Rocky Butte Park (Brian Libby)
BY BRIAN LIBBY
Margarita Jover: Hybrid Infrastructures
As part of the University of Oregon's Department of Architecture Winter Lecture Series, Jover, a professor at the University of Virginia's School of Architecture and co-founder the Barcelona firm Alday Jover Arquitectos with expertise as both architect and landscape designer, will deliver a talk called "Hybrid Infrastructures, Architecture and Landscape." Jover argues that transportation networks and other types of projects "created by our industrialized, capitalist culture are challenged in their form and design by the nature of our contemporary eco-digital culture. The public awareness provided by digital networks is pressing against the stability of our existing class structure with the privileged chosen by birth or fortune; aatural and manmade dynamics are beginning to make their way into our life and their influences are forcing our culture to be re-imagined. Crises are excellent moments to revisit our common beliefs and provide the starting point of design innovation." University of Oregon, White Stag Block, 70 NW Couch Street. 5PM Tuesday, March 1. Free.
Rachel Hill: Food Urbanism - Everyone's Got To Eat
Landscape designer Rachel Hill of Portland's Anderson Krygier will speak about what she calls food urbanism as part of the CPID Talks series from Portland State University's Center for Public Interest Design. Throughout history and across cultures, all people must eat. But the processes of planning, growing, processing and marketing food systems are as unique as the land and people that make them. Cities, which often are shaped by this universal need, are equally as complex and distinctive. Hill will examine “food urbanism” projects in Arizona, Croatia, Switzerland and the US where efforts are emerging to re-integrate food systems back into the places where people live. Portland State University, Shattuck Hall, Room 217, Broadway and Hall Streets. 12PM Friday, March 4. Free.
The New Deal's Local Legacy: Pioneering Historic Preservation And A Landscape Aesthetic
Oregonians know the story of Timberline Lodge as Oregon's best known Great Depression-era public works project. But the New Deal’s long list of agencies produces impressive evidence of a legacy in our midst. The roots of historic preservation in our region started with the Historic American Buildings Survey, while Works Progress Administration construction projects not only helped provide jobs to the unemployed but cemented the concept of a regional landscape aesthetic such as that found in the Rocky Butte Scenic Drive and the amenities of Overlook Park. Considering the contributions of famous architects, such as Ellis F. Lawrence and Jamieson Parker, and lesser-known local artisans, retired University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee geography and urban studies professor Judith Kenny will in this Architectural Heritage Center lecture explore the New Deal projects in the Portland area that contributed to the preservation of our pioneer architectural heritage and the development of a regional landscape style. Architectural Heritage Center, 701 SE Grand Avenue. 10AM Saturday, March 5. $20 ($12 for AHC members).
Gil Kelly: Learning From San Francisco
As part of the ongoing Bright Lights discussion series from the University of Oregon's John Yeon Center and Portland Monthly magazine, host Randy Gragg will talk with Gil Kelly, former planning director for the City of Portland and now in a similar role in San Francisco. Both cities are undergoing dramatic change with similar underlying economic drivers, from a tech boom to a housing crisis. "San Francisco rarely contemplates what kind of city it wants to be when it grows up," says Kelley. "It's too busy just making that future in the moment, development project by development project." At the same time, he says, in everything from transportation to affordable housing, San Francisco can serve as laboratory from which Portland can learn. A Harvard Loeb Fellow, Kelley during his time in Portland played key roles in shaping the Pearl District, West End and South Waterfront. Jimmy Mak's, 221 NW 10th Avenue. 6PM Monday, March 7. $10.
Parking in the NW Portland: public hearing
On-street parking can be hard to find in the Northwest district, especially near the popular high streets of NW 21st and 23rd Avenues. To help address the problem, the City of Portland adopted the Northwest Parking Management Plan in 2013 to manage and improve access, including the installation of parking meters. The Northwest Parking Update Project is proposing two zoning code amendments to help improve and contribute to the long-term supply of parking options: establishing minimum parking requirements for residential development with more than 30 units, and expanding opportunities for accessory parking lots to rent out excess off-hour spaces. The public is invited to provide testimony on this proposal in person at a Planning and Sustainability Commission Public Hearing. City of Portland, 1900 SW 4th Avenue, Suite 2500A. 12:30PM Tuesday, March 8. Free.
Mid-Century Architects and Builders of Portland
Like many western US cities, Portland experienced a tremendous amount of new development in the two plus decades after the end of World War II. While the seeds of Modern and Northwest Regional architecture had been planted by the 1930s and the work of A.E. Doyle, John Yeon, and Pietro Belluschi, after World War II a new breed of architects and builders left their mark on Portland’s built environment. In this Architectural Heritage Center lecture, education manager Val Ballestrem shares images and stories of some of the more prolific and interesting architects and builders from this era, such as architects John Storrs, Warren Weber, Ken Birkemeier as well as builders like Ted Asbahr. Architectural Heritage Center, 701 SE Grand Avenue. 10AM Saturday, March 12. $20 ($12 for AHC members).
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