Robert J. (Bob) Frasca (1933-2018) was a Founding Design Partner of Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects (ZGF), a Portland practice that became one of the world’s premier architectural firms. Frasca played a critical role in the evolution of Portland as one of America’s most livable cities and was instrumental in shaping its skyline. He designed many of Portland’s most important civic projects, including Waterfront Park (1975-1978), the Oregon Historical Society (1966, 1989), the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (1992), the Multnomah County Justice Center (1983), the Oregon Convention Center (1990, 2001), and Portland International Airport (1966-2002). He executed the master plan for Reed College and designed many of its buildings as well as those for the Oregon Health & Sciences University (OHSU). Other major Portland projects include the Multnomah Athletic Club (1974), KOIN Tower (1984), and PGE Willamette Center (1978), now the Portland World Trade Center.
The following text is a series of excerpts from an interview with Frasca, conducted by Logan Cravens and Shoshana Jones on Friday, July 22, 2016 at the ZGF Architects, 1223 SW Washington Street, Portland, OR.
Early Life
Frasca
Well, why don’t I just start at the beginning? I was born and raised in Niagara Falls, New York, and my father was a blacksmith. As a matter of fact, that’s his picture over there [indicating a photograph in his office] that my sister took. We lived in what was almost a total Italian neighborhood. The first time I met somebody’s grandmother that didn’t have an Italian accent, I ran home and told my mother [laughs]. So, it was unusual. But it was just a lower middle class neighborhood that was very nice. And it was prior to the Second World War – Niagara Falls was a prosperous place. Now the population’s about half of what it was when I was growing up, because all the plants left. You know, that whole rust belt that was right next to Buffalo [New York].
Jones
What was the main industry there?
Frasca
Well, there was Union Carbide and there was Carborundum (Abrasives) and there was Kimberly-Clark and there was Nabisco. And apparently they had all settled there because of cheap power. Because with the falls they had the power plants and, but for some reason, after the Second World War everything just moved out and I’m not even sure why. So, I’ve been back there, actually it’s probably been, I don’t know, about ten years since I’ve been back.
Trip to Europe in early 1960s
Frasca
I just went just about everywhere. We started in France and I went all through Italy and we went through Spain and we went through the Scandinavian countries and we went up to see all of [Alvar] Aalto’s work. And we took a boat up and went to Seinajoki [Finland] and saw all of his churches and the city hall that he did. He was probably, of the masters of that era, he was probably the one that I was influenced by more than any of them, because I really loved sort of the humanness of everything he did. It always just sort of belonged where it was. And it didn’t have any sort of preconceptions about what buildings ought to be. On this trip, we went to see Corbu’s buildings and we went to the Marseilles Block and walked through it. It was like living in the mouth of a cannon. It was a great architectural idea, but it didn’t seem like a place anybody wanted to live.
Reflections on Modernism in Portland
Jones
And when we last talked [pre-interview meeting], we were discussing the issue of modernism in Portland and you had mentioned that there were some factors that made the area ripe or fertile for modernism. Did you want to talk about that a little bit?
Frasca
. . . That’s why I wanted to show you that picture of Doyle – A. Doyle and Belluschi – because Pietro [Belluschi], you know he did what was then called the Equitable Building, which is, I forget what it’s called now. It was the Commonwealth for a while. But that was the first . . . that building was actually designed before the second world war. And then, they stopped construction and Ralph Cake [Ralph Harlan Cake, Sr.], who was president of Equitable, was chairman of the Republican party, so he got the first building permit after the war [laughs] in the United States. And so that building really put Portland on the map, because it was before any of Mies’s [Ludwig Mies van der Rohe] buildings or the Chicago buildings or any of them.
And so, then Pietro did a lot of terrific churches. He did some terrific houses. And then, when he had a chance to go to MIT, he took it. And, he told me that his health was deteriorating . . . but because, but it was sort of his own personality, he had to do everything. And so, he would work 16 hours a day, seven days a week. And he had ulcers. And so when Bill Wurster [William Wilson Wurster] said, ‘look, I’m going to go back to Berkeley, you want to take the job at MIT?,’ Pietro jumped at it. But, he left this legacy, which is to answer your question. And that’s what brought John Storrs out here. That’s what John told me. And I think, you know, there was sort of a culture here of modernism and there were a lot of . . . SOM [Skidmore, Owings and Merrill architect firm], you know, Pietro sold his firm to SOM. That’s how they ended up here . . .
See, the era beforehand [1950s], first of all, there wasn’t that much going on. The big firm, when I got to town, besides SOM, was Stanton, Boles. And Stanton was the president of the AIA and he did the redo of the public auditorium. You know, this whole building they just kept the walls and dug out the entire inside and then they wanted a modern building. But, there wasn’t a lot going on. But then, in the ‘60s when I got back from Europe, then all of a sudden, there’s all this stuff. The state board of higher education and there was all this university stuff, and then there was some amount of commercial building. Georgia Pacific [now known as the Standard Insurance Center] was built about then and SOM did that. And so, they were pretty much doing all that stuff. And then, it was about ’68, that was the time that there was a lot more energy. A lot more commercial building.
Jones
And was that throughout the nation or Portland?
Frasca
It was national and Portland was getting its share of it. But the thing that separated the eras is, you know I mentioned SOM, that came and with the modernist attitude. And then, the firms that had dominated the era, the profession here in Portland, like Stanton’s firm and the people that did the first piece of the airport. I can’t remember their names now. But they all just died off and disappeared. And so, that’s really what changed. So, I’d say that SOM, first Pietro, then SOM really planted the flag for modernism. And then, firms like ours [ZGF] and Campbell sort of came along in the wake and kind of made our own way.
Jones
How does that compare to what was going on in Seattle around the same time?
Frasca
Well, Seattle had one dominant firm. They’re still dominant up there, which is NBBJ. And they had been an old line firm that was doing old line work. And, then the sons of the original founders, Bill Bain was one of them, you know, back east at architectural school and came back and transformed the firm. And then there were guys like Fred Bassetti, who did some important buildings in Seattle. And so, Seattle was doing very well. But I would say that NBBJ were really the ones that really were dominant and did most of the important public buildings there. And they did a good job, I think.
The Multnomah County Justice Center, Portland, Oregon (1984)
Frasca
The Justice Center was finished in ’84 . . . I guess my motive there was that it was our government center, which, you know, there was the county courthouse and there was the city hall, and then the First National Bank built that wretched tower and the side building. But I wanted to see if I could continue the idea of these civic institutions. Although the biggest part of the program were the police and the jails. And there were only these four little courtrooms which were, I forgot what they call them now, but they’re . . .
Cravens
Magistrate courts.
Frasca
Yeah. I made them the feature and I put them on the park. And then on the backside is the . . . there’s the entrance to the police headquarters and then the jails are just sandwiched in there. And so to me, that was really important in sort of continuing the idea of a civic place. And so if you look overall at what I did in my career it’s to . . . and I think it’s the title of this monograph, which is “Building Community.” And I wrote this forward to it, and you can take this with you [gestures to book]. But it pretty much tells what I wanted to do with the buildings I did and that was to reinforce the fabric of the community around it and add to it. And so, looking back on the 50-odd years that I built buildings, I felt really good about that, because I had seen so many buildings.
I was on the national AIA awards committee and went around and looked at all these buildings. And I would see buildings that were given awards in various years, and they had nothing to do with the area around them and they didn’t contribute to the community in any way. And so, to me, that’s what I always wanted to do. And I can’t say that I always succeeded. But, that’s what I wanted to do. And I did that with OMSI [Oregon Museum of Science and Industry]. I think I did it with the Justice Center. I think even KOIN [KOIN Tower], which, you know, that area was, nothing was happening, so I put the entrance on the Forecourt Fountain [now Keller Fountain Park]. And we had movie theaters in it. I’m not sure that they’re in there anymore or if they’re taken out.
The Oregon Convention Center, Portland (1989)
Jones
I was wondering about the convention center, that project, and your involvement in that. What was the inspiration for you? For that design?
Frasca
I wanted to bring both sides of the river together. And they had already selected that site. The City had been considering, actually, the Union Station site, which I’m glad they didn’t select that one, because that would have obliterated the station. But, they picked that site and we were interviewed and we got it, and I had some sketches here. I had seen this project that Frank Lloyd Wright had done in, oh god, the ‘20s or something. He had this one big tower, it was, I think it was a mile high or something.
Cravens
Yeah, it was his mile-high building [The Illinois].
Frasca
There was the building, but then there was the tower and it was all lit up and everything. And I thought, if I put a big tower there . . . And then the plan was kind of set, because what we wanted to do, the client wanted to do, is . . . Portland was a small city . . . he wanted to have simultaneous conventions. So we wanted to have two entrances into main lobbies and then be able to divide up the exhibit space. So we’d have two simultaneous conventions and one wouldn’t be subservient to the other. So, I said, well, I’ll put two towers in. And the thing, when I think back on it, I didn’t have any arguments from the client. I can still remember that room, it was at Third and Oak, when I showed them this thing and they said, you know, that’s a really good idea, but we’ve got to bid it without the towers and have the towers as an add alternate.
Cravens
But, as a design element, you say they didn’t argue about it.
Frasca
No, not at all.
Cravens
Did that surprise you?
Frasca
Yeah! [laughs]. Because, you know, they were a bunch of businessmen, they were, you know, Carl Halvorson, he was a big developer and owned a lot of property. People like that.
Jones
And this is regarding the expense? It would be more expensive to do two towers?
Frasca
No, it wasn’t two towers. It was ok to have the two, but the tower part that they were thinking was not really essential to the function of it. But they bought it and it didn’t cost that much more, so they went along with it. But that was the main reason. And that kind of makes the point I think that I said earlier, which is that what I’ve always tried to do was to bring the city together and to make something that people in the future could build on, just like I was able to build on what existed here in the first place.