Restoring and Painting Portland’s Lan Su Chinese Garden

Painting and restoring a historic or culturally significant building takes more than color and a good roller. Surfaces need careful repair, the site has to be protected, and the work has to fit around the people who use and visit the space. Our work at Lan Su Chinese Garden in Portland’s Old Town Chinatown is one of the projects that best shows how Cascade Painting & Restoration approaches that kind of job.

Beginning in 2013, our crew restored and painted pavilions, columns, railings, and other areas at the garden. This post looks back at what the work involved, the challenges of painting over a koi pond, and what the project shows about restoration painting in Portland’s climate.

About Lan Su Chinese Garden

Lan Su Chinese Garden is a walled Chinese garden in the heart of Portland, built in the style of the classical gardens of Suzhou, Portland’s sister city in China. It opened in 2000 and has become one of the city’s best-known landmarks.

The garden’s pavilions, covered walkways, and carved details are surrounded by water, rock, and planting. That beauty also means constant exposure to moisture, which is hard on painted wood in a Portland winter.

The Scope of the Work

Our crew was brought in to restore and repaint sections of the garden. Over the course of the work, we restored and painted nine of the garden’s pavilions, the entry and ticket booth area, and the restrooms. Later phases included stripping teak windows so they could be re-stained and refinished.

One of the pavilions we completed early in the project is known as “Flowers Bathing in Spring.” Each pavilion had its own condition issues and access challenges, so the work was planned structure by structure.

Repairing the Columns Before Painting

Many areas, particularly the pillars, needed extensive repair before any paint could go on. Years of weather had left surfaces rough, checked, and damaged.

Our process for the columns was:

• Thorough scraping and sanding to remove loose and failing coatings.
• Three coats of body filler, applied to rebuild damaged areas and even out the surface.
• Fine sanding of the final coat so the restored columns had a smooth, continuous profile.
• Priming before the finish coats.

Many of the railings also needed sanding and priming. This kind of preparation is slow, but it determines how the finish looks up close and how long it lasts. The same principle applies to homes, as we explain in our post on why smooth surfaces matter before painting.

Painting Over a Koi Pond

Several of the pavilions sit in the middle of the garden’s koi pond or extend out over the water. That made protection one of the most important parts of the job.

Every step, from scraping and sanding to priming and painting, had to be planned so that dust, debris, and paint stayed out of the water. Containment and careful cleanup were part of every workday. It is a good example of why preparation and site protection should be listed clearly in any painting estimate.

Choosing the Finish

For the finish coats, we used Sherwin-Williams Emerald exterior paint, the company’s top-line exterior product at the time. The pavilions are exposed to sun, rain, and the humidity of the surrounding pond, so the coating needed strong adhesion, flexibility, and resistance to moisture and mildew.

Using a premium product on a project like this is about long-term protection. On a structure that requires extensive preparation and careful access, the paint itself is a small part of the overall cost, and a longer-lasting finish delays the next round of work.

Working Around Visitors and Garden Operations

Lan Su is open to the public, so our crew worked around visitors, staff, and the garden’s schedule. That meant keeping work areas tidy and safe, staging materials carefully, and adjusting the sequence of work when needed.

Edward Hemmings, the garden’s Facilities and Safety Director at the time, described the project this way:

“Carl and the team at Cascade Painting and Restoration provide exceptional, professional painting, refinishing and restoration services at reasonable prices. We are currently working on a challenging project at Lan Su Chinese Garden, where I am employed as the Facilities and Safety Director. I had been looking for a company who would be flexible, conscientious, and willing to work in unusual conditions while still providing a top quality finished product. I was lucky enough to find Carl and his team, who were not only up for the challenge but have been a pleasure to do business with. Highly Recommended!”

The same approach applies to occupied offices, schools, and retail spaces. Our post on commercial painting without disrupting business covers how we plan around ongoing operations.

Interior Work and Later Phases

Alongside the exterior restoration, our crew painted interior areas, including the restrooms. Exterior work was scheduled for drier parts of the year, since Portland’s rainy season limits when exterior coatings can be applied and cured properly.

Teak windows were stripped so they could be re-stained and refinished. Restoring natural wood calls for a different process than painting, with careful stripping, sanding, and stain or clear finishes that bring back the wood’s color and grain.

What This Project Shows About Restoration Painting

A project like Lan Su highlights what matters on any restoration job, from a historic landmark to an older Portland home:

• Repair comes before paint. Paint does not fix damaged surfaces. Rebuilding and smoothing them first is what makes the finish look right.
• Protection is part of the scope. Landscaping, water features, floors, and furnishings all need a plan.
• Product choice matters in a wet climate. High-quality exterior coatings hold up better to Portland’s moisture.
• Weather drives the schedule. Exterior restoration should be planned for conditions that let coatings cure properly.
• Communication keeps the site running. Working around staff, residents, or visitors takes daily coordination.

Restoration and Painting for Homes and Businesses

We are proud to have helped care for one of Portland’s most beautiful places. If you have never visited Lan Su Chinese Garden, it is well worth the trip.

Cascade Painting & Restoration has handled restoration and painting work across the Portland metro area since 1988, from commercial painting for public and private buildings to carpentry repairs and exterior painting on older homes. If you have a building that needs careful repair before it is repainted, contact our team to schedule a walkthrough and free estimate.