Last week I got a sneak peak at the new Deschutes Brewery pub in the Pearl District.
Brian Libby at Portland Architecture has a much more thorough, and informed, description and review of the Emmons Architects designed space than I could muster, however.
You could tell there was a real architect behind the design in terms of the spatial arrangements. There is lots of character to the place, but I had a sense of the vast wide open space being divided into a series of room-like smaller spaces without the overall sense of light and vastness being taken away.
And he enthusiastically describes something I somehow overlooked on my visit, and didn’t touch on in my anemic review: chainsaw carvings. I’ll have to make another trip to check it out (and have another glass of the delicious Belgian style ale St. Tanith).
The best part of the new Deschutes brewpub, though — besides their copious supply of Mirror Pond ale — may be the cornucopia of chain saw carvings on the entry to each dining room. Emmons tells me the artist works without any drawings or guide; he merely creates with his chainsaw in an impromptu fashion the array of owls, goats and other wildlife. I can’t say it’s the most sophisticated, refined sculpture I’ve ever encountered. But God help me: I love it. There are actually some pretty delicate, artful carvings to these chainsaw works. Maybe next the guy could do a chainsaw Portlandia, or perhaps a statue of Tom Potter as a going away present.
Read the whole post, which includes photos of some of the carvings.
