ABSTRACT 
 
 
Title of Thesis:      RECLAIMING COMMUNITY THROUGH MULTIPLE   
        GENERATIONS: MIXED-USE HOUSING IN PORTLAND?S  
        CHINATOWN 
 
Kimberly Anne Lee, Master of Architecture, 2004 
 
Thesis directed by:   Isabelle Gournay 
          School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation 
 
 
 For over half a century, the traditional Chinatown, typically located in an urban 
context, has become an isolated entity in which generations of Chinese and Chinese-
Americans are fleeing to the suburbs.  This project will focus on creating an inter-
generational mixed-use housing complex that provides for community resources and 
services.  The goal of this thesis is to encourage a reactivation of a deteriorating 
community through the interaction between first, second, and third generation Chinese 
and Chinese-Americans.  This project will investigate the greater cultural context of how 
the family unit is composed, how an eastern typology may be adapted to the western 
society, and how to deal with issues concerning an ?identifiable place.? 
 The site is located in Portland, Oregon?s Chinatown.  It is situated just north of 
downtown on the edge of the Willamette River.   The site is nearly desolate, but shows 
immense promise for an activated community. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
RECLAIMING COMMUNITY THROUGH MULTIPLE GENERATIONS: MIXED-
USE HOUSING IN PORTLAND?S CHINATOWN 
 
 
 
by 
 
Kimberly Anne Lee 
 
 
 
 
Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the  
University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment 
Of the requirements for the degree of  
Master of Architecture 
2004 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Advisory Committee: 
 
 Professor Isabelle Gournay, Chair 
 Professor William Bechhoefer 
 Professor Peter Noonan 
 
 
 
 ii 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Thank you to all of my family and friends for giving me so much  
love and support through the course of this semester! 
 
 
I could not have done it alone: 
Mom and Dad 
Tanya, Sean, and Kaia 
Jason 
With all my love, Thank You! 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
List of Figures?????????????????...?.??????????.iv 
Introduction??????????????????..??..?????????..1 
Chapter 1: Urban Context......??...?????..?..??.??????????3 
Portland, Oregon.............??????.?...?????.....................................4 
 The History of Portland...........................................................................................7 
 History of Portland?s Chinatown????????????????....?...11 
The Site..................................................................................................................16 
The Surrounding Context............?????????????????...?19 
 The Larger Context......................??????????????????..22 
 Existing Redevelopment Studies.?????????????????..?36 
 
Chapter 2: Chinatowns A Continuum of Faith and Customs......................................40 
 Chinatowns: An Urban Enclave..........??????????.....??..?....?41 
 Chinese Philosophy and Thought.......??????????.....??..??....44 
 Festivals and Holidays...........................................................................................47 
 Feng Shui...............................................................................................................49 
 
Chapter 3: Architectural Theory??????????????.?...????.51 
 Placemaking...........................................................................................................52  
 Regionalism???????????????????...............................56 
 
Chapter 4:  Precedent Studies..?????????????..???..????.61 
 Urban Streets in Other Chinatowns......................................................................62 
 Urban Spaces in Other Chinatowns.......????????...............................65 
 Traditional Chinese Housing Typology................................................................68 
 Precedent for Housing Accommodating an Asian Population..............................71 
 Multi-generational Housing Precedent?????????????....?.....75 
 Housing Precedent??????????????????????...?.78 
 Elderly Housing Precedent??....?????????????????....81 
  
Chapter 5: Functional Considerations and Program???...?..........????..?.83 
 Who are the Users?................................................................................................84 
 Design Approach...................................................................................................86  
 Program Tabulation...............................................................................................88 
 Program Description.............................................................................................89 
 
Chapter 6: Conceptual Design Strategies....................................................................93 
 Parti Study A.........................................................................................................94 
 Parti Study B.........................................................................................................96 
 Parti Study C.........................................................................................................98 
 
Chapter 7: Final Design Conclusions........................................................................100 
 
Bibliography....................................................................................................................117 
 iv
List of Figures 
 
Figure 1. Oregon Counties        4 
Figure 2. Major Waterways        5 
Figure 3. Topography         6 
Figure 4. Population Growth Pattern from 1940-1970    6 
Figure 5.  Aerial Photographs of Portland      7 
Figure 6. Portland Street Network       8 
Figure 7. Figure/Ground Reversal       9 
Figure 8. Portland?s ?Fareless Square?      10 
Figure 9. Entrance Gate        11 
Figure 10. Chinese Funeral in Portland?s Original Chinatown   12 
Figure 11.  Chinese Restaurant in Original Chinatown    13 
Figure 12. Japanese Railroad Section Hands, 1900s     14 
Figure 13. New and Original Chinatown Neighborhoods    14 
Figure 14. Table of Population Percentages for Race in Portland?s Chinatown,  
  Portland, Oregon and the United States    15 
Figure 15. Proposed Site        17 
Figure 16. Diagram-Site Section       18 
Figure 17. Views of the Chamber of Commerce Building from 
  the East and West       18  
Figure 18. Site: Glisan Street and Corner Lot     18 
Figure 19. Site: Corner of Glisan Street and 3
rd
 Avenue    19 
Figure 20. Exterior of Chinese Garden      19 
Figure 21. Interior of Chinese Garden      19 
Figure 22. Axonomeric of Portland?s Chinese Garden    20 
Figure 23. Northwest Natural Gas Building      21 
Figure 24. Context South of Site        21 
Figure 25. Street Block West of Site       22 
Figure 26. Axonometric of Chinatown District and Surrounding Urban  
  Neighborhoods       23 
Figure 27.  Aerial Photograph of Chinatown District     24 
Figure 28. Diagram: Figure/Ground       25 
Figure 29. Diagram: Street Network       26 
Figure 30. Diagram: Figure/Ground Reversal.       27 
Figure 31. Diagram: Private and Public Parking Spaces    28 
Figure 32. Diagram: Green Space       29 
Figure 33. Diagram: Pedestrian Walkability      30 
Figure 34. Diagram: Historic District       31 
Figure 35. Diagram: Ground Floor Housing      32 
Figure 36. Diagram: Above Ground Housing     33 
Figure 37. Diagram: Social Services       34 
Figure 38. Diagram: Building Use       35 
Figure 39. River District Development Plan      37 
Figure 40. Streetscape Redevelopment Plan      40 
Figure 41. Region Origin of Chinese Immigration     42 
 v
Figure 42. Wealthy Couple and Laboring Couple     43 
Figure 43. Family Altar Honoring Ancestors      45 
Figure 44. Buddhist Monk at a Temple in New York    46 
Figure 45. Lion Dance During the Chinese New Year    48 
Figure 46. Chinese Seniors Engaged in a Chinese Chess    53 
Figure 47. Older Chinese Women Gathering to Play Cards    54 
Figure 48. Elderly Chinese Sitting Together for Social Gathering   55 
Figure 49. ?Traditional? Chinese architecture     57 
Figure 50. Portland Chinatown Streetlamps      41 
Figure 51. Tuck Lung Grocery and Restaurant     59 
Figure 52. Murals used as Placemaking Tools     60 
Figure 53. Sidewalk Extension of Grocery Stores     63 
Figure 54. New York and Victoria, BC Chinatown Grocery Stores   64 
Figure 55. Plaza in Seattle?s Chinatown        65 
Figure 56. Portsmouth Square in San Francisco     66 
Figure 57. Portsmouth Square in San Francisco     67 
Figure 58. Liberty Park in New York       67 
Figure 59. Traditional Chinese Housing Type     68 
Figure 60. Interiors of Courtyards within the Complexes    69 
Figure 61. Courtyard plan, details of structural elements in composition  70 
Figure 62. Street Elevation of 555 Ellis Street Housing complex   71 
Figure 63. 555 Ellis Street Housing: Ground Floor Plan and First Floor Plan 72 
Figure 64. Diagram-Courtyard spaces and Community Rooms   73 
Figure 65. Interior Views of Community Rooms     73 
Figure 66. Section Showing Building Slope       73 
Figure 67. Diagram-Elevation bays       74 
Figure 68. Diagram-3-bedroom Unit Plan      74 
Figure 69. Frank G. Mar Community Housing Exterior    75 
Figure 70. Frank G. Mar Housing: Elevation and Section    75 
Figure 71. Diagram-Building Mass Variations     76 
Figure 72. Diagram-The Townhouse Units Accommodate Larger Families  77 
Figure 73. Diagram-Retail Frontage and Parking Levels    77 
Figure 74. Cascade Court Apartment Exterior View     78 
Figure 75. Cascade Court Apartments: Site plan and axon    79 
Figure 76. Diagram-Courtyard of the Cascade Court Apartments   79 
Figure 77. Diagram-Townhouse and Apartment Building Types and Unit Design 80 
Figure 78. Diagram-Courtyard functions      80 
Figure 79. Diemen Housing: Site plan and Exterior View    81 
Figure 80. Diagram-Balcony Spaces in Each Unit     81 
Figure 81. Diagram-Light and Air Exposure in Typical Floor Plans   82 
Figure 82. Interior Views of Circulation Spaces     82 
Figure 83. Urban Parti Study A: Retail vs. Green Streets    94 
Figure 84. Building Parti A        95 
Figure 85. Urban Parti Study B: Node Concept     96 
Figure 86. Building Parti B        97 
Figure 87. Urban Parti Study C: Retail vs. Residential Streets   98 
 vi
Figure 88. Building Parti C        99 
Figure 89. Existing and Proposed Site Plans      104 
Figure 90. Basement Floor and Ground Floor Plans     105 
Figure 91. Second Floor Plan        106 
Figure 92. Third Floor Plan        107 
Figure 93. Fourth through Sixth Floor Plans      108 
Figure 94. Couch Street and Fourth Avenue Elevations    109 
Figure 95. Section Elevation A       110 
Figure 96. Section Elevation B       111 
Figure 97. Typical Unit Plans        112 
Figure 98. Wall Section        113 
Figure 99. View of Corner of Fourth Avenue and Couch Street   114 
Figure 100. View of Public Courtyard      115 
Figure 101. View of Roof Terrace       116 
 
 1
Introduction 
 
 The current condition of most Chinatowns in the United States has been affected 
by urban sprawl and is facing severe disjunction between the social climate in the 
community and the culture of the Asian community in general.  Since the nineteenth 
century industrialization and the advancement of transportation, the desire of suburban 
living became so popular that city dwelling was almost extinct.  Communities became 
less social and more isolated entities.  For the past decade, Chinatowns have had to watch   
generations of Chinese and Chinese Americans escape to seek residence outside of the 
neighborhood.  The ones that choose to remain in these communities stay because they 
are provided with affordable food and lodging, friends, and a familiar place.  In turn, 
these businesses in Chinatowns can only survive with a population that can manage and 
support them.  The current state of Portland, Oregon?s Chinatowns, like many other 
Chinatowns, is a community that is quickly fading away. 
 The question of how to knit this once thriving urban community back together 
becomes a highly difficult puzzle.  It is a synthesis of how to moderate between two very 
different cultures-East and West.  What was once the second largest Chinatown in the 
United States now has a dwindling Asian population of only 2.2 percent.  The answer has 
to address what the existing community may be lacking that is allowing for its residents 
to move to alternate locations and how to bring them back.  The solution needs to 
conform to a larger urban fabric, as well as, specific building programs and community 
services. 
 2
 A housing project that allows for the interaction between the various generations 
of Chinese and Chinese Americans can reunite the strong bonds that exist in the 
traditional Chinese nuclear family that may be lacking as a result of urban sprawl.  It is 
important that this project not only attract Chinese and Chinese Americans back to this 
area, but that it also leads in future growth initiatives to activate the community.  It is also 
important that through this integration, there can be a reintroduction of cultural traditions 
and values.   A component of housing for the aged can accommodate those Chinese and 
Chinese Americans who want to be in close proximity to the younger generations and 
vice versa.  The elderly, who are held in the utmost regard within the Chinese family 
structure, will be able to provide stability for multiple generations to live together within 
one complex. 
 Chinatowns have historically been guided by form, rather than aesthetics.  These 
societies still have an inherent sense of place that makes it a community.   They often use 
elements that remind its residents of their culture.  Essentials such as small grocery stores 
and outdoor and indoor community spaces are lacking in Portland?s Chinatown.    By 
incorporating community activities and meeting spaces into the building program, it can 
aid in activating the interaction between generations and also the community.   This 
project will show that the formation of a viable programmatic and culturally defined 
urban fabric that can support its residences, existing and returning, that can begin to 
animate a community that is need of an answer. 
 
 
 
 3
 
 
CHAPTER 1: 
URBAN CONTEXT 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
(Illustrated by author) 
 4
 
Portland, Oregon 
 
 
 Oregon is located on the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States bordered by 
Washington and California to its north and south, respectively, and Idaho to the East.  
The city of Portland was founded in 1853.  It is situated on the northern border of 
Oregon, along one of Oregon?s major waterways, the Willamette River valley.  At the 
time it was established, it offered a convenient port of ocean-going vessels near the 
juncture of the Willamette Valley and the Columbia Gorge.     
 
 
Figure 1. Oregon Counties including Portland location. (State Maps) 
    
 5
 
   Figure 2. Major Waterways (State Maps) 
    
 
 Oregon?s topography is highly diversified with major waterways, mountain 
ranges, forest areas and desserts.  The Willamette River valley is surrounded by 
significant dessert to most of Eastern Oregon and forested, mountain ranges to the South 
and West.  This explains the growth of population density along the valley.  By 1940 an 
additional 400,000 people lived in the Portland urban region from the early settling in 
1900, and continued to expand farther along the extensions from downtown Portland 
which had begun to appear before the turn of the century.  In 1975, the Portland urban 
region spread to over 1600 square kilometers and contained more than one million 
people, including 150,000 Washingtonians in and around Vancouver.  The population 
had doubled between 1940 and 1970, but the area of the urban lands had quadrupled.  
This led to vigorous building activity extending in every direction-north, south, east and 
west.
1
 
                                                 
1
 Atlas of Oregon.  Portland, Oregon: University of Oregon Bookstore, 1976. p.133. 
 6
 
      Figure 3. The topography of Oregon changes  
   drastically from west to east.  The western and  
   northern areas show immense mountain ranges,  
   while the southeast is mainly desert. (State Maps) 
 
 
 
 
     Figure 4.  Population Growth Pattern from 1940-1970.  (Atlas of Oregon) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 7
The History of Portland 
 
 
 ?Within a relatively small downtown district can be found nineteenth- 
 century cast-iron-front buildings, skyscrapers, old brick warehouses,  
 and 1890 train station  with a 150-foot clock tower, five historic  
 bridges over the Willamette River, and an assortment of museum,  
 government, and retail buildings.?
2
 
 
 
 Figure 5. Aerial Photographs of Portland. (www.PortlandMaps.com)  
 
 Historically, the Pacific Northwest in the 1800s was an area claimed by Russia, 
Spain, Great Britain, and the United States.  By the 1840s, the latter two were players, 
and the Anglo-American Oregon Treaty used the 49
th
 parallel as a dividing line between 
American and British interests.  The area Portland was a mere acre of land that was used 
as a resting place between travels.  Stripped of its oak, cottonwood, and fir trees, it was 
appropriately named ?The Clearing.?  There were no buildings, except for a small log hut 
and the broken mast of a ship.  In 1842, Oregon?s first wagon train arrived, bringing 
approximately a hundred immigrants into the area.  They were mostly farmers, but also 
                                                 
2
 King, Bart.  An Architectural Guidebook to Portland.  Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith, Publisher, 2001. p.. vii. 
 8
opportunists and capitalists who recognized a potentially valuable real estate prophet at 
the meeting points of the two rivers-the Willamette and the Columbia. 
 Portland was built on a small, dense scale.  Its original 1846 plat established 
sixteen city blocks, measuring two hundred square feet in order to maximize prized 
corner lots and to provide better 
access to the Willamette River.  
Showing no signs of the 
original wooden residences, 
Portland?s modern downtown is 
primarily generated out of  
the popularity of the 1860s cast-
iron fronted buildings with 
masonry construction.  Since 
Portland experiences overcast 
skies through the winter, fall and 
spring seasons, the cast iron 
construction of the buildings and 
large amount of street volume 
allow for the most abundant 
sunshine to enter its spaces indoors, as well as, outdoors.   In 1872 the Great Fire blazed 
through thirty city blocks.  By the mid-1870s, most buildings were stone or brick 
edifices.  
 
Figure 6. Portland Street Network. (Illustrated by author)
 9
 Beginning in 1893 and continuing into the early twentieth century, there was a 
nationwide swell of support for the ?City Beautiful? movement (also known as 
?American Renaissance?), a movement whose goal it was to improve cities through 
conscious civic planning.  This movement led to subsequent design improvements in 
addressing issues of a maximum exposure of light and air.  In 1978, the City?s  
Metropolitan Service District was created as an experiment in regional planning.  It has 
authority over three counties and is best known for drawing the nation?s first urban 
growth boundary in order to contain suburban sprawl and keep the city?s core alive.   
 
     Figure 7. Figure/Ground Reversal Showing Portland?s Street and Urban Space  
    Considerations. (Illustrated by author) 
 
 10
 
        Figure 8.  Diagram-?Fareless Square? provides free transportation  
         within these boundaries. (Illustrated by author) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 11
History of Portland?s Chinatown 
 
 
           Figure 9. Entrance Gate on Burnside Road and Second  
           Avenue. (Photographed by author) 
 
 The earliest Chinese to come to Oregon can be tracked to 1851 with the discovery 
of gold in its southern counties and the establishment of a steamer connection between 
Portland and San Francisco.  By 1857, there were several hundred Chinese miners 
working in Jackson and Josephine counties.  With growing number these laborers faced 
anti-Chinese sentiments, with the perception that the Chinese were going to invade the 
job markets leaving Americans without employment.  Despite discrimination, a number 
of Chinese still entered Portland, showing the greatest influx in the 1860s.  Many laborers 
came to Portland to construct the Oregon Central Railroad in 1868.  After the project was 
finalized, the Chinese either traveled elsewhere along the rail lines, returned back home 
to China, or stayed in the area if they could not afford the travel.  By 1870, four rail lines 
were being constructed in Oregon, attracting Chinese from California and China through 
the Portland lines
3
.   
                                                 
3
 ?Chinese Development Plan.?  Portland, Oregon: Chinese Consolidated Benevolent  
 Association, 1984. p. 4. 
  
 12
 The Chinese have been in Portland almost since its establishment in 1853.  Direct 
trade between Portland and China began in 1851.  The first business began operating that 
year as well.  As a result of good relations, the Burlingame Treaty was signed in 1868 
between the United States and China, guaranteeing free entrance and equal treatment for 
nationals of both countries.  Soon after, ships were bringing in immigrants directly from 
Hong Kong to Portland in numbers, avoiding direct entrance into San Francisco first.  
Interestingly, with growing anti-Chinese sentiment along the West coast, in 1886, citizens 
of Oregon formed militias and prevented the ousting of Chinese in Portland, creating a 
refuge for the persecuted Chinese of other states. 
 By the mid-1870s, the Chinese had become the largest ethnic group in Portland.  
At the time, the community of 5,000 occupied twenty-seven blocks of the now existing 
downtown.  The Chinese settled in 
this area as a response to the 
working opportunities that were 
available as Portland had become a 
regional economic and 
transportation center along the 
Columbia and Willamette Rivers.   
After the flood of 1894 and the 
completion of Union Station, some Chinese migrated to the current Chinatown (then, a 
Japanese district, later called ?Little Tokyo?), while others stayed in the original 
settlement.
4
 
                                                 
4
 Ho, Nelson Chia-Chi.  Portland?s Chinatown: The History of an Urban Ethnic District.  Portland,  
 Oregon: Bureau of Planning, 1978. p.4-10. 
Figure 10. Chinese Funeral in Portland?s Original 
Chinatown, 1888. (Ho) 
 13
 The Japanese came to America at a time when their national political system had 
felt the influence of Western thought and ambitions after the Meiji Revolution.    Like the 
Chinese, most of them came to assist in construction of the railroads.  By 1900, there 
were more than 200 Japanese in Portland.  In 1910, Oregon?s Japanese population 
reached approximately 3,418.  They worked as merchants, lodging ?house keepers, hotel  
and restaurant workers, tailors, 
shoemakers, dyers, cleaners, 
factory workers, and farm 
hands.  After the attack on 
Pearl Harbor on December 7, 
1941, Japanese were seen as 
the ?enemies.?  President  
Roosevelt issued Executive 
Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, forcing the evacuation of all persons of Japanese 
ancestry from California, Portland, and Washington into concentration camps.  
Adjustment was extremely difficult during the post-war period with continued 
discrimination and hostility against the Japanese.  Today, there are approximately 4,000 
Japanese Americans in Portland, but the current population in today?s existing Chinatown 
is almost extinct.
5
 
                                                 
5
 Ho, Nelson Chia-Chi.  Portland?s Chinatown: The History of an Urban Ethnic District.  Portland,  
 Oregon: Bureau of Planning, 1978.  p.27-33. 
Figure 11. Chinese Restaurant in Original Chinatown. (Ho) 
 14
 
Figure 12.  Japanese Railroad Section Hands, 1900s. (Ho) 
 
 The earlier Chinatown district is currently replaced by new buildings and parking 
lots adjacent to the downtown waterfront.  The current ten-block Chinatown is located in 
an area ?that is known as ?Skid Road? or ?Old Town.?  A large portion of the area has 
been declared ?historic? by the community legislators.   
 
   Figure 13.  New (A) and Original (B) Chinatown  
   Neighborhoods. (Illustrated by author) 
 15
 Today, the population of Chinese and Chinese Americans is significantly low, and 
continues to diminish in size.  During the two decades following World War II: 
 Nearly all the Chinese residents of Chinatown moved to neighborhoods 
 throughout metropolitan Portland.  By the early 1960s, the Chinese  
 district consisted of a few restaurants, grocery and wholesale stores,  
 family association halls, a church and Chinese language school.  The  
 move to the suburbs, demolition of buildings for parking lots and the  
 general decline of the Burnside neighborhood into ?Skid Road? severely 
 weakened Chinatown
6
. 
 
In 2000, the population in Portland?s Chinatown totaled 2,916 which are equal to only 
twenty-two people per acre of land.  Of this total, the white population (2,258 people) 
composes 75.2%, African Americans (267 people)-8.9%, Hispanics (201 people)-6.7%, 
and Native Americans (112 people)-3.7%.  Surprisingly, only 67 of 2,916 people 
represent the Asian community which comprises an astonishing 2.2% of the total 
population in the Chinatown neighborhood.
7
  In Portland?s Chinatown, the largest 
Race Portland?s Chinatown Portland, Oregon United States 
White 75.2% 77.9% 75.1%
African American 8.9% 6.6% 12.3% 
Hispanic 6.7% 6.8% 12.5%
Asian  2.2% 6.3% 3.6% 
American Indian 3.7% 1.1% 0.9% 
Native Islander 0.3% 0.4% 0.1% 
Other 30% 3.5% 5.5%
Figure 14. Table of population percentages for race in Portland?s Chinatown, Portland, Oregon and 
the United States.
8
 (By author) 
 
                                                 
6
 ?Chinese Development Plan.?  Portland, Oregon: Chinese Consolidated Benevolent  
 Association, 1984. p.5. 
7
 Census Bureau Information 2000 for Oldtown/Chinatown.  See Bibliography. 
8
 Census Bureau Information 2000 for Oldtown/Chinatown, Portland City, Oregon, and the United States.   
 See Bibliography. 
 16
age group is the ages 40-64 group, comprising 46.2% of the total population.  The 22-39 
age group is slightly smaller (42.7%), while the 65 and older age group is 4.9%, the 18-
21 age group is 4.4%, the 5-17 age group represents 1.2% and the under 5 years-old 
group is only 0.7% of Chinatown?s population.
9
 
 Efforts were once planned to resurrect ?old? Chinatown.  In 1961 plans were 
drawn up for the development of a new Chinatown at the site of the old waterfront area.  
But the project was never realized as the last Chinese housing establishment was sold.  
Currently the Chinese and the Chinese American community are committing to revitalize 
the existing conditions of Portland?s Chinatown.  Confidence in the area has been 
renewed.  Substantial private investments have been made and public improvements are 
planned.  The Chinese and Asian community, which is geographically spread throughout 
the metropolitan area, is coming back to Chinatown to shop and eat while the interest of 
non-Asians in the Chinatown offerings of food and culture continues to grow
10
. 
 
The Site 
 The proposed site is located in the heart of Portland?s existing Chinatown.  It is 
approximately one hundred-feet by two-hundred feet (20,000 square feet).  It is currently 
occupied by the Chamber of Commerce for the Chinatown with a seventy- five by one 
hundred corner lot for its parking.  It is situated on a relatively flat site, two blocks from 
the waterfront on its east and a privately-owned Chinese garden across the street to the 
north.   This site is located on Glisan Street, between Third and Fourth Avenues. 
                                                 
9
 Census Bureau Information 2000 for Oldtown/Chinatown.  See Bibliography. 
10
 ?Chinese Development Plan.?  Portland, Oregon: Chinese Consolidated Benevolent  
 Association, 1984. p.5. 
 17
 
     Figure 15.  Proposed Site on Glisan Street, between 3
rd
 and 4
th
 Avenues. (Illustrated by  
     author) 
 18
 
Figure 16. Diagram-Site Section facing south shows abrupt 30 feet level change of waterfront and the 
Willamette River. (Illustrated by author)  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure 17. Views of the Chamber of Commerce Building from the East and West. (Photographed by  
author) 
 
 
Figure 18. Site: Glisan Street and Corner Lot. (Photographed by author) 
 19
 
 
Figure 19. Site: Corner of Glisan Street and 3
rd
 Avenue. (Photographed by author) 
 
 
The Surrounding Context 
 The Portland Classical Chinese Garden encompasses the entire block between 
Glisan and Flanders Streets, and Third and Fourth Avenues.  It is bordered by 6-foot wall 
with an occasional punched opening.  It is a privately-owned park which requires a small  
 
Figure 20. Exterior of Chinese Garden.  Its main entrance is on the corner of Glisan St and 3
rd
 Ave.  
(Photographed by author) 
 
Figure 21.  Interior of Chinese Garden. (Photographed by author)  
 20
 
fee to enter.  Unfortunately, for this reason, it is primarily dedicated to tourist attraction.  
The 40,000 square feet of park encompasses a large pond that is encircled by traditional 
wood-constructed buildings.     
  
 
 Figure 22. Axonometric of Portland?s Chinese Garden. (Portland Chinese Garden Pamphlet) 
 21
 The Northwest Natural Gas Building/One Pacific Square is located directly east 
of the site, occupying the corner of Glisan Street and Fourth Avenue.  This 23-floor 
hexagonal tower is one of the 
tallest buildings in the 
neighborhood and stands out with 
its use of a completely reflective 
external skin.  To the south and 
west of the site, the building fabric 
consists of simpler, traditional 
mixed-use housing buildings with 
retail and restaurants on the ground 
floor and housing above. 
 
 
 
 
  Figure 24. Context building south of Site on Third Street. (Photographed by author) 
Figure 23. Northwest Natural Gas Building.   
(Photographed by author) 
 22
 
 
 
Figure 25.  Street Block West of Site on Glisan Street and Third Avenue. (Photographed by author) 
 
The Larger Context 
 The larger context of building and street fabric that encompasses the site lays on 
the two-hundred-feet by two-hundred-feet block grid.  Each block is typically composed 
entirely of building fabric.  The small block dimensions result in service streets that are 
located along city blocks, rather than creating small alleys.  It is also interesting to note 
the consistent building heights of three to four stories in the neighborhood with the 
exception of a few buildings which reach up to 220 feet.  Many of these buildings are 
mixed-use buildings with retail or restaurants below and housing above.  However, a 
large number of the businesses and housing are either out of commission or abandoned.  
A number of the businesses consist of adult book stores, impersonation clubs, and tourist 
shops.  Also, only a small percentage of the restaurants are Chinese-owned.  
Additionally, most of the restaurants cater to an Americanized-cuisine, making it 
undesirable to attain authentic Chinese meals.  Other buildings in the area are dedicated 
to community services and office space.  
 23
 
Figure 26. Axonometric of Chinatown district and surrounding urban neighborhoods with relation to 
the Waterfront and major streets. (Chinatown Development Plan) 
 
 24
 
      Figure 27. Aerial Photograph of Chinatown District. (www.PortlandMaps.com) 
 
 
 25
 
    Figure28. Diagram: Figure/Ground shows the small city blocks as figures.  
    (Illustrated by author)  
 26
 
     Figure 29. Diagram: Street Network.  Streets are wide along city blocks to  
         allow for maximum exposure of light to the buildings and spaces.  (Illustrated by author) 
  
 
 
 27
 
 Figure 30.  Diagram: Figure/Ground Reversal.  Although many of the building  
 blocks are built on, there is still a large amount of excess space. (Illustrated by author)   
 28
 
 Figure 31. Diagram: Private and Public Parking Spaces.  Much of the  
      buildable area of the city blocks are currently occupied by vacant parking lots.  
 (Illustrated by author) 
 29
 
 Figure 32. Diagram: Green Space.  The site shows great opportunity for a  
 larger quantity of green spaces which can help to relate to the waterfront property.  
 (Illustrated by author) 
 30
 
  Figure 33.  Diagram: Pedestrian Walkability.  From the entrance gate, a  
 pedestrian can enjoy a brisk 5-minute walk (one-quarter of a mile) to the waterfront.  
 (Illustrated by author) 
 31
 
 Figure 34. Diagram: Historic District.  About seventy-five percent of Chinatown?s 
 ten city blocks are declared as historic buildings by the city planning office.  
 (Illustrated by author)  
 32
 
 Figure 35.  Diagram: Ground Floor Housing.  Most of the ground floor uses  
 belong to retail, restaurants, and small businesses. (Illustrated by author) 
 33
 
 Figure 36.  Diagram: Second Floor Housing.  Even with mixed-use residential  
 fabric, Portland?s Chinatown shows a significant deficiency in housing in comparison  
 with other Chinatowns. (Illustrated by author) 
 34
 
      Figure 37. There are few Social Services provided within the Chinatown  
      neighborhood.  (Old Town Chinatown 3
rd
 & 4
th
 Avenue Streetscape Plan:  
      Final Report) 
 
 35
 
      Figure 38.  Ground Floor building uses consist of mostly restaurants and  
       stores that often only attract tourists.  Many of the storefronts are vacant or  
       destroyed.  (Old Town Chinatown 3
rd
 & 4
th
 Avenue Streetscape Plan: Final  
       Report) 
 
 36
Existing Redevelopment Studies 
 
 In the past five years, the city of Portland, the Portland Development 
Commission, and the community of Portland have produced various development 
strategies that target the city?s significant economic and political growth potential in each 
of its districts.  Among them, Chinatown has remained a priority for many to revitalize 
the existing state of the community and to begin to draw the Asian and Asian-American 
population back into to Chinatown.  Two essential redevelopment studies that are 
relevant to Chinatown are the River District Development Project and the Third and 
Fourth Avenue Streetscape Plan.  
 The River District Development Project has been produced by the Portland 
Development Commission of Oregon as a major revitalization project adjacent to 
downtown Portland.  It was developed in the late 1990s and will continue to be 
constructed through the next five years, a major portion of which contains the existing 
Chinatown.  Its main focus lies in the northwest region which encompasses major 
waterfront development near Union Station and the Greyhound terminal.  This plan 
begins to introduce new building types and uses that will be created upon the large 
number of existing vacant lots around the area, including housing and community service 
projects.  What is interesting is that the study begins to address the addition of much 
needed green spaces to the area that provide a much needed link from the inner city to the 
edge of the waterfront. 
 
 
 
 37
 
 
        Figure 39. River District Development Plan. (Portland  Development Commission) 
 
 38
 The Chinatown Third and Fourth Avenue Streetscape Plan is the current study for 
the renovation of the existing streetscape of Chinatown.  It was developed in 2002 as 
a schematic design that would provide a foundation for an urban design solution for 
the Chinatown neighborhood in which construction is expected to begin as soon as 
2004-2005.  This project was produced by local landscape architects, architects, and 
the community as the first step in a larger collaborative effort to revitalize the existing 
conditions of Portland?s Chinatown.   
 Deemed as the ?Refined Jewel Box Approach,? this project focuses on creating 
special ?festival? areas within Old Town/ Chinatown while also providing continuous 
elements that unify the entire neighborhood.  This includes the introduction of two 
major festival streets along Davis and Flanders Streets.  Each will be denoted by 
various paving patterns and streetscape d?cor. These ?festival? streets provide 
celebrated spaces that are not currently provided for at the moment in Chinatown.  
The ?festival? street concept responded to a need evidenced in other Asian, urban 
neighborhoods for flexible, public space to serve pedestrians, street festivals, 
shopping fairs and special events, while accommodating the need for traffic 
movement.
11
  Another interesting element is the landscaping of traditional Chinese 
trees around the neighborhood, as well as, designed marquees on plaques that will be 
strategically placed on certain buildings.  These are additional elements that hope to 
provide for a ?place? that is distinctly Chinatown. 
 
                                                 
11
 ?Old Town Chinatown 3
rd
 & 4
th
 Avenue Streetscape Plan: Executive Summary.?  Portland, Oregon: City 
of Portland, 2002.  
 
 39
 
 Figure 40. Third & Fourth Avenue Streetscape Plan. (Ben Ngan Associates) 
 
 40
 
CHAPTER 2: 
CHINATOWNS: A CONTINUUM OF  
FAITH AND CUSTOMS 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
(Illustrated by author)  
 41
Chinatowns: An Urban Enclave  
 
   ?They conceived of themselves as members of local extended kin  
units, bound together by ties of blood and their local dialects, and  
only secondarily, if at all, as ?citizens? of the Chinese Empire.
12
? 
      -Nelson Chia-Chi Ho 
 
 Prior to the mid-nineteenth century, China had a major trade advantage over the 
Western nations.  Although the Western nations desired access to China?s number of 
luxury products, including silk, porcelain, and tea, China had little interest in opening its 
trade to the West.  In 1839, Britain launched Opium Wars as a means to force China to 
open its doors to opium trade, and in effect, upon defeat, opening China?s larger port and 
trade markets.  
 With a deteriorating economy, a series of natural disasters, food shortages, and 
internal government corruption, domestic unrest and violence culminated in what was 
called, the Taipei Rebellion.  Thousands of Chinese travelled to the Americas as a result 
to escape the poverty and chaos of their homeland.  Because of this original influx of 
Chinese immigrants, the United States and Canada became home the two largest 
concentrations of Chinese in the Western Hemisphere.   
  Chinese immigration to the United States and Canada can be divided in four 
stages: unrestricted immigration propelled by labor needs of the host country, exclusion, 
restricted immigration, and equal basis immigration.  The Chinese hoped for the prospect 
of wealth and fortune with news spreading back in China of jobs and gold in America 
                                                 
12
 Ho, Nelson Chia-Chi.  Portland?s Chinatown: The History of an Urban Ethnic District.  Portland,  
Oregon:**,****. p.2. 
 42
(also known as Gum San or ?Gold Mountain).  These immigrants were usually peasants 
from the T?ai-Shan district in southern China-Kwantung
13
.   
 
 Figure 41.  Region Origin of Chinese Immigration.  (Ho) 
 
Early immigration swarmed to Sutter?s Mill in San Francisco in 1848 after the discovery 
of gold was reverberated in China.  At this time, San Francisco saw a rise in population 
from approximately 50 immigrants in 1840 to 25,000 by 1852, and 100,000 in 1880.  In 
the 1880s, the early Chinese mainly consisted of laborers who came to the Pacific West 
to find work constructing either the Transcontinental Railroad in the United States or the 
Canadian Pacific Railway in Canada.  Together, the two railways brought over 40,000 
immigrants to the west coast.  The immigrants were primarily male because of the 
arduous work of mining and building railroads, but also because if strict immigration 
                                                 
13
 Transitions: The Changing Profile of New York Chinatown.  1
st
 ed.  CD-ROM.  New  
 York: Museum of Chinese in the Americas (MOCA), 2001. 
 
 43
laws that restricted entry of Chinese women.  These resulted in the formation of 
Chinatown?s ?bachelor societies.? 
 After completion of the railroads, many laborers settled along the routes which 
they worked on.  Others traveled along these routes to settle throughout the continental 
United States.  They were soon able to establish small businesses utilizing their skills in 
agriculture and fishing, and filling needs such as laundries and restaurants.  However, 
with the economic depression of the 
1870s, anti-Chinese sentiment was 
beginning to escalate as the laborers were 
being blamed for the country?s economic 
woes.  In 1882, the United States passed 
the Chinese Exclusion Act banning all 
Chinese laborers into the country 
exempting diplomats, tourists, merchants, 
teachers, and students.  Chinese in Canada faced similar exclusion with the establishment 
of the Chinese Immigration act of 1923 which allowed no more than two dozen Chinese 
to enter into Canada in the subsequent twenty-four years.   
 Chinatown communities became economic, political and cultural centers where 
immigration could find safety, security, sustenance and support to help cope with the 
hardships imposed by exclusion and discrimination.  In these communities, immigrants 
could receive medical treatment and at the same time, find familiarity and friendship 
among one another.  Chamber of Commerce, as well as, civic and political groups were 
established to help small business owners and community interaction.  Chinese 
Figure 42. Wealthy Couple and Laboring 
Couple. 1872.  Portland, Oregon.  (Ho)
 44
Benevolent Associations (CBA) were created to address the general needs of the 
community and to act as representatives and spokes persons.  As a result, Chinese 
businesses were able to flourish, as the Chinatowns became popular locations for tourism 
and dining.   
 After World War II, the positive engagement and support of the Chinese helped to 
shift anti-Chinese sentiment and paved a way for new legislation that would open up 
Chinese immigration to America.  The United States repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act 
in 1943; however, continuing to restrict Chinese immigration to a quota of the entry of 
105 immigrants per year.  These quotas were finally lifted with the Immigration Act of 
1965.  Population growth of Chinese in the United States has increased from 
approximately 725 Chinese in 1970 to 1,645,472 in 1990.  Similarly, Canada?s revoking 
of their exclusionary legislation in 1947 allowed for increased entry into the country.  A 
greater influx was evident when Canada?s government officially adopted a national 
ideology of multiculturalism in 1970.  Canada has seen their Chinese population rise 
from 4,383 in 1881 to 586,645 in 1991.
14
 
 
Chinese Philosophy and Thought 
 ?Traditions of devotion are central to Chinese and Chinese American life, 
although religious affiliation and the nature of home traditions may vary.
15
?  In many 
households, both young and grown children are instilled with reverence for ancestors.  
Chinese popular religion is a mix of ancestor worship, animism, Taoism, Buddhism, and 
Confucianism.  Each person can worship multiple gods, each one bringing its own 
                                                 
14
 Transitions: The Changing Profile of New York Chinatown.  1
st
 ed.  CD-ROM.  New York: Museum of  
Chinese in the Americas (MOCA), 2001. 
15
 Where is Home?: Chinese in the Americas.  New York: Museum of Chinese Americans, 2002. p.24.  
 45
message and influence in everyday life, each fulfilling a different circumstance or need.  
In addition, the Chinese may also worship gods come from different religions or beliefs.  
In this world view, the mortal and immortal are seen as interdependent of each other.   
 The gods possess supernatural powers, but have common human needs, and must 
rely on the ritual offerings of human worshippers.  The idea of a reciprocal relationship 
with the nether world also 
includes ancestral spirits, who 
look after their descendants.
16
  
Many households still keep 
family altars where the 
ancestors are honored, others simply rely on photographs.  Although these worshipping 
practices may differ, the ancestors are always held in high regard. 
 Taoism is seen as a mystical philosophy introduced in the first century B.C. by 
Lao-Tzu.  The Taoist seeks to ?become one with Nature, which he calls the Tao.
17
?  The 
term Tao stands for the totality of all things, equivalent to what some Western 
philosophers have called ?the absolute.?   It encourages the belief in divination and usage 
of charms.  It also encourages the embrace of many gods.  Taoism concentrates of the 
individual life and tranquility-encompassing the beginnings of all things and the way in 
which all things pursue their course.  When the Tao is possessed by individual things, it 
                                                 
16
 Where is Home?: Chinese in the Americas.  New York: Museum of Chinese Americans, 2002. p.25. 
17
 Creel, H.G.  Chinese Thought: From Confucius to Mao Tse-tung.  New York: The New American  
 Library of Canada Limited, 1953.  p.87.  
Figure 43. Family altar honoring ancestors. (Where is 
Home?) 
 46
becomes its character or virtue and thus the ideal life for the individual, the ideal order 
for society, and the ideal type of government are all based on it and guided by it.
18
 
 Around the Christian era, Buddhism spread from India to China.  This philosophy 
taught the significance of practicing an honorable life at all times-the life was a cycle of 
celebrated deaths and rebirths, a step toward nirvana.  ?The Buddha?s image holds a bag  
containing future happiness 
for all.  He laughs because he 
knows, no matter how bad 
things may look now, how 
wonderful everything will be 
in the blessed future.
19
?  
Among the many ideals of 
Buddhism, the worshipping 
of ancestors was also 
encouraged.  This apparently was a major influence in the honorable perception of the 
Chinese afterlife, the ancestral community and the living elders. 
 Confucianism, closely related to ancestor worship, is derived from the teachings 
of Confucius who lived from 551 to 479 B.C.  He taught about humanism and that the 
main purpose in life is to learn how to live with our fellow men.
20
  He did not talk about 
spiritual beings or even about life after death.  Instead, believing that man ?can make the 
                                                 
18
 Chan, Wing-Tsit.  A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy.  New Hampshire; The Bobbs-Merrill 
 Company, 1963. p.136. 
19
 Creel, H.G.  Chinese Thought: From Confucius to Mao Tse-tung.  New York: The New American  
 Library of Canada Limited, 1953.  pp.161-162. 
20
 Dowdell, Dorothy and Joseph.  The Chinese Helped Build America.  New York: Julian Messner, 1972.   
 p.72. 
Figure 44. Buddhist monk at a temple in New York. 1965. 
(Where is Home?)
 47
Way (Tao) great,? and not that ?the Way can make man great,; he concentrated on man.  
His primary concern was a good society based on good government and harmonious 
human relations.  To this end, he advocated a good government that rules by virtue and 
moral example rather than by punishment or force.  For the family, he particularly 
stressed filial piety and for society in general, proper conduct or propriety.
21
 
 In most Chinese and Chinese American families, the Christian religious doctrine 
exist side-by-side with these Chinese cultural practices.  In many cases, Christianity has 
become the main religion of most Chinese Americans, although some attend the Buddhist 
or Confucius Churches.  Superstitions and symbols of good and bad fortune are still 
believed in, but taken more lightly.
22
  ?Home religion? and public communal ceremonies 
endure in a host of customs that preserve the vibrant embellishments of Chinese culture, 
from Lunar New Year and other seasonal celebrations to the rituals of marriage. 
 
Festivals and Holidays 
 In ?Old China,? people held festivals to celebrate many different things.  They 
celebrated the changing of seasons and paid respects to their ancestors.  In the Chinese 
calendar, there were no weeks, so there were no Sundays as days of rest, as in the 
Western world.
23
  It was the festivals that gave the people a chance to enjoy themselves 
by forgetting about the work day. 
 Although China has adopted the Western solar calendar, all holidays are still 
based on the lunar calendar, a system based on cycles of the moon.  Falling anytime 
                                                 
21
 Chan, Wing-Tsit.  A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy.  New Hampshire; The Bobbs-Merrill  
 Company, 1963. pp. 14-15. 
22
 Dowdell, Dorothy and Joseph.  The Chinese Helped Build America.  New York: Julian Messner, 1972.   
 p.73. 
23
 Ibid. p. 75. 
 48
between January 21 and February 19, the Lunar New Year brings forces of Yang, warmth 
and light, to overcome the forces of Yin, cold, dark winter.
24
  It is a time of celebrating  
 
Figure 45. Lion Dance during the Chinese New Year. (Dowdell) 
 
new beginnings and is probably the most important holiday for the Chinese in the United 
States.  Although customs may vary in each household, it is a time for everyone to chase 
away bad tidings and usher in good ones.  It is celebrated by family reunions, large feasts, 
gifts of hong bao/ laih sih (lucky red envelopes of money) from older generations to 
younger, unmarried generations, and most importantly, large public festivities along 
major streets.  These often involve fireworks for their properties of light, fire, and noise 
for signs of vibrant life, parades of Chinese dancers, and the essential Lion Dance.   
 The Lion Dance is a stylized choreography in which large numbers of performers 
gather under large paper-mache- and fabric-made lion and dragon sheaths to symbolize 
                                                 
24
 Where is Home?: Chinese in the Americas.  New York: Museum of Chinese Americans, 2002. pp.29-30. 
 49
the mythical stature of these creatures in ancient Chinese thought.  The lions were 
introduced to the Chinese court as acts of tribute from ancient Persia and are seen as 
symbols of purity and protection.  According to legend, it awakens from a year?s sleep 
and appears on earth at the New Year
25
.  The lion can measure to about fifty-feet long.  
During the New Year, they can be seen in the streets as they are performed for merchants 
in return for lucky hong bao/ laih sih.  In addition to the Chinese Lunar New Year, the 
Lion Dance is performed for occasions such as weddings and grand openings. 
 Ch?ing Ming, or Pure Brightness Festival, in the spring is Chinese Memorial Day.   
It is also called the sweeping of the tombs.  The oldest member of the family sweeps the 
graves with willow branches, which are supposed to drive away evil spirits.  Families 
clean the graves and pull up weeds.  The dead are honored again at Spirit?s Festival, 
which takes place during the seventh Chinese month.  The family visits the cemetery and 
burns paper money and clothing.
26
 
 
Feng Shui 
 The science of feng shui is based on principles that synthesize the harmony and 
balance between the forces of nature and influences of man.  These principles play an 
important role in the creation of the various environments of the Chinese culture.  The art 
of Feng Shui lies in the placement of objects or buildings with reference to a sense of 
                                                 
25
 Dowdell, Dorothy and Joseph.  The Chinese Helped Build America.  New York: Julian Messner, 1972.   
 p.76. 
26
 Ibid. p.76. 
 50
balance, the theory of yin (negative) and yang (positive), the orientation of the sun, the 
direction of wind and the flow of water courses.
27
   
 In the interpretation of traditional classical architecture, the concept of yin and 
yang is expressed in dualism in architecture.  Masculine qualities are yang and feminine 
qualities are yin.  Thus, built-up areas, sun-lit roofs, protruding structures and front 
elevations are yang, and void areas, shadowed eaves, set-back structures and rear 
elevations are yin.  When there is too much of yang in anything it will turn to yin and vice 
versa, and therefore, will be imbalanced and undesirable.  When there is balance in an 
environment there is qi or rejuvenating energy.  Thus, it is of vital importance that 
buildings should be correctly sited, appropriately related to surrounding buildings and 
balanced in construction materials and design elements. 
 Today, the practice of feng shui in small and large scale buildings is not as 
common as it used to be in ancient Chinese dwellings and palaces.  With the growing 
number of Chinese American generations, these principles have begun to lose their 
clarity and understanding of the various aspects of feng shui.  However, despite the lack 
of Chinese Americans using feng shui in current society, for some reason many non-
Asians have begun to follow a current ?trend? of combining feng shui and dwelling 
together as one.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                 
27
 Lip, Dr. Evelyn.  Feng Shui: Environments of Power: A Study of  Chinese Architecture.  Singapore: 
Academy Group Ltd, 1995. p. 67. 
 51
 
 
CHAPTER 3: 
ARCHITECTURAL THEORY 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
(Illustrated by author)  
 52
Placemaking 
 
 
   ?The power of place-the power of ordinary urban landscapes to  
   nurture citizens? public memory, to encompass shared time in the  
   form of shared territory- remains untapped for most working  
   people?s neighborhoods in most American cities, and for most  
   ethnic history...
28
? 
 
 
   Place is seen as a qualitative, holistic entity which cannot be  
   broken down into its individual properties without losing its  
   concrete nature out of sight.  It is more than just location.
29
   
 
 
 The deterioration of the nation?s Chinatowns is disturbing the nature of the 
traditional close-knit family unit, contradicting the original notion of a ?Chinatown? 
community.  Strong intergenerational ties, language, commercial interests, 
discrimination, and other factors have kept the Chinatown community tightly knit.  The 
character of Chinatowns should be distinct and relate to the homeland.  However, when 
there is no idea of an identifiable place for which people can gather and communicate 
within a community, then the notion of a ?Chinatown? becomes fragmented.  Open 
spaces, stemming from historical, cultural, and geographical factors, have become a 
primary element in the reintegration and interaction of the multiple generations of 
Chinese and Chinese Americans around the United States.  Unfortunately, Portland?s 
Chinatown is deficient in providing proper community services, affordable grocery 
stores, and most importantly, it lacks any type of major public spaces for gathering.  The 
effect of urbanization on this community and the creation of closed- community suburbs 
                                                 
28
 Hayden, Dolores.  The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History.  Cambridge, 
 Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1999. p. 9. 
29
 Norberg-Schulz, Christian.  ?Phenomenon of Place.?  Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture : an 
 Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995.  Ed.  Kate Nesbitt.   New York : Princeton 
 Architectural Press, 1996. p.414 
 53
and have negatively impacted all of the generations of Chinese and Chinese Americans in 
Chinatown.  A significant issue that must be addressed is how to create a sense of place 
within an almost barren community.  Also, it is important to understand how Portland?s 
Chinatown may be able to regain the valuable culture and history that it once had as 
recent as twenty years ago.   
 In his discussion of Phemonology, Christian Norberg-Schulz?s talks about the 
term as a method that urges a ?return to things.?  He describes architecture as ?the ability 
to make the environment meaningful through the creation of specific places,? or what is 
 
      Figure 46. Chinese seniors engaged in a Chinese Chess game at one of six crowded chess  
      tables in New York?s Liberty Park. (Photographed by author) 
   
known as genius loci.
30
   These spaces should receive their being from locations and not 
from the actual physical space and, in addition, they should posses a varying degree of 
extension and enclosure.   Martin Heidegger further emphasizes the idea of place by 
                                                 
30
 Norberg-Schulz, Christian.  ?Phenomenon of Place.?  Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture : an 
 Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995.  Ed.  Kate Nesbitt.   New York : Princeton 
 Architectural Press, 1996. p.413. 
 54
comparing poetry to architecture.  He suggests that place extends to the greater 
environment where the sky is the ceiling and the earth is the ground-and idea of inside 
versus outside.
31
  The combination of these thoughts seems to be well described in the 
following statement: 
 ?The bridge gathers being into a certain ?location? that we may call a  
 ?place.? This ?place,? however, did not exist as an entity before the  
 bridge?The existential purpose of building (architecture) is therefore  
 to make a site become a place, that is, to uncover the meanings potentially  
 present in the given environment.?
32
 
 
Chinatown?s urban spaces originally acted as such places that have been described by the 
previous theorists.   These spaces are social gathering places where the Chinese families 
spend their leisure time to 
interact with each other 
and with friends.  For 
Chinese American 
elderly, leisure is often 
viewed as an inseparable 
part of daily life and 
serves many functions 
including the 
maintenance of ethnic 
culture and identity.
33
  
                                                 
31
 Norberg-Schulz, Christian.  ?Phenomenon of Place.?  Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture : an 
 Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995.  Ed.  Kate Nesbitt.   New York : Princeton 
 Architectural Press, 1996. p.417-418. 
32
 Ibid. p.423. 
33
 Zhang, Tingwei and Gobster, Paul H.  ?Leisure Preferences and Open Space Needs in an Urban Chinese  
 American Community.?  Journal of Architectural and Planning Research 14.4 (Winter, 1998):  
 341. 
Figure 47.  Older Chinese women gathering to play cards in San 
Fransisco?s park.  (Photographed by author) 
 55
These places allow for the older generations to inform their children and grandchildren 
about their personal stories of history and culture, something that they would not 
necessarily experience being raised in the United States.  In designing an 
intergenerational housing project, it will be imperative to apply the idea of place through 
exterior urban spaces, as well as, interior and exterior building and unit spaces.  
Holistically, these spaces will aid in developing the character of a fading Chinatown. 
 In most Chinatowns, it is the elderly Chinese and Chinese Americans that remain 
in the community while the younger generations flee these communities.  The older 
generations thus, are the most stable elements in the constantly changing Chinatowns.  
For this reason, identification of place is important for the Chinese and Chinese 
American senior 
citizens to feel a 
sense of security 
and dignity in the 
spaces that are 
created within the 
building and the 
greater community..  
Figure 48. Elderly Chinese shown sitting together as a place of social 
gathering in New York?s Liberty Park.  (Photographed by author) 
 56
?Man needs to be able to ?orient? and ?identify? himself with the environment, to feel 
secure within a place...To belong to a place means to have an existential foothold, in a 
concrete everyday sense.
34
?  In designing such spaces, it is important to realize that it is 
not only the physical boundaries of the space that creates a sense of security, but rather it 
is also the character and richness of the space that can provide for that as well. 
 
Regionalism 
 Critical Regionalism ?proposes resistance to the homogenization of the built 
environment that results from the modernization of product manufacturing and 
construction techniques.
35
?  This issue of regionalism becomes extremely significant 
when understanding a site and then sufficiently designing a building to occupy that site.  
The current state of modern architecture is resulting in an inescapable aesthetic of  
blandness from which universal design in buildings are made to respond to such quick 
demand for dwelling spaces.  In the same respect, ideas about what may be ?authentic? or 
 ?traditional? design are becoming so superficial in that the architecture does not respond 
to the true culture or site any longer.  Frampton expresses these concerns when he 
addresses the issue of the consumer and architecture: 
  ?...the manipulation of the consumer (?admass seduction?) and  
  the problem of architecture conceived and perceived as fashion  
  (?individualist forms of narcissism?) or scenography.  This  
  commodification of shelter negates local identity and expression.
36
? 
                                                 
34
 Norberg-Schulz, Christian.  ?Phenomenon of Place.?  Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture : an 
 Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995.  Ed.  Kate Nesbitt.   New York : Princeton 
 Architectural Press, 1996. p.423 
 
35
  Frampton, Kenneth.  ?Prospects for a Critical Regionalism.?  Theorizing a New Agenda for 
 Architecture : an Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995.  Ed.  Kate Nesbitt.   New 
 York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996.p.468. 
36
 Ibid. p.468. 
 57
 
 
     Figure 49.  ?Traditional? Chinese architecture that is often reproduced in modern neighborhoods                       
 in an attempt to truly represent ethnic aesthetics and space planning.  (Lip) 
 
 Frampton continues to note that ?authentic architecture,? would be based on two 
essential aspects of architecture: an understanding of place, and tectonics.  The use of 
local materials and craftsmanship, and responsiveness to light and climate are points that 
promote architecture that is spatial and experiential, rather than image-oriented.  In 
addition, he seeks an architecture ?with the capacity to condense the artistic potential of 
the region while reinterpreting cultural influences coming from the outside.
37
?  The 
responsibility to create designs that utilize these concepts and that are truly responsive to 
the environment and the community lies in the hands of the architectural design field.  
Unfortunately, architects often forget the significant impact, both negative and positive, 
that they create in each community they touch.   
 It seems that there is an ever-increasing trend of American architects who create 
?traditional? buildings in ethnic urban areas, such as, Chinatown.  However, the issue of 
                                                 
37
 Frampton, Kenneth.  ?Prospects for a Critical Regionalism.?  Theorizing a New Agenda for 
 Architecture : an Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995.  Ed.  Kate Nesbitt.   New 
 York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996. p.468. 
 58
regionalism is reintroduced when attempting to understand what really is ?traditional? 
when understanding a buildings place in a community.  In Portland?s Chinatown, there  
are red streetlamps that line the streets and Chinese 
restaurants that have curved eaves of bold green, 
red, and gold.  There is the Chinese garden which 
is the only public space in   the community; 
however, that requires an admission fee.  The 
intentions of these elements, buildings, and spaces 
were, by assumption, supposed to ?make? this 
place feel like ?China.?  Unfortunately the result is 
just the opposite.  Instead, this community seems 
to be composed of an eclectic collection of tourist 
attractions and disneyesque ornamentation, lacking 
a large population of Chinese and Chinese Americans. 
 To understand the creation of Chinatowns, one needs to analyze the true meaning 
of the idea of placemaking within the idea of regionalism.  The history of the Chinatowns 
is significantly based on the composition of building uses and public spaces, rather than 
building aesthetic.  The neighborhood people would rely on affordably priced stores that 
would sell the essential necessities from herbs and tea, to clothing and groceries-
reflecting cities back in China.  Moreover, current modern cities in China are not built of 
?traditional? temples and houses, but rather they seem to be characterized more so by the 
modern industrialized city.  Instead of relying on building aesthetics, Portland?s 
Chinatown would greatly benefit by implementing the much needed businesses, housing, 
Figure 50. The streetlamps of are 
among the only reminders in this 
neighborhood that is a Chinatown. 
(Photographed by author) 
 59
and public spaces.  This would seem to produce a sufficient base from which the Chinese 
and Chinese Americans might me more inclined to live in without the feeling of living in 
a ?false? environment. 
 
    Figure 51. Tuck Lung Grocery and Restaurant (1977) in Portland?s Chinatown attempts to  
    portray ?authenticity? of Chinese culture through elevation.  Its disneyesque appearance only  
    reflects the true use of the building-a tourist attraction. (Chinatown Historic District) 
 60
 
Figure 52. Murals used as placemaking tools in San Francisco?s Chinatown.  These 
successfully provide ?character? without excessive embellishment of Chinese cultural 
aesthetics. (Photographed by author) 
 61
 
CHAPTER 4: 
PRECEDENT STUDIES 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
(Illustrated by author)  
 62
Urban Streets in Other Chinatowns 
 
 
 In every successful Chinatown, there is always a distinctive virtue of the value of 
urban form.   In this case, it is the composition of building and street use that activates 
these towns.  The streets become engaged with their structures to pull the community out 
of their protective shelters and into the social atmosphere that they conceive.  What is 
amazing is that these bustling spaces are generated from small-scale, privately-owned 
grocery stores and markets that extend from inside the building and out to the sidewalks 
to grab the passer-bys attention.  They sell a wide variety of goods, from cheap Chinese 
vegetables and fresh livestock to herbal medicines and teas.  These are extremely difficult 
to get in any grocery store in the American city, for such low prices and such 
accessibility.   For most Chinese and Chinese Americans, it is important to be able to 
have Chinese foods and products within reasonable access in order to provide for the 
often elaborate large families meals.   
 In many Chinatowns, the first generation Chinese has never been able to obtain a 
driver?s license.  In these cases, the need to have these amenities close by becomes more 
of a necessity.  The cheaper prices of products that these stores offer reflect the markets 
and stores in China that the Chinese are used to.  In turn, Chinese Americans, although 
raised in the United States, still face the same concerns.  Probably most detrimental to the 
survival of Portland?s Chinatown is that it lacks any type of the affordable retail stores.    
 
 
 
 63
 
 
 
 
 
 Figure 53. Sidewalk extension of grocery stores in San Francisco?s Chinatown  
 selling dried foods, fresh fruits and vegetables, and roasted whole pigs and chicken  
 adds to the character of Chinatown.  (Photographed by author)   
 64
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure 54. New York (left) and Victoria, BC (right) Chinatown Grocery Stores 
extending to sidewalk are also good examples of activating the street. (Photographed by 
author)   
 65
Urban Spaces in Other Chinatowns 
 
 
 Urban spaces as outdoor communal ?rooms? are also significant in activating the 
Chinese community.  In cities such as, New York and San Francisco, their Chinatowns 
offer a main large outdoor plaza among many smaller outdoor spaces.  These parks act as 
social gathering spaces where the elderly can socialize while watching the younger 
generations in the playgrounds.  Often times, these are places of recreation, where the 
elderly gather in groups to play Chinese Chess or play card games.  Younger generations 
often occupy themselves by engaging in sports such as, tennis or basketball.   Regardless 
of the activities, these spaces provide settings for discussions of culture and history.  
They allow for places where each generation can relax and interact.  
 
 
 
  Figure 55. Plaza in Seattle?s Chinatown.  Although this large space is provided for its residents,  
  because of the lack of furniture, it does not seem to fulfill its intention. (Photographed by author)   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 66
 
 
 
 
 
    Figure 56. Portsmouth Square in San Francisco consists of various tiers providing  
     for ample seating and children?s playgrounds.  (Photographed by author)   
 
 
 67
 
 
      Figure 57.  Portsmouth Square in San Francisco continues to be an outdoor ?living room? to  
      its residents. (Photographed by author)   
 
 
 
Figure 58.  Liberty Park in New York is a large gathering place where the elderly gather to play  
chess and sing opera amongst friends.  They also come and enjoy watching the young children play in  
the adjacent playground, and teenagers play basketball and tennis in the courts next to the space.  
(Photographed by author)   
 
 68
Traditional Chinese Housing Typology 
 Understanding the basic building typologies of the Chinese region and culture is 
essential in understanding how the daily activity of family lifestyle is accommodated 
through building circulation and spaces.  The traditional Chinese housing type can simply 
be described through a system of courtyard and building, whose spaces interact with each 
other, often housing similar functions.  The courtyard has always played a significant role  
 
 
  Figure 59.  Traditional Chinese Housing Type: Courtyard. (Illustrated by author) 
 
Chinese architecture as it serves the multiple purposes of providing privacy, ventilation, 
and light.  The number of courtyards within a building and the accompanying sense of 
privacy and space reflect the importance of the building and the social status of the 
 69
occupants.  This courtyard concept can be classified according to symmetry, axial 
 
Figure 60.  Interiors of Courtyards within the Complexes. (Chinese Houses) 
 
planning, north/south orientation and walled enclosure, or formation with a front  
courtyard.  Chinese plans may be rectangular, square, round, or a combination of 
geometric shapes.
38
  In contrast, the Chinese culture views the garden as the 
emancipation of man?s spirit.  The courtyard, or the garden, thus often rejects the 
geometric patterns of straight lines and uses curved lines as a physical and/or symbolic 
release of weight and matter.
39
   
 The idea of construction and structure plays a major role in traditional Chinese 
architecture, as well.  The abundance of timber in China makes it the most popular 
material used for construction of low-rise buildings.  Moreover, with the high incidence  
of earthquakes in China it was found to be the most suitable material.  This type of 
material would allow for flexibility of joints.  Three basic systems of construction 
methods were ultimately developed were the post and beam system (most commonly 
used), the column and tie beam system, and the log cabin system.
40
 
 
                                                 
38
 Lip, Dr. Evelyn.  Feng Shui: Environments of Power: A Study of  Chinese Architecture. 
 Singapore: Academy Group Ltd, 1995. p. 25. 
39
 Inn, Henry and Lee, S.C.  Chinese Houses and Gardens.  London: Kegan Paul, 2001. 
40
 Ibid. p.25. 
 70
 
 Figure 61. Courtyard plan, details of structural elements in composition (Chinese Houses) 
 
 
 
 71
Precedent for Housing Accommodating an Asian Population 
 
 
555 Ellis Street, San Francisco, CA 
Asian Neighborhood Design 
Orsee Design (Landscape Architect) 
 
Affordable Family Housing  
122 units/acre 
 
Studio (3 units at 500sf) 
Studio + loft (6 units at 420sf + loft) 
2-BR (10 units at 800-850sf) 
3-BR (19 units at 1,000-1,120sf) 
4-BR (6 units at 1,200sf) 
Total Units: 38 
 
Community: 1,875sf (7 community rooms) 
Courtyard: 4,280 + 1,200 roof deck 
Commercial: 1,017sf 
Parking: 10 spaces, garage 
Total site area: 13,517sf (.31 acres)
41
 
 
 
 The housing complex on 555 Ellis Street is an affordable housing family complex 
in San Fransisco, California.  It was developed to accommodate for a constantly 
increasing influx of recent immigrants from Asian countries in this area.  The major draw 
to this site is the excellent public transportation, proximity to downtown and a public 
park, and new recreation center across the street.  The building consists of mainly two- 
and three-bedroom unites for families.  It also includes nine studio apartments for single 
adults and couples.
42
 
 
 
 
                                                 
41
 Jones, Tom, Pettus, William, and Pyatok, Michael.  Good Neighbors: Affordable Family Housing.  New 
 York: McGraw-Hill, 1995.  p.109. 
42
 Ibid. p. 108. 
Figure 62. Street Elevation of 555 Ellis Street 
Housing complex. (Jones, Pettus, and Pyatok)
 72
 
       Figure 63. 555 Ellis Street Housing: Ground Floor Plan and First Floor Plan. (Jones, Pettus,  
       and Pyatok) 
 
 The mixed-use project uses community functions to activate the ground floor and 
engage the residents.  The designers have incorporated a large courtyard for the residents- 
a space that is extremely essential when housing Asian residents.  The courtyard is 
divided into two main 
spaces: a larger garden 
for more public social 
gatherings and children?s 
play areas, while a 
smaller courtyard 
accommodates quieter 
activities.  In addition to the outdoor spaces, there are two interior community/recreation 
rooms that play major roles in the social activities that relate to the Chinese cultural 
traditions.  At ground level, the project also consists of commercial retail stores that  
Figure 64. Diagram-Courtyard spaces and Community rooms. 
(Illustrated by author) 
 73
 
Figure 65.  Interior Views of Community Rooms. (Jones, Pettus, and Pyatok) 
showcase designs by residents on a rotating basis.  This seems to successfully blend the 
activation of the street frontage using both building use and aesthetics.  Not only does this 
engage the passerby, it also allows for the residents to feel a sense of pride and 
commitment to the building.   
 In consideration of the site location, the architects dealt with issues of building 
context, street frontage, and opportunities for light and air exposure.  To address the park 
which sits across from the site, the 
building mass is set back at the top 
to allow for sunlight to reach into 
the space.  This is a very important 
factor when understanding how a 
building will be situated on a 
space.  In addition this, the setback 
also allows for multiple views of 
the garden from the bedroom units.  Along this edge, the building also uses the 
composition of repeating elevation bays to break up the front elevation and activate the  
Figure 66. Section showing building slope that allows 
for light to hit the park across the street. (Jones, 
Pettus, and Pyatok) 
 74
street front.  This maximizes the 
amount of square footage of the 
site, without having to sacrifice any 
buildable area by creating multiple 
volumes.  Last, it is also very important to observe the individual unit layout.  The  
standard three-bedroom unit is designed in such a way that 
each bedroom can have access to light and air by placing 
light wells between the elevation bays.  The rather simple 
plan of the unit retains the living room as the main space, 
an idea that is similar to the courtyard element.  This space 
is significant for private family functions and gatherings 
for the Chinese and Chinese Americans.  The placement of 
the living room also allows for ample light and air to be able 
to circulate throughout the apartment. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure 67. Diagram-Elevation bays provide for 
variation along the street frontage. (Illustrated by 
Figure 68. Diagram-3-
bedroom unit plan. 
(Illustrated by author) 
 75
Multi-generational Housing Precedent 
 
Frank G. Mar Community Housing, Oakland, CA 
MacDonald Architects 
Gee Architects-Assoc.Arch. for Constr. Observation 
 
 
Affordable Family Housing  
Family 55/Senior 270 units/acre 
 
1-BR (51 units at 500sf) 
2-BR (35 units at 800sf) 
3-BR (27 units at 1,000sf) 
4-BR (6 units at 1,200sf) 
Total Units: 119 
 
Community laundry: 1,100sf 
Courtyard/play: 14,000sf 
Commercial: 12,500sf 
Parking: 310 (200 public) 94,700sf 
Total site area: 39,700sf
43
 
 
 
 
 The Frank G. Mar Community Housing project in Oakland, California addresses 
the need for Oakland?s growing population of Asian families by providing large three- 
and four-bedroom apartments to accommodate an influx of large families.  There are 119  
 
     Figure 70. Frank G. Mar Housing: Elevation and Section. (Jones, Pettus, and Pyatok) 
 
                                                 
43
 Jones, Tom, Pettus, William, and Pyatok, Michael.  Good Neighbors: Affordable Family Housing.  New 
 York: McGraw-Hill, 1995.  p.113. 
Figure 69. Frank G. Mar Community Housing exterior. 
(Jones, Pettus, and Pyatok)
 76
units placed above commercial space and two levels of parking garage.  To keep from 
projecting the image of a large housing project, the architects of this project sought to 
give the development a sense of individuality through gable roofs and varied heights of 
the building masses to provide a ?village-like? appearance.   
 The building is also broken down into three masses: two are dedicated to low-rise 
townhouses for larger families and one is a mid-rise building that accommodates for 
elderly residents.   A 
large central 
courtyard is located 
between the buildings 
as a public space for 
the residents.  The 
courtyard element 
also allows a 
maximum amount of 
light and air to enter each of the building masses.  The courtyard also allows for security 
of small children during the day and quiet for seniors later in the day.  At a smaller scale, 
each of the 54 units of the designed townhouses has separate entrances, eliminating the 
need for double-loaded corridor and allowing for natural light and ventilation
44
 
 
                                                 
44
 Jones, Tom, Pettus, William, and Pyatok, Michael.  Good Neighbors: Affordable Family  
 Housing.  New York: McGraw-Hill, 1995. pp.112-115. 
Figure 71.  Diagram-Building mass variations.  (Illustrated by author) 
 77
 
  Figure 72.  Diagram-The townhouse units accommodate larger families  
  and provide for light and air. (Drawn by author). 
 
 At grade, Frank G. Mar Community Housing Parking for the residents is provided 
on three floors, two levels are underground and one is on the ground floor.  By placing 
parking at grade level, the 
building complex is raised off 
of the ground floor.  This 
disengages the residents from 
the street level and provides 
for additional privacy to the 
residential units above.   
There is also commercial space that is used to activate the ground plane for street 
frontage and pedestrian accommodation. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure 73. Diagram-retail frontage and parking levels. 
(Illustrated by author) 
 78
Housing Precedent 
 
 
Cascade Court Apartments, Seattle, WA 
GGLO Architecture and Interior Design 
 
 
Affordable Family Housing  
151 units/acre 
 
 
Studio (39 units at 400sf) 
1-BR (35 units at 600sf) 
2-BR (14 units at 740sf) 
3-BR (12 units at 1,200sf) 
Total Units: 100 
 
Courtyard/play: 13,309sf 
Parking: 138 spaces 
Office/lobby: 9,400sf 
Total site area: 28,827sf (.66 acres)
45
 
 
 
 The Cascade Court Apartments in Seattle, Washington is an affordable housing 
project that consists of 151 units for families of lower incomes.  It accommodates for a 
very diverse clientele by providing for multiple unit types, ranging from studios to three-
bedroom apartments.  The mid-rise, five-story building is built entirely of wood-frame.  
This factor added to the regional economic advantage of wood and also was important in 
determining the building?s scale.  Also significant is the success of the project within a 
deteriorating neighborhood.  The attractive qualities of the housing complex have 
significantly reduced the amount of crime in the neighborhood. 
 
                                                 
45
 Jones, Tom, Pettus, William, and Pyatok, Michael.  Good Neighbors: Affordable Family  
 Housing.  New York: McGraw-Hill, 1995.   p. 117. 
Figure 74. Cascade Court Apartment exterior 
view. (Jones, Pettus, and Pyatok) 
 79
 
    Figure 75.  Cascade Court Apartments: Site plan and axon. (Jones, Pettus, and Pyatok) 
 
 
 The primary issue that this project had to deal with was its contribution to a 
historic context.  With older historic buildings occupying the site, the project approached 
the design by being sensitive to the context, 
rather than intruding the neighborhood.  One  
approach to addressing this issue is through 
the use of the courtyard.  By placing it at the 
center of the development and penetrating it 
through the western edge, the courtyard is able 
to divide the fa?ade into two pieces, breaking down scale to relate to neighboring historic 
mansion.   
 The Cascade Court Apartment development is divided into two main building 
types-townhouses and apartments.  The south side of the site consists of three-story 
townhouses which allow for  increased light and air exposures.  Adjacent to these 
townhouses, the large central courtyard includes a major play area for the children to 
Figure 76. Diagram-Courtyard of the 
Cascade Court Apartments. (Illustrated by 
author) 
 80
accommodate for these larger families.
46
  To the north, there are five-story flats, along 
with a smaller courtyard that provides a setting for more quite activities for the residents. 
 
   Figure 77. Diagram-Townhouse and Apartment building types and unit design. (Illustrated by 
author) 
 
 
  Figure 78. Diagram-Courtyard functions. (Illustrated by author) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                 
46
 Jones, Tom, Pettus, William, and Pyatok, Michael.  Good Neighbors: Affordable Family  
 Housing.  New York: McGraw-Hill, 1995.   pp. 116-119. 
 81
 
Elderly Housing Precedent 
 
 
Housing for the Elderly, Diemen, The Netherlands 
Mecanoo Architecten 
 
 
 
 Figure 79.  Diemen Housing: Site plan and Exterior View. (Mostaedi) 
 
 The Housing for the Elderly in Diemen is an independent living project for the 
elderly.  Its orientation to the water, bridge, and significant views were primary design 
guides when developing this building.  It is composed to two main masses, one is seven-
stories high and the other is nine encompassing a total of 47 units.   
 In addressing the needs of the clients, this building focused on issues of 
orientation, light and air, and universal design and access.  Outdoor spaces were a major 
consideration for the design.  It is important 
to provide spaces for the elderly who spend  
most of their time indoors.  For example, an 
outdoor area on eighth floor was created to 
take advantage of the views of Amsterdam 
skyline.  Also, each unit has ample window 
area and a balcony space.  Light and air 
Figure 80. Diagram-Balcony spaces in each 
unit.  (Illustrated by author) 
 82
exposure is also a key concern when designing elderly housing.  By shifting the two 
masses slightly, the circulation areas and apartments located at the ends receive a great  
 
         Figure 81.  Diagram-Light and air exposure in typical floor plans. (Illustrated by author) 
 
amount of natural light.  The vast amount of glazing in this building allow for light to 
reach the interior circulation as much as it penetrates the individual units.  
 
 
 
         Figure 82.  Interior Views of Circulation Spaces. (Mostaedi) 
 83
 
 
CHAPTER 5: 
FUNCTIONAL CONSIDERATIONS AND PROGRAM 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
(Illustrated by author)  
 84
Who are the Users? 
 
 
 The most successful tool in designing a building is in understanding its intended 
users.  Knowing their needs and wants is important when designing spaces that will 
contribute to the greater whole of the project, now and in the future.  There can be four 
target groups identified for this project.  They can be categorized as the following: 
Chinese American Youth (ages 21 and below); Chinese American Starter- and 
Established-Families (ages 22-64); Chinese American Elderly (ages 65 and older); and 
First Generation Chinese (those who were born in China and immigrated to the United 
States). 
 The ?age 21 and below? group of Chinese Americans are those youth who have 
the greatest opportunities for benefiting from interaction with older generations of 
Chinese and Chinese Americans and also from educational programs.  This particular age 
group is still young and impressionable.  They are still experiencing various stages in 
their life in which they are searching for an identity.  The 21 and under age group will be 
able to develop knowledge of Chinese culture and history that is so difficult to obtain 
thoroughly in the western school system.   Moreover, it is a remarkable phenomenon 
when grandparents and grandchildren can bond on a continuous basis.  There is nothing 
more sacred or more influential than the nurturing and support of the tight-knit Chinese 
family unit that needs to be emphasized in this project.   
 The Chinese American Starter- and Established-Families (ages 22-64) represent 
the largest group of second and third generation Chinese in the United States.  Many of 
the people in this age group have grown up with first generation parents and have 
 85
experienced the difficulties of living in households where eastern and western cultures 
clash (the generation gap).  Many of them grew up in the United States at a time when the 
Chinese culture was still very foreign to non-Asians.  They were seen as outcasts and 
were still discriminated against and were unable to have such opportunities as today?s 
youth has.  As this generation is getting older, most of them are beginning to have 
children.  Thus, there is an increasing desire to be able to share the significance of the 
Chinese culture with these youth, something that will be extremely difficult with 
successive generations.   
 The Chinese American Elderly (ages 65 and older) are those who are becoming 
grandparents, and may be considering living among the younger generations and others 
within the same age group for social interaction.  They may be those elderly who are 
living in suburbs and wanting to return to a place where they can be among people of 
similar cultures and have easier access to public ethnic amenities.   
 Some of these elderly may require assisted living facilities.  This population may 
face difficulties such as:  inability to reach; loss of reserve capacity of organs and 
systems; increased tendency to fall; decline in sensory input and maintaining body 
temperature; incontinence; immobility; and mental frailty.  There is an emphasis in the 
need for privacy of daily activities, life-style, and of thought.  In addition, the units 
should be designed in such a way that independence and freedom of mobility should be 
provided.  The temperature should be warm enough to allow for maximum comfort.  
Most importantly, due to reduced sensory skills and tendency to be confined to the unit, 
light is an extremely significant design consideration for each unit.   In addition, since 
 86
Portland has such a high percentage of overcast days per year, architecture in this area, in 
general, tends to be constructed with mass expanses of glazing.  
 The final group is the First Generation Chinese, or those who were born in China 
and later immigrated to the United States.  This group is particularly significant in 
stabilizing and educating the community.  It is also important that the proper amenities 
are provided in order to accommodate this group.  Affordable markets and public spaces 
for social gatherings becomes an essential for this group.  This group is often inhibited to 
assimilate into the western culture, often because it is too difficult or by choice.  
Therefore, it is important that this community provides a setting where people who have 
just immigrated to the United States can feel comfortable. 
 
 
 
Design Approach 
 
 
 The design of this project will address the deficiencies of the existing site and 
attempt to provide solutions that will aid in unifying the Chinatown community. It will 
focus on the building uses and relationship to the existing context.  Most importantly, it is 
important to develop a design that will create a reason for the Chinese and Chinese 
American community to return to this once thriving community. 
 There exists a need to activate the ground plane in order to create a viable and 
prosperous development.  Through a mix of commercial business, community programs, 
and housing, this project will aim to provide for services for all age groups to understand 
and develop their sense of identity within the Chinese culture.  It will provide for 
 87
educational programs where the younger generation Chinese Americans, as well as, non-
Asians can learn about the various aspects of the Chinese traditions and culture. 
 Garden and courtyard spaces will be essential in designing an intergenerational 
housing complex, both large- and small-scale.  Currently, there is a void of any type of 
public spaces in the urban context of Portland?s Chinatown.  Additionally, there is no 
strong relationship to the waterfront which is only two blocks to the east of the site. 
Public green spaces will have to be designed into the larger urban plan.  This will aim to 
increase the amount of connections of buildings and spaces, thus providing a sense of 
cohesion within the neighborhood.  The Chinese Garden is currently controlled by paid 
admittance, making the park more of a tourist attraction than a public space.  The project 
will consider making this park into a public amenity for leisure activities.  It will also be 
important to introduce some form of public space within the complex.  This will 
accommodate for the residents of the complex to interact and communicate.  It is 
essential in providing the nurturing of the Chinese culture among a westernized 
generation of Chinese. 
 The overall design considerations of the complex will deal with a maximum 
exposure of light and air.  Portland experiences seventy-five percent of overcast days 
every year.  This leads to increased cases of depression among its residences.  For this 
reason, larger windows and single-loaded corridors are major elements in preventing such 
conditions.  Also, with large overhangs to deter rain from entering the building and a very 
temperate climate in which it is situated, there is an opportunity to make this building 
relatively free of air-conditioning needs, unless absolutely necessary. 
 
 
 88
Program Tabulation 
 
 
Total Site Area-20,000sf 
 
100 Community Program             27,650sf  
 101 Entry Lobby        400sf 
 102 Reception/ Security Control Area     600sf 
 103 Community Lounge               1,200sf 
 104 Mail Room        150sf 
 105 Small Meeting Rooms (2 @ 700sf each)           1,400sf 
 106 Large Meeting/Community Rooms (1 @ 1,000sf each)          1,000sf 
 107 All-Purpose Room/ Youth Recreation Center           1,000sf 
 108 Public Courtyard Space            19,600sf 
 109 Kitchen        700sf 
 110 Dining Room                1,000sf 
 111 Restrooms (4 @ 150sf each)     600sf 
 
200 Administration Program               1,000sf  
 201 Resident Services Director (Marketing)    250sf 
 202 Accounting        150sf 
 203 Manager        250sf 
 204 Activities Director       250sf 
 205 Monitors        100sf 
 
300 Healthcare                 1,100sf  
 301 Nursing Office       300sf 
 302 Physical Therapy Office      200sf 
 303 Exercise Room       600sf 
 
400 Housing Program    28,520   69,800   
 401 Guest Rooms (4 @ 500sf each) 2,000sf              2,000sf 
       min.40 units  max. 100 units  
 402 Assisted Living Units   6,000sf   15,000sf  
  (15% @ 500sf) 
 403 1-BR Units     7,200sf   18,000sf 
  (40% @ 600sf each) 
 404 2-BR Units     6,400sf   16,000sf  
  (25% @ 800sf each) 
 405 3-BR Units     6,000sf   15,000sf  
  (20% @ 1,000sf each) 
 
500 Parking          
 5 Spaces for staff, can be on-street parking 
 1.5 Parking Space per apartment shall be provided for (with exception to assisted  
  living units) in addition to on-street parking  
 89
Mechanical and Circulation 15% of total net sf 6,625sf   12,818sf 
 
Total Gross Square Footage    50,795sf  98,268sf 
 
 
 
 
 
Program Description 
 
 
100 Community Program              27,650sf 
  
 101 Entry Lobby        400sf  
 Located near easy access drop-off points, this room must allow for places to wait 
 and sit for residents and visitors. 
 102 Reception/ Security Control Area     600sf 
 It will includes desk area for receptionist and closed area for security. 
 103 Community Lounge               1,200sf 
 This room needs to be large enough to accommodate large family gatherings in  
 the event that the community rooms are in use.   
 104 Mail Room        150sf 
 105 Small Meeting Rooms (2 @ 700sf each)           1,400sf 
 These rooms should fit up to 20 persons and be available for use by the local  
 Chamber of Commerce and Chinese Benevolent Associations to conduct  
 meetings, hold classes, or provide community services. 
 106 Large Meeting/Community Rooms (1 @ 1,000sf each)          1,000sf 
 This room needs to be large enough to accommodate large family gatherings on a 
 fairly consistent basis.  It is customary that an entire family visit their elderly as a  
 90
 unit, rather than individually.  It is also common that a family visit as much as  
 possible to care for their relatives. 
 107 All-Purpose Room/ Youth Recreation Center           1,000sf 
 This room would be used for after-school activities and classes for the younger 
  generations to study their culture and to interact with seniors who might  
 volunteer to help. 
 108 Public Courtyard Space               19,600sf 
 This space will be a rather large outdoor space that will provide places to sit and  
 contemplate, play games, or even do Tai Chi in the mornings.  There will be  
 smaller spaces within this that will have large potters where each tenant can tend  
 their own garden.  This space is significant to creating an outlet for the elderly  
 Chinese.   In Chinese culture, gardening is not only a way to generate your own  
 meals, but as an outlet to every day stresses and negative emotions.  In every  
 Chinese household, there is often a large garden to follow.  These gardens do not  
 consist of flowers, but rather herbs and Chinese vegetables.   
 109 Kitchen        700sf 
 110 Dining Room                1,000sf 
 This room will allow for families who are visiting to congregate in places other  
 than in their apartments. 
 111 Restrooms (4 @ 150sf each)     600sf 
  
 
 
200 Administration Program               1,000sf  
 
 201 Resident Services Director (Marketing)    250sf 
 91
  
 202 Accounting        150sf 
 
 203 Manager        250sf 
 
 204 Activities Director       250sf 
 
 205 Monitors        100sf 
 
 Offices for the staff should be located near the director?s office, directly off of the  
 main lobby.   
 
300 Healthcare                 1,100sf  
 
 301 Nursing Office       300sf 
 
 302 Physical Therapy Office      200sf 
 
 This is the core of the assisted living services.  They will be open during regularly  
 scheduled office hours, and the residents are encouraged to make appointments to  
 discuss any health questions or problems they may encounter. 
 303 Exercise Room       600sf 
 
 The exercise room will be located on the ground floor and will be able to be  
 accessed only by the residents.   
 
400 Housing Program      28,520-69,800 sf  
 
 401 Guest Rooms      2 @ 500sf each 
         
 402 Assisted Living Units     500sf 
 
 403 1-BR Units        600sf 
  
 404 2-BR Units        800sf 
 
 405 3-BR Units        1,000sf 
  
 92
 406 4-BR Units        1,200sf  
  
 These units are to provide for the accommodation of various generation groups,  
 ranging from 1-bedroom units to larger 4-bedroom family units.  These units will  
 provide interior spaces for social gatherings and functions.  These units will also  
 maximize the amount of exposure to light and air. 
 
 
 
500 Parking  
 
 There will be 5 Spaces for staff which can be located along the street.  One 
 parking space per apartment shall be provided for (with exception to assisted  
 living units) in the building parking garage, in addition to on-street parking 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 93
 
 
CHAPTER 6: 
CONCEPTUAL DESIGN STRATEGIES 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
(Illustrated by author)  
 94
Parti Study A 
 
 
  Figure 83. Urban Parti Study A: Retail vs. Green Streets. (Illustrated by author)  
 95
 The ?Retail Streets versus Green Streets? parti is primarily based on the concept of 
a greenway strip which connects the existing Mid-town green blocks to the waterfront 
edge.  These series of greens provide an activated promenade for pedestrians and bikers 
of the community.  This design also proposed that Fourth Avenue become a major retail 
street for small markets, stores, and restaurants with housing above.  In addition to the 
existing Chinese Garden which requires paid access, a new public park is suggested to be 
added just to the east of the Chinatown boundaries.   
 
 
       Figure 84. Building Parti A. (Illustrated by author) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 96
Parti Study B 
 
 
   Figure 85. Urban Parti Study B: Node Concept. (Illustrated by author) 
 
 97
 The ?Nodes? parti is based on an added entrance to the north of the Chinatown 
neighborhood on Third Avenue.  This entrance will provide a ?gateway? element 
predominantly for the heavy automobile traffic arriving from the north.  Two gateway 
streets are thus, tied together by the proposed public park for the Chinatown 
neighborhood.  Small stores, markets, and restaurants will surround this square with 
housing above. 
 
 
       Figure 86. Building Parti B. (Illustrated by author) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 98
Parti Study C 
 
 
  Figure 87. Urban Parti Study C: Retail vs. Residential Streets. (Illustrated by author)  
 99
 The ?Retail versus Residential Streets? parti is based on two main streets that 
provides for more connections from the Mid-block parks to the waterfront.  These two 
streets develop very different characters: one is composed of small retail stores, markets, 
and restaurants; the other is predominantly housing.  The retail street contains a series of 
smaller green spaces that provide a visual link along the street; whereas, the residential 
street consists of a larger strip of greens for biking or walking to from the park blocks to 
the waterfront, or vice versa. 
 
 
       Figure 88. Building Parti C. (Illustrated by author) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 100
 
 
CHAPTER 7: 
FINAL DESIGN CONCLUSIONS 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
(Illustrated by author)  
 101
 
 The final design solution is a six-story inter-generational mixed-use housing 
complex on a block located at the entrance of Portland?s Chinatown.  The total unit count 
for the design is fifty-two units, which mostly consists of one-bedroom units.  Through 
extensive research, the decision was made to move from the original 100-feet by 200-feet 
site on Glisan Street to the current site occupying the entire block of 200-feet by 200-feet 
between Couch Street and Davis Street, and Fourth Street and Fifth Street.  The current 
site provided for more opportunity to allow for a greater connection between the North 
Park Blocks and the Japanese Memorial Plaza on the Willamette River waterfront with 
little to no major highway interruption.  In addition, the existing parking lot seemed to be 
a perfect site to create a more efficient and significant program in a prime location?with 
the idea of this building being a new ?center? of the community. 
 The greater urban decisions were derived from the relationship of the site and its 
relationship in the Chinatown district to the surrounding neighborhoods.  The most 
important visible conflict in the existing plan was a clear disconnection between the city 
blocks and the waterfront from Burnside Street and north of that.  The problem of 
Chinatown is a result of the large number of paved parking lots in the neighborhood that 
ultimately begins to deactivate the nature of the streetscape.  To improve this, the urban 
design initiative proposes that these parking lots along Couch Street and Fourth Avenue 
be infilled with larger buildings that assist in densifying the area.  In addition, it is 
proposed that the Davis Street parking lots would be replaced with green spaces that 
creates a green link along Davis Street from the North Park Blocks to the Waterfront. 
 102
 The design consists of two major program components: a community and a 
residential portion.  Each facet is organized by layers and controlled ultimately by a main 
element?the courtyard.  The courtyard, as understood and translated from early Chinese 
courtyard buildings, is a community space which is essential to the Asian and Asian 
American family and social lifestyle.  In this project, the courtyard is introduced as a 
large, public form that serves the greater community and provides areas for social 
gatherings and functions, as well as, contemplation areas.  This courtyard then transforms 
itself into an indoor multi-purpose room for community functions.  At a much smaller 
scale, the courtyard is mimicked in the ?flex spaces? within most units which 
accommodates for families that often fluctuate in the amount of extended family stays 
and changing family lifestyles. 
 The building?s layers can be seen in both community and residential 
programming.  The ground floor which services the main Chinatown corridor has small 
retail spaces lining Couch Street and Fourth Street that imply spaces for typical 
Chinatown markets that can encourage activation of the streets in Portland?s Chinatown.  
Along with the multi-purpose room on the Fourth Avenue and Davis Street ?wing?, there 
are community meeting rooms on the second floor, and a daycare on the sixth floor.  The 
residential component is also organized vertically by floors.  The second floor 
accommodates for seniors who require assisted living.  These units are one-bedroom 
efficiencies with small kitchenettes.  On this floor, there is a large communal dining room 
and a wellness center to service the residents.  The third floor is dedicated to seniors who 
are able to live independently, but want to live with other seniors like themselves.  These 
units are typically one-bedroom units (with 3-two bedroom units on the floor) with a flex 
 103
space central to the plan.  These flex spaces can be used for extended family, home 
offices, dining rooms, or even open to the balcony and become a deep porch.  These units 
are imitated on the fourth and fifth floor family living floors.  These floors are exactly the 
same as the third floor, with an exception of sic duplexes on the Fourth Avenue and 
Davis Street ?wing? that allows for three-bedrooms in each unit along with a flex space, 
as well, in each.    
 The final solution of this project is a complex that attempts to integrate many very 
different types of program into one compact design.  The program deals with providing 
community spaces and functions that are otherwise lacking in the current state of this 
Chinatown.  By providing such needs and also allowing for more housing, this building is 
designed to act as a catalyst for future growth and activation of a community that has not 
yet lost its identity and place completely.  It is designed to be a center for the community 
and an icon for future development of a community that is fully represented by its Asian 
and Asian American community. 
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 104
 
 
 
        Figure 89. Existing and Proposed Site Plans: The urban design decision links the North Park 
Blocks to the Willamette waterfront edge.  The proposed site plan also suggests that existing parking 
lots be replaced by green spaces along Davis Street and by buildings along Couch Street and Fourth 
Street.  (Illustrated by author) 
 105
 
Figure 90. Basement Floor and Ground Floor Plans.  The Basement floor provides for residential 
parking and mechanical space.  The ground floor entails retail spaces and the community multi-
purpose room.  (Illustrated by author) 
 106
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure 91.  Second Floor Plan: Assisted Living program and Community meeting rooms. (Illustrated 
by author) 
 107
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure 92. Third Floor Plan: Independent Senior Living units are typically 1-bedroom with a flex 
space for accommodating the possibility of extended family stay.  These units are also typical on the 
family living floors (4th and 5th floors).  (Illustrated by author) 
 
   
 108
   
   
          
Figure 93. Fourth through Sixth Floor Plans: Fourth and Fifth floor Family Units; Sixth floor 
Daycare and Roof Terrace.  (Illustrated by author) 
 109
                          
    Figure 94. Couch Street and Fourth Avenue Elevations. (Illustrated by author) 
 110
 
 
Figure 95.  Section Elevation A: showing the separate zones of the public courtyard.  (Illustrated by 
author) 
 111
 
 Figure 96.  Section Elevation B: showing relationship of interior multi-purpose room to the public 
courtyard.  (Illustrated by author) 
 112
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure 97. Typical Unit Plans: shows flex spaces and the ability to accommodate various family types. 
(Illustrated by author) 
 
 
 113
                         
 
      Figure 98. Wall Section. (Illustrated by author) 
 114
 
         Figure 99. View of corner of Fourth Avenue and Couch Street. (Illustrated by author) 
 115
 
        Figure 100. View of public courtyard on Davis Street and Fifth Avenue 
 116
 
     Figure 101.  View of Roof Terrace: shows large planters for residents to garden.  (Illustrated by   
     author) 
 117
Bibliography 
 
 
Atlas of Oregon.  Portland, Oregon: University of Oregon Bookstore, 1976.  
 
Chan, Wing-Tsit.  A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy.  New Hampshire; The Bobbs- 
 Merrill Company, 1963. 
 
?Chinese Development Plan.?  Portland, Oregon: Chinese Consolidated Benevolent  
 Association, 1984. 
 
Creel, H.G.  Chinese Thought: From Confucius to Mao Tse-tung.  New York: The New  
 American Library of Canada Limited, 1953.   
 
Dowdell, Dorothy and Joseph.  The Chinese Helped Build America.  New York: Julian  
 Messner, 1972. 
 
G., Victor and Nee, Brett de Bary.  Longtime Californ?: A Documentary Study of an 
  American Chinatown.  New York: Pantheon Books, 1972. 
 
Frampton, Kenneth.  ?Prospects for a Critical Regionalism.?  Theorizing a New Agenda 
 for Architecture : an Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995.  Ed.  Kate 
 Nesbitt.   New York : Princeton Architectural Press, 1996. 
 
Hayden, Dolores.  The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History.  Cambridge,  
 Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1999. 
 
Ho, Nelson Chia-Chi.  Portland?s Chinatown: The History of an Urban Ethnic District.   
 Portland, Oregon: Bureau of Planning, 1978.  
 
Hoglund, J. David.  Housing for the Elderly: Privacy and Independence in Environments  
 for the Aging.  New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1985. 
 
Inn, Henry and Lee, S.C.  Chinese Houses and Gardens.  London: Kegan Paul, 2001. 
 
Jones, Tom, Pettus, William, and Pyatok, Michael.  Good Neighbors: Affordable Family  
 Housing.  New York: McGraw-Hill, 1995.  
 
King, Bart.  An Architectural Guidebook to Portland.  Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith,  
 Publisher, 2001.  
 
Lanspery, Susan and Hyde, Joan.  Staying Put: Adapting the Places Instead of the People.  
 Amityville, New York: Baywood Publishing Company, Inc, 1997. 
 
Lip, Dr. Evelyn.  Feng Shui: Environments of Power: A Study of  Chinese Architecture. 
 Singapore: Academy Group Ltd, 1995. 
 118
 
Mostaedi.  Residences for the Elderly.  Barcelona: Carlos Broto & Joseph Ma Minguet. 
 
Norberg-Schulz, Christian.  ?Phenomenon of Place.?  Theorizing a New Agenda for 
 Architecture : an Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995.  Ed.  Kate 
 Nesbitt.   New York : Princeton Architectural Press, 1996. 
 
?Old Town Chinatown 3
rd
 & 4
th
 Avenue Streetscape Plan: Executive Summary.?  
 Portland, Oregon: City of Portland, 2002.  
 
?Old Town Chinatown 3
rd
 & 4
th
 Avenue Streetscape Plan: Final Report.?  Portland,  
 Oregon: City of Portland, 2002.  
 
Regnier, Victor.  Assisted Living Housing for the Elderly: Design innovations from the  
 United States and Europe.  New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1991. 
 
Siu, Paul C. P.  The Chinese Laundryman: A Study of Social Isolation.  New York: New  
 York University Press, 1987. 
 
Transitions: The Changing Profile of New York Chinatown.  1
st
 ed.  CD-ROM.  New  
 York: Museum of Chinese in the Americas (MOCA), 2001. 
 
United States. Census Bureau.  ?Profile of General Demographic Characteristics: 2000  
 for Portland City, Oregon.?  Online.  Internet.  27 December, 2003.  Available:  
 http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?ds_name=D&geo_id=16000US4159
 000&qr_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U_DP1&_lang=en. 
 
United States. Census Bureau.  ?Profile of General Demographic Characteristics: 2000  
 for United States and for Puerto Rico.?  Online.  Internet.  27 December, 2003.  
 Available:http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?ds_name=D&geo_id=D&
 qr_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U_DP1&_lang=en. 
 
United States. Census Bureau.  ?Profile of the OLD TOWN/CHINATOWN  
 Neighborhood (Census 2000) for Race Distribution and Age Distribution.?  
 Online.  Internet.  27 December, 2003. Available: 
 http://www.portlandmaps.com/detail.cfm?action=Census&propertyid=&state_id=
 &address_id=&intersection_id=49780&dynamic_point=0&x=7645136.802&y=6
 85087.892&place=NW%203RD%20AVE%20%26%20NW%20EVERETT%20S
 T&city=PORTLAND&neighborhood=OLD%20TOWN%2FCHINATOWN. 
 
Where is Home?: Chinese in the Americas.  New York: Museum of Chinese Americans, 
 2002. 
 
Zhang, Tingwei and Gobster, Paul H.  ?Leisure Preferences and Open Space Needs in an  
 Urban Chinese American Community.?  Journal of Architectural and Planning  
 Research 14.4 (Winter, 1998): 338-355.