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June 16, 2004
McMenamin's
This week we're back from a vacation in Oregon. More later, including photos, but for now thanks to those who recommended the Clyde Hotel, which turned out to be well-located and pleasant.
One of the highlights of the trip for us was staying at the McMenamins Grand Lodge in Forest Grove about an hour west of Portland. One of the most successful renovation projects I've ever seen, this beer company transformed an old Masonic retirement home into a genuine Experience. Yet more proof that web designers simply have no business calling themselves "experience architects", the Grand Lodge successfully and elegantly brings together a restaurant, two bars, a movie theater, space for nightly music performances, and quite lovely landscaping. McMenamins has managed to carry their design vision through every conceivable detail, from the fonts used in their menus, to the furnishings, to the murals on the walls, even to the kind of employees they seem to have hired. And of course the beer was great.
It's worth checking out their well-done website to see the other buildings that have been renovated. They've approached historic preservation in a way that feels respectful of builidngs historical roles in a community without ever merely rebuilidng some arbitrary point in the past. The crazy painted plumbing and bizarre calligraphic quotations from Masonic writings on the walls of our room at the Grand Lodge must give purists heart attacks. But just strolling the halls of the building reading these things gave me a far better sense of place's history than any plaque or intstructional text would have.
Posted by Andrew at June 16, 2004 12:55 PM