performance hall would not withstand a major earthquake without significant damage.
Read more: Could new and revitalized arts venues be the key to reshaping Portland’s inner core?
Now, the city is considering two options to deal with the aging Keller: Renovate the existing building or rebuild a new venue entirely.
How any of these projects would be paid for is uncertain at this juncture. But all would be funded with a mix of public money and private fundraising, officials said. Some of that money could come from the city’s clean energy tax.
Every team indicated they are confident they could procure large sums by granting naming rights to donors.
Keller Auditorium renovation
Scott Andrews, principal broker at real estate development company Melvin Mark and co-chair of the Halprin Landscape Conservancy, one of the groups behind the effort to renovate the Keller Auditorium, began the testimony at Wednesday’s meeting.
“In Portland, we recycle, reimagine, renovate and improve our buildings,” he said.
“We don’t throw them away to build something new that’s more expensive and less environmentally friendly,” he continued, “that will remove 400,000 people a year from our downtown at the exact moment that we’re working to bring more people downtown and revitalize the heart of the city.”
Read more: Plans for renovated Keller Auditorium include public plaza, reimagined entryway and plenty of bathrooms
The “21st Century Keller” group positioned the choice between renovating and rebuilding as choosing between renewing a commitment to downtown or abandoning it, and also a choice between sustainably creating a new performing arts center or a wasteful new build.
“The most sustainable building is the one that’s saved and retrofit,” said Tim Eddy, president of Hennebery Eddy Architects, the company that created the current proposal.
That proposal is built on a 2017 design from London-based STUFISH Entertainment Architects and Portland-based production designer Michael Curry Design, from an earlier Halprin Landscape Conservancy design competition that was not affiliated with the city or Metro.
It includes “a complete recrafting” of the theater and interior spaces, according to Eddy – better acoustics, and sightline, more bathrooms, a kitchen, a smaller performance space upstairs, expanded rehearsal space and overall better accessibility.
The group for renovation also touted a poll they commissioned, which found that 66% of Portlanders “prefer investing in Keller Auditorium versus just 10% who want the city to build a new auditorium somewhere else.”
The main pushback against the plan to renovate the existing building has been the fact that a renovation will mean a multiple-season shutdown with nowhere for touring Broadway shows to play.
Because of that issue, Broadway in Portland has yet to endorse any of the plans.
In response, the renovation supporters have proposed a construction timeline which would include two seven-month pauses so shows could go on during those times.
With the pauses, they estimate the project will take 37 months to complete and cost a little over $200 million for construction.
The rebuilt Keller would open in 2030 if the city approves that plan.
Lloyd District plan
The second presentation was from Urban Renaissance group and their partners, all of whom are working on a new master plan for the Lloyd District and imagining Portland’s oldest mall into the future.
Urban Renaissance Group declined to speak with The Oregonian/OregonLive for a previous article and instead shared a statement saying in part that an entertainment venue at the mall “would provide increased access to cultural and entertainment experiences for Portland’s diverse communities and contribute to the visionary community – making occurring in North/Northeast Portland and the Central Eastside.”
The plan they presented to the city council called the Lloyd Center site “a blank canvas for community engagement.”
“We are not defining what can be drawn on this canvas,” the plan said, “but instead desire to highlight how the performing arts center in this location can 1) fulfill the promise of what this district can be, 2) deliver the dream of a facility that enriches our city, and 3) plant seeds of hope for how the arts can truly serve all in our community.”
Much of the Urban Renaissance Group pitch focuses on kickstarting the redevelopment of the Lloyd District neighborhood.
Nolan Lienhart, a principal and planner at ZGF Architects, a group working on the project, talked about the “latent potential” of the neighborhood, with its central location and easy access to public transit.
The master plan would change the entire Lloyd Center area, turning it into a series of open spaces with openings on all sides. A performance center would be in the center of that space, with “activation on all four sides” of the theater, making the outside space a more park-like space.
The Lloyd Center concept offers many options, not just one final design. The plan also includes an environmentally-friendly roof and a goal of net zero carbon emissions.
Proponents of the plan also note it would be the only Portland’5 venue on the east side of the Willamette River and that it would spur development in the neighborhood.
It would also allow Broadway shows to continue in Portland during construction.
As for how the community will respond to a complete overhaul of the area where the Lloyd Center currently sits, Tom Kilbane, the managing director at Urban Renaissance Group, said in talking to people who lived in the area and leaders throughout the city they discovered “Portlanders are ready for something big to happen here.”
“There is a little bit of nostalgia for the ice rink,” Kilbane said, “but for the mall itself, I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of tears shed if the mall goes away.”
People have responded positively to the idea of an entertainment venue in the area, Kilbane added.
Urban Renaissance Group suggested it would take five to six years to complete the project, and the city estimates the theater part of this project would cost over $400 million.
Who would own the land and building is still undecided.
Portland State University plan
Portland State University president Ann Cudd began her presentation by asking participants to imagine themselves walking up to a new performance arts center on campus.
PSU’s concept, covering 4.25 acres, is much bigger than the current Keller footprint of about 1 acre and includes one 3,000-seat venue and another 1,200-seat auditorium that supporters hope will fill a space missing in the Portland market.
The venue would replace what is currently the University Place Hotel at 310 S.W. Lincoln St., at the south end of campus. Like the other sites, PSU’s is near a MAX line.
While the city would help pay for the large venue, it would be operated in tandem with PSU, which would raise money for the rest of the more than $600 million plan. The city estimates the large theater portion would be more than $400 million.
PSU would lease the land where the venue is located to Portland for $1 a year for the next 100 years, essentially donating the land to the city.
Read more: Could a multi-use arts complex at Portland State replace Keller Auditorium?
Cudd called the PSU plan “a love letter to our performing arts community,” and much of the presentation focuses on how the center would impact artists.
Leroy E. Bynum, Jr., dean of Portland State University’s College of the Arts, told the councilors about how the PSU plan focuses on the needs of the artists and viewers with “state-of-the-art tunable acoustics and complementary sightlines only possible when an auditorium is built from the ground up.”
“The other thing that I know for certain is that closing the Keller for years in order to rebuild it would be absolutely catastrophic to our city’s top talent,” he said. “Hundreds of jobs would be lost, many of them for years to come.”
A PSU venue will also include a boutique hotel and conference space and academic spaces as well as the performance spaces.
Jason Franklin, the associate vice president for planning, told the city council that PSU is committed to carbon neutrality and said, “Based on a study by KPFF Engineers, the new performing arts and culture center would take only 6% more embodied carbon on a per square foot basis than the Keller rebuild.”
He called the climate impacts “comparable.”
PSU estimates the project would be completed in 2031.
Now, the city will decide which plan to move ahead with. The community engagement period on the plans begins on Saturday, June 1. The city council should make a decision later this summer.
– Lizzy Acker covers life and culture and writes the advice column Why Tho? Reach her at 503-221-8052, lacker@oregonian.com or @lizzzyacker
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