One of Oregon's endangered pioneer farmhouses (image courtesy Restore Oregon)
BY BRIAN LIBBY
Preservation Pub: The End of the Trail for Oregon’s Pioneer Places?
In 2013 Restore Oregon listed Willamette Valley Pioneer Houses and Farmsteads as one of Oregon’s Most Endangered Places. Coordinated efforts are now underway to identify, document, study, and generate solutions that will save these storied buildings. Today, just 5 percent of those pioneer buildings still stand to tell their story. The collection of handmade structures built in the Willamette Valley between 1841 and 1865 embody the culmination the Oregon Trail experience. While their significance to our state’s history is paramount, these buildings are being lost at an alarming rate. Of the remnant that is left, most pioneer properties are today greatly threatened by deferred maintenance, economic hardship, land use barriers, and a general lack of public support of their importance. Restore Oregon is the host of this presentation and conversation about why Oregon’s oldest houses and barns matter and what can be done to preserve them. Ainsworth House, 19130 S Lot Whitcomb Drive, Oregon City. 6PM Tuesday, September 16. Free.
An Inside Peek at Peacock Lane
Southeast Portland's Peacock Lane is best known for the elaborate Christmas lights festooned to nearly every house, but this Architectural Heritage Center tour will allow a look at the architecture of the neighborhood, a series of Tudor revival and English cottage designs that were built in the 1920s by developer R.F. Wassell. Tickets are only available to AHC members, but they're allowed to bring friends. 12:30PM Sunday, September 21. $20.
Architects Without Borders: Focus on Homelessness
The September meeting of Architects Without Borders' Oregon chapter will explore a spectrum of housing options for the homeless, from tiny houses to encampments to large full-service shelters. Guest presenters are David Otte, project manager for Holst Architecture's award-winning Bud Clark Commons (which includes 130 studio apartments, a 90-bed men's transitional shelter, and a day center); Israel Bayer, a housing advocate and executive director of Street Roots; and Michael Withey of Micro Community Concepts, which is seeking to raise funds to plan, develop, and manage communities of affordable tiny houses and has attracted the interest of Mayor Charlie Hales as a potential or partial solution to homelessness in Portland. AIA Center For Architecture, 403 NW 11th Avenue. 6PM Wednesday, September 24. Free.
SketchUp MeetUp
The latest gathering of the Portland SketchUp group will feature presentations from three speakers. Oliver Kuehne is a senior planner and urban designer at HDR, will speak about creating multi-modal streets. Keuhne studied architecture and urban planning in Stuttgart, Germany, and has over a decade of experience of using SketchUp as a design and visualization tool. Nick Falbo, a local bike-lane proponent and urban planner at Alta Planning + Design, will show his video "Protected Intersections", which has been viewed over half a million times and featured in Wired. Dug Ketterman, the lead conceptual and technical designer at California RampWorks, an action sports company, will speak about using geolocation tools on his most recent project: designing skate ramps for the Dew Tour. Glumac, 900 SW Fifth Avenue, Suite 1600. 6PM Wednesday, September 24. Free.
Before the Show Began: Theaters of Oregon
The Fox. The Orpheum. The Paramount. Any current multiplex pales in comparison to these great old Portland-area movie palaces. As part of the Oregon Encyclopedia History Night series at McMenamin's Edgefield, Joe Fitzgibbon and Darrell Jabin will share details about the unique architecture, people and history of Oregon movie theaters, tracing the form to its inception in the early 20th century and exploring a variety of memorable movie houses across the Portland area and beyond. McMenamins Edgefield, 2126 SW Halsey Street, Troutdale. 6:30PM Tuesday, September 30. Free.
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Brian -- Just discovered this site. Thank you for your work. The Richmond Neighborhood Association has just requested a demo delay for 3415 SE Division. (Though the RNA got fliers re the demolition to their members, nothing was sent out by the Development Bureau, by the way.) The house in question IS over 50 years old. It is in the middle of a string of single family residential properties (typical Richmond bungalo constructions), but in a mixed zoning area. The puchaser / developer has indicated he wants to build a three story (plus partially underground new excavation five-car garage) property-to-property-line modern structure. Meanwhile, he has been neglecting the property since purchase several months ago (and has in a request to designate the house as "uninhabitable"). We are starting a search for total demolition alternatives and could use architectural, legal, procedural support, assistance, info or leads. Thank you, Mary
Posted by: Mary | September 18, 2014 at 04:33 PM