Figo House is a
Queen Anne style house near
Portland State University
Portland State University (PSU) is a public research university in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1946 as a post-secondary educational institution for World War II veterans. It evolved into a four-year college over the following two decades ...
in
Portland, Oregon
Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...
, USA. The house was purchased by a Portland attorney, Randal Acker, in 2005 as office space for his small legal practice. Acker named the house after his dog, Figo, who was named after the former Portuguese soccer star
Luís Figo
Luís Filipe Madeira Caeiro Figo (; born 4 November 1972) is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as a winger for Sporting CP, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Inter Milan. He won 127 caps for the Portugal national team, a one-ti ...
.
In 2006, Portland's mass transit authority,
TriMet
TriMet, formally known as the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon, is a public agency that operates mass transit in a region that spans most of the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon. Created in 1969 ...
, attempted to acquire the house through condemnation and then sell the property to the university for use as high-rise student housing. The TriMet plan was cancelled in 2008 after Acker successfully argued that
eminent domain
Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...
power is limited.
In 2011, Acker likened his situation to that featured in the Disney movie, ''
Up''. Later that year, he arranged a Portland screening of the documentary film, ''
Battle for Brooklyn
Battle for Brooklyn is a 2011 documentary that follows the stories of a Brooklyn neighborhood as the residents fight to save their homes from being destroyed by an impending real estate project. The film attempts to show the unjust outcomes that a ...
'', about
Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, residents fighting to save their homes from real estate developers.
See also
*
Edith Macefield
Edith Macefield (August 21, 1921 – June 15, 2008) was a real estate holdout who received worldwide attention in 2006 when she turned down an offer of $ to sell her house to make way for a commercial development in the Ballard neighborhood of S ...
*
Nail house
A holdout is a property that did not become part of a larger real estate development, usually because the owner refused to sell their property. There are many examples of holdouts worldwide.
Examples
Macy's headquarters at Macy's Herald Squa ...
*
Vera Coking Vera Coking is a retired homeowner whose Atlantic City, New Jersey, boarding house was the focus of an eminent domain case involving Donald Trump.
History
In 1961, Coking and her husband bought the property at 127 South Columbia Place as a summert ...
*
Wu Ping
Wu Ping (born 1965/1966) is a Chinese woman who became a celebrity over her holding out in one of the most famous nail house incidents in China. Ms Wu's house was in the middle of a construction site for a new shopping mall in Chongqing
...
*
Michael Forbes (farmer)
References
Houses in Portland, Oregon
1894 establishments in Oregon
Real estate holdout
Queen Anne architecture in Oregon
Houses completed in 1894
{{Oregon-struct-stub