Stastny and Gragg on Pioneer Courthouse Square and design competitions

Apologies for the short notice, but today from 5:30-7:00PM the AIA/Portland Center For Architecture will host a lecture and discussion about Pioneer Courthouse Square and design competitions featuring architect Don Stastny and Portland Spaces editor Randy Gragg.

As previously mentioned, Courthouse Square and the design competition that produced it are the subject of a monthlong exhibit at the Center For Architecture (located at 403 NW 11th Avenue) in celebration of the square's 25th anniversary.

Gragg will begin by discussing the competition to design Portland Courthouse Square, and Stastny will discuss other design competitions that he has led or observed around the country. 

Stastny, an AIA Fellow, has with his firm, StastnyBrun Architects, been involved in some very high profile design competitions, including the one for the memorial in rural Pennsylvania to Flight 93 passengers killed on September 11, 2001 as well as for the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles (now a Frank Gehry designed landmark second only to his Guggenheim Bilbao), the US embassy in Berlin, the Alaska state capitol (won by Pritzker Prize winner Tom Mayne), the memorial in Oklahoma City to those killed in the 1994 domestic terrorist attack there, and Pioneer Courthouse Square itself.

 

Gragg and Stastny will then team up for a question and answer period and general discussion of what has worked, what hasn't, and what lessons Portland can apply to future competitions.