Surely you’ve passed the boarded up Burger King on Burnside. The preservationists don’t care [no one saves buildings built in 1977 - it's either too soon or they're not worth saving], it’s been on the market and off the market, and has acted as the “official eyesore” for the area for quite some time now.
But, back in 1978, it was included in the Portland Chapter American Institute of Architects’ Design Awards Program.
Seriously? A design award for a Burger King? That’s a real whopper [cough].
You be the judge:
"The atmosphere was to be such that a man in a coat and tie would feel as comfortable as a student."
"What was needed was a building that would reflect the plaza-like nature of the downtown area."
The cost was $64.00 per square feet and was completed in December 1977.
So, what the heck happened? Not enough traffic? Too much riff-raff? Just out of the reach of the downtown area?
People weren’t having it their way?
And now it sits, abandoned. Click on the image for the larger size, with a not-so-hidden message:
I have an idea: the “BK78 Condominium Project.”
Updated info 8/25/08: Commenter Curt Schulz’s lurid tale deserves a place in the post!
Extra bonus bad vibe: a transient was crushed to death in the hydraulic trash compactor in the late 80’s. Supposedly, the man crawled in looking for thrown-away food (or possible just a place to sleep it off) when an employee threw a bag of garbage on top of him and flipped the switch. Although the homeless man’s cries were heard almost immediately, it was too late……
[Current image courtesy of Cyclotram. Be sure to read his post, How to walk the Ross Island Bridge and not die, if you're lucky. Here's a link to his Flickr site with some great local snaps as well.]
how long has that burger king been vacant? i seem to recall it being open in the mid/late 90s, but my memory is foggy. anyone know the exact closing date?
I seem to think it was 2002-2003 that they closed it. The owner had two or three other stores that have been redeveloped.
As for why it went out of business… it was constantly surrounded by drug dealers and prostitutes. No one wanted to go there. The place ended up having a 24hr security guard for the last several years it was opened.
I would like to know what is holding up the sale of that land. According to what I’m finding, they want $2.2 million dollars for it. Maybe that has something to do with it, as I do not know what land goes for in that area.
Makes me want to look at the stuff that’s winning architect design awards now and imagine how ugly we’ll think they are in 20 years. My guess: plenty ugly!
I used to frequent that BK when I was in sales in downtown PDX from 93′ to about 96′, and finally just went through the drivethrough… and yes, if any factors played a part in its closing, it was the homeless/prostitute/drug dealer/meth head/”east siders” that brought the business down.
The building itself is actually pretty big… with a few parking spots out back.
It seems it would be a perfect spot for a high-traffic burger joint… however, the Helen Swindel projects across the street don’t help!
THEN, they build a low-income housing project right next door, i’m sure THAT helped and that building is as butt-ugly as you can get… and to think, they have a great address right on Burnside too, the 747 Building? jeez, Portland is stupid.
I ate there dozens of times in the 1990’s. And by “ate there”, I mean that I dashed through the drive thru lane for a couple of quick Whoppers and a Coke because there was no way I was getting out of the car and walking the gauntlet of drug dealers, prostitutes etc that constantly surrounded the place.
What an indictment of Portland Chapter American Institute of Architects. These are the arbitors of Portland’s architectural design?
I think it’s kind of cool looking. Very utilitarian and designed for the area, instead of plopping down another playschool looking bk.
[...] Lost Oregon takes a look at the Burnside Burger King, cerca 1978 [...]
I can give the AIA a break. Back then Portland was a much smaller town. Even the opening of a fast-food joint was a big deal, and the fact that it was slightly different from other fast-food restaurants was, sadly, architecturally significant at that time.
The local Burger King franchisee went belly up back in 2003 or so, and most of the chain was turned over to the parent company. This location, along with a few others, was closed due to low sales and/or high operating costs. This locations need for a 24 hour security guard certainly didn’t help the situation any, but a collision of corporate and government policies are what really killed off this store.
The new corporate owners of Burger King had just passed a mandate requiring all of its US stores to remodel within 5 years. All stores are now required to share a common look and to have a common kitchen layout. Remodeling the Burnside store to meet these requirements would have been prohibitively expensive and would have required a full rebuild. Many of these mandated changes would have made it next to impossible to get through the City’s design review process that is now requierd for such a location in the central city.
With the value of the land now worth so much more than the buildings on top of it, the corporate owners decided to cut their losses, close the store, and put the land up for sale.
[...] familiar with the now boarded up old Burger King restaurant on Burnside and Broadway. Well, according to Lost Portland the now decrepit building won a design award from the Portland Chapter of the AIA soon after it was [...]
What may be most astouding about the “BK of Doom” is that sitting at Burnside and Broadway, it’s located precisely at “Ground Zero” for downtown- the crossroads for eveything (even if it’s on the edge of what used to be the slummier side of Oldtown).
Even when this franchise was a going concern, it always had a dangerous vibe that didn’t encourage anyone to linger. I always felt like I was going to get a homemade shiv between my ribs along with my Whopper.
Extra bonus bad vibe: a transient was crushed to death in the hydraulic trash compactor in the late 80’s. Supposedly, the man crawled in looking for thrown-away food (or possible just a place to sleep it off) when an employee threw a bag of garbage on top of him and flipped the switch. Although the homeless man’s cries were heard almost immediately, it was too late……
[...] bookmarks tagged burger king Burger King on Burnside 1978 saved by 4 others mamsur73 bookmarked on 08/27/08 | [...]
when I worked downtown, we used to take the ambulance through that BK and use our PA to order – not the intercom. (We we were hillarious)
Ha Ha!
We used to have an old Buick Le Sabre, 1972, 4 door. My mother got stuck in the drive-through in the early 80’s. I was just a kid, but it was embarrassing. We couldn’t get out until 3 other cars backed out of the lane. That car was my first ride, after graduating high school. Man that car had a big back seat….
Later in life, sometime in the early nineties, I met some guy there to buy a stun gun. My girlfriend at the time worked late, and I was worried about her being out. I answered an ad in the Boregonian, and the seller met me at that Burger King. Funny.
I’m going to be the lone wolf here, and say that the architecture of this particular BK isn’t an eyesore. In fact, it looks like something that would fit into SW Portland’s Mountain Park area.
Any long term resident of Portland will tell you that Burnside gets rather hairy at night. Driving to that BK can be tough, and the unsavory folk in the area makes me go for burgers somewhere else.
As an interesting aside, this Burger King comes up as haunted if you google portland haunted places! I was looking for some scary stuff to check out and this ghetto-ass boarded up BK that I’ve passed 100’s of times comes up.. HUH!? Sounds like the ghost of that poor old bum still wanders the place looking for half-eaten burgers…
Plenty of ex-Powell’s employees will note they DID eat at this BK from time to time. Best people watching during the $1 Whopper sales.