Design calendar: November 16-30

Garden House (Waechter Architecture)

BY BRIAN LIBBY

We are settling in for a long, dark, cold winter. And you know I'm not talking about the weather. Amidst our national crisis, maybe a few lectures and walking tours might seem trite or pointless. But we in the design and arts communities, and we as Portlanders, must stick together now all the more. We must inspire ourselves and then work to inspire others: to educate those who clearly need it, and to show our fellow citizens there is a more enlightened way to live. And with our annual architecture awards ceremony coming up this week, there's no better time to celebrate the best of our architecture and our creative selves.

Jury Critique Night - Portland Architecture Awards
Each year on the eve of the American Institute of Architects' annual Portland Architecture Awards, the three-member awards jury panel (always consisting of architects from outside Portland) offers a presentation of their own work as well as a critique of Portland's architecture as seen through the judging experience. This year's Boston-based jury includes Mariana Ibañez, co-founder of Ibañez Kim Studio and an associate professor at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design; Tim Love, founding principal at Utile Architecture & Planning Design and an associate professor at Northeastern University School of Architecture; and Elizabeth Whittaker, founder of Merge Architects. AIA Center For Architecture, 403 NW 11th Avenue. 5:30PM Wednesday, November 16. Free.

UNITE: How Portland Does Play
As part of its ongoing quarterly UNITE panel discussion series, Design Museum Portland hosts a multidisciplinary panel to discuss the importance of play and playscape design. Panelists including Christina Frank of MIG, Cody Goldberg of Harper’s Playground, Katie Shook of Midland and Michael Laris from Playworld will delve into how play is related to design, psychology, parenting, architecture, and development, and the ways in which we can design a more playful future. Pacific Northwest College of Art, 511 NW Broadway. 6:30PM Thursday, November 17. $15 ($10 in advance, free for Design Museum Portland members).

Portland Architecture Awards
Each year the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects honors the best in local architecture, with a group of prizes on offer including the Honor Award for the year's top designs. Last year, the Honor Award went to two projects: the Pacific Northwest College of Art's Schnitzer Center by Allied Works Architecture and the Garden House by Waechter Architecture.  Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark Street. 7:30PM Thursday, November 17 (reception begins 5:30PM). $85 for awards + reception ($50 for awards program only, $35 for awards program only for AIA associate members, $20 for awards program only for students). 

Peg Bowden on Human Migration and the Border
CPID Talks, an ongoing lecture series from Portland State University's Center for Public Interest Design in the School of Architecture, welcomes Peg Bowden, RN, MS, a retired public health nurse living in Arizona near the border with Mexico. Bowden lives in a rammed-earth home and volunteers at a migrant shelter in Mexico attempting to understand why thousands of people are willing to risk their lives crossing the Sonoran Desert into the US, where they are despised by so many ignorant, angry Trump voters. Her book, A Land of Hard Edges,  reflects on these attendant complexities of human migration. Portland State University, Shattuck Hall, 1914 SW Park Avenue, Room 217. 10AM Friday, November 18. Free.

Open House: School of Architecture Graduate Programs
Portland State University's School of Architecture offers two options for graduate study in architecture, together with a graduate certificate in public interest design, and a pre-professional undergraduate degree in architecture. At this open house, potential students will have an opportunity to learn about graduate programs in architecture, meet  teaching faculty and program directors, talk with current students, learn about the curriculum and our teaching philosophy, tour  studios and lab facilities, and find out more about the application process for the Master of Architecture, Graduate Certificate in Public Interest Design, as well as a BA or BS in Architecture. Portland State University, Shattuck Hall, 1914 SW Park Avenue. 1PM Friday, November 18. Free.

Daniel Vasini
The Portland State University School of Architecture is honored to welcome Daniel Vasini, creative director of the international award-winning urban planning and landscape architecture firm West 8. At the firm, he leads the creative thinking in the conceptualization of projects that advance design research, rigorous aesthetic, philosophical and operational standards of the design process. He lectures and serves as Design Critic in Landscape Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design, including serving as panelist and juror at other universities, fellowship programs, and conferences around world. Vasini was educated at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) in Los Angeles by way of the Fulbright Fellowship. He worked for Skidmore Owings & Merrill in Chicago and London before joining West 8 in 2008. Shattuck Hall Annex, SW Broadway & Hall Street. 4PM Friday, November 18. Free.

 

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Comments

[owen]

You're a douchebag. We do not need to educate anyone. We in the design and development community are full of Trump voters. Who do you think physically builds all these amazing pieces of architecture?.......Most are Trump voters, union card holding, solid hard working people. Granted your blog celebrates white collar elitist architects. whom without said Trump voters to build there shit, there would be no PDX architecture.

[Brian Libby]

Thanks for your comment, Owen. I don't wish to continue the argument any further. It's too bad this is coming between us on an architecture blog, but that's the choice I've made as a blogger. I'm sure you're right that there are a lot of Trump voters in the building trades, and I don't like the idea of having a lot of friction with hard-working men and women that make architects' designs a reality. At the same time, this is an historically difficult and tumultuous time for the country and I have felt compelled to speak out. I very well may be wrong about a lot of the things I write opinions about, but my conscience and the memory of my German ancestors makes me want to be mindful of the importance of speaking out sincerely when I see fit.