Mid-Century Modern Auto Dealership Gem Aims for Designation not Destruction
More and more people are starting to see the historic significance of mid-century modern architecture, as the University of Oregon has recently learned.
It remains to be seen how the designation — if successful — will affect the building’s future. Designation does not prevent demolition, but with raising public sensitivity to the value of the recent past, destruction is hopefully more unlikely.
“…on the subject of the Chevrolet Showroom- actually Lew Williams Chevrolet when it was built. The service area was an existing building that had been a Coco-Cola bottling plant. Luckily, the front of the site had been left as a truck-loading area so the solution was pretty obvious. The only question was how to relate the building with it’s east-west orientation, dictated by the existing building and the available site area, to people approaching at a slight angle, slightly uphill at 30 mph on Franklin Boulevard. An elliptical floor plan could maintain the east-west axis and still not give a cold shoulder to Franklin Boulevard. The gently-curving ceiling helped direct the eye down to the cars on display and was consistent with the elliptical building shape. Lighting was not subdued but not dramatic- as “natural” I guess, as possible. “Outdoorsy” as appropriate to sedans and station wagons. If the dealership were selling Porsches or Mercedes the lighting would have been more dramatic; maybe deeply-recessed pinhole spot down lights.”
Universities are often at odds with their sheltering communities, but recent years have seen a trend toward compromise and inclusion. It would be a real shame to lose such a showpiece of modernism as this Chevrolet showroom .
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