Eugene is tearing down riverfront overlook built to honor civic leader Maurie Jacobs

The city of Eugene is demolishing the pedestrian overlook at Maurie Jacobs Park designed decades ago by a prominent local architect to honor the park’s namesake.

A curved walkway near the north end of Adams Street leads to the overlook, a round platform jutting out over the south bank of the Willamette River, between the Owen Rose Garden and the Greenway Pedestrian/Bike Bridge.

The structure was designed in the late 1980s by Otto Poticha, of the former Unthank Seder Poticha firm, who was behind several local landmarks like the Wildish Community Theater in Springfield and the Lane County Public Service Building in Eugene.

Poticha wanted to honor Maurie Jacobs, the businessman and civic leader who founded M. Jacobs Fine Furniture and was known for his investment in public spaces in Eugene, including parks and cultural venues like the Hult Center. Jacobs died in 1988.

Now, decades later, the overlook is being demolished, according to a city permit for erosion prevention issued this summer. Work to raze the structure began Monday, Aug. 24, and will likely be complete by the end of the week. The city did not publicly announce the demolition.

“The abutment for the overlook has become severely compromised due to river migration, and the structure presents a significant hazard for public safety,” Jake Savelich, community engagement coordinator for Eugene Parks and Open Space, told Lookout Eugene-Springfield.

Sheila and Mike Schwartz, the daughter and son-in-law of Jacobs, said they were not notified about the demolition.

“I think it’s wrong,” Mike Schwartz said. “I think it’s horrible.”

Poticha, 91, disputes the necessity of the demolition and sees it as a symbol of Eugene’s diminishing interest in preserving historic and unique architectural landmarks. 

“To me, it’s like taking a piece of art and throwing it in the river,” Poticha said. “The city has absolutely no imagination.”

Poticha said he designed the memorial for free because Jacobs was not only a respected community member but his friend, and he wanted it to commemorate him in a more creative way than a plaque or sign.

“Maurie, in my judgment, was a person that didn’t stay within the box,” he said. “He was very good at making things happen, and not necessarily just the way it’s always done. The overlook was trying to sort of make that statement. It sort of leaves the land and stands out into the river as a special statement.”

A memorial born from public-private partnership

The overlook memorial cost more than $1.5 million (adjusted to today’s dollars) and received funding from both private donors and the state. Neil Goldschmidt, then Oregon’s governor, who considered Jacobs a mentor, set aside funds for the park in his 1989-91 budget.

The project also featured curved terraces formed by low stone walls that sit near the overlook, a new parking lot at the end of Fir Lane, community garden improvements and new landscaping and lighting throughout the area.

It caused some controversy in the Whiteaker neighborhood, according to newspaper archives. Some neighbors didn’t like the design itself, while others raised eyebrows at the design process, which was led by a committee of civic and business leaders appointed by former Eugene Mayor Brian Obie. They included Ted Baker of Guard Publishing Co., John Alltucker of Eugene Sand & Gravel and Mike Schwartz.

Ernie Drapela, then Eugene’s parks and recreation director, called the project a “gift to the city” and told The Register-Guard in 1989 that the committee’s “intense support may protect it in such a manner that it won’t be viewed as it would if it were being funded purely with public money.”

In 1991, community members gathered at the park for a ceremony to dedicate the newly constructed memorial to Jacobs. Schwartz delivered an emotional speech about his father-in-law.

“He wanted the community to be involved,” Schwartz told the crowd. “It was always ‘we,’ not ‘I.’”

Savelich said the city did not notify the Jacobs family about the demolition because “mitigating the risk to the public was the top priority.”

“While I’m sure some will miss this particular spot, we are fortunate enough to have multiple pedestrian bridges across the river that provide many excellent observation points,” Savelich said.

Razing a place of remembrance 

Poticha and other local architects familiar with the project argue that shifting river currents wouldn’t have severely threatened the structural integrity of the concrete platform jutting off the riverbank. Erosion is also “fairly easy” to repair, not warranting a demolition, he said.

“The city is worried about people going out there and falling in the river or sleeping on it or doing something, and the erosion piece is the great excuse to get rid of it,” Poticha said. “I don’t believe erosion is the issue.”

Architect Fred Tepfer, who worked in University of Oregon campus planning for more than 30 years, said he was “baffled” by the decision. The steel and concrete structure could have been easily reinforced and showed “no apparent structural problem,” he said.

“It would be child’s play to pour more concrete underneath it,” Tepfer said. “We’re not talking sophisticated anything here.”

Even before the news of demolition, the overlook showed signs of disrepair. The platform hanging over the river’s edge has been blocked off since 2022 and the handrails have been removed; the bronze plaque near the overlook honoring Jacobs has been missing since about 2020 and has not been replaced. 

Plaques at the Climbing Columns, Greenway Bridge and Myra’s Playground were taken the same night, Tepfer said. The one at the Climbing Columns has since been replaced, he said.

“I suppose if I’d been somebody all the time saying, ‘Why is this not up? Why is this not up? Why is this not up?’ I’m sure it would have gotten done,” Schwartz said. “But I’m as delinquent as everybody else not following up. We paid the money to have it redone.”

The overlook’s demolition also concerns Abraham Kelso, the board president of the Northwest Center for Architecture, a local architectural preservation nonprofit. 

He said a city parks employee told him about a year ago that the riverbank’s erosion has caused the overlook’s concrete foundations to shift slightly, creating a 1-inch slope. But he argues the city should spend money to repair the overlook, not raze it. Schwartz suggested a fundraiser.

Savelich did not answer questions on why the city opted for demolition, as opposed to repairs, or what, if anything, will take the place of the overlook. He said the overlook is the only structure in the memorial area being demolished.

Kelso said, “It’s a much better story for the city of Eugene that they saved this thing for future generations, rather than to always remember that they destroyed a monument to a celebrated civic figure that was designed by another celebrated civic figure.”