Fair-Haired Dumbbell (Architecture Foundation of Oregon)
BY BRIAN LIBBY
Explore Hidden Downtown
Led by author Laura Foster as part of the City of Portland’s Ten Toe Express walk series is an invitation to explore the back streets and hidden pathways of Portland State University and the south end of downtown. Foster will peel back the layers and find vestiges of Portland’s past hiding in plain sight. Tour begins at corner of SW 18th Avenue & Salmon Street. 9AM Saturday, September 16. Free.
Midtown and West End walking tour
Explore downtown between the South Park Blocks and I-405, an area filled with iconic buildings as well as numerous lesser-known architectural gems. Attendees on this Architectural Heritage Center tour will see historic apartment houses, storefronts, cultural and religious buildings, and the remnants of what was once a thriving residential area, while also gaining an understanding of the impacts of development on historic preservation efforts. The West End has also become one of Portland's hottest shopping and restaurant destinations, and includes noteworthy recent projects like Lever Architecture's Union Way, Skylab Architecture's Blackbox building, and ZFG's 12 West tower, not to mention historic gems like A.E. Doyle's Central Library. Tour meets on the north side of Central Library, on SW Yamhill Street between 10th and 11th Avenues. 10AM Saturday, September 16. $20 ($12 for AHC members).
Historic Kenton walking tour
Located just south of the Columbia River in North Portland, Kenton was a remote farming community until the streetcar and the meat-packing industry transformed this rural hamlet into a classic early 20th century company town. For several decades, Kenton was the Pacific Northwest headquarters of the Swift Meat Packing company with an enormous stockyard and adjacent packing plants. As attendees on this Positively Portland walking tour will see, the residential and commercial buildings still reflect the stratification of a working class neighborhood. We'll start our walk at the iconic Paul Bunyan statue, the best remaining evidence of the 1959 Oregon Centennial celebration. The tour includes a look inside the fully restored and very active Kenton Masonic Lodge. Tour begins at Paul Bunyan statue, North Denver and North Interstate Avenue. 11AM Saturday, September 16. $15.
Old Town walking tour
The commercial district near the historic Skidmore Fountain and the oldest standing buildings in downtown comprise this tour of Portland’s only National Historic District. Attendees on this Architectural Heritage Center tour will see the work of Portland’s earliest architects, learning how cast iron played a central role in their designs and how the city developed so close to the river, and along the way learning about some beautiful but long-lost buildings while also seeing great examples of historic preservation. Tour meetup location to be announced. 10AM Tuesday, September 19. $20 ($12 for AHC members).
ASID Design Excellence Awards
The Oregon Chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers wishes to acknowledge, elevate and celebrate great design in our region. In order to recognize the skill and creativity of local designers, ASID Oregon instituted an annual design award competition (now in its third year) open to all practicing interior designers and interior design students in Oregon and awarded in this ceremony. Categories include residential, commercial, on the boards, and student projects. Design Within Reach, 825 NW 13th Avenue. 5:30PM Tuesday, September 19. $15 ($10 for ASID members).
In Process: Beebe Skidmore + Made
AIA Portland's quarterly lecture series In Process, which provides insight into the creative process of local architects, designers, makers and creators, continues with architecture firm Beebe Skidmore and custom wood fabrication company Made. Heidi Beebe and Doug Skidmore established Beebe Skidmore Architects in 2007 with modest residential and commercial projects in Portland, Seattle and Boise after wrapping up their duties with Allied Works Architecture on the Seattle Art Museum. Beebe Skidmore was recently awarded two AIA Honor Awards for Swift Agency, a 30,000-square-foot adaptive re-use project with a custom creative office interior. Made is a multi-disciplinary design-build firm that builds furniture, cabinetry, and interior spaces from its Portland studio. AIA Center For Architecture, 403 NW 11th Avenue. 5:30PM Tuesday, September 19. Free.
The Case for Building Integrated Photovoltaics
With the price of solar photovoltaics dropping approximately 50 percent in the last ten years, more and more states gearing up to meet renewable energy carve-outs. And with climate change continually in the headlines, the economic, political, and environmental factors of solar PV are converging. This presentation by Claire McKenna, a senior engineer at San Francisco's WSP USA, makes the case for building integrated photovoltaics systems, addressing the system adoption drivers and advancements in technology as well as discussing a strategy for employing the maximum potential of solar PV. When applied to meet this potential, building integrated PV systems can provide a distinctive aesthetic while meeting high performance energy goals as they link on-site generation, energy storage and the building network to the grid of the future. AIA Center For Architecture, 403 NW 11th Avenue. 12PM Wednesday, September 20. $37.92 ($27.37 for AIA members, $16.82 for Associate AIA members, $6.27 for students or those not seeking AIA Continuing Education credits).
Does This Make Sense Anymore? Energy Efficiency in a Market Awash With Low-Cost Power
As part of the Energy Trust of Oregon's Energy Engineering Forums series, Charlie Grist, the Conservation Resource Manager for the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, will discuss the future of energy-efficiency measures in architecture. The market price of energy is so low that sometimes it’s negative. Wind and solar plants are springing frequently, natural gas generation is so cheap it’s displacing coal, and in many places electric loads are not growing even though population is. These circumstances challenge the notion of energy efficiency as a resource. Yet the Northwest Power Council’s Seventh Power Plan (2016) calls for developing ever more energy efficiency. Ecotrust, 721 NW Ninth Avenue, Second Floor. 12PM Wednesday, September 20. Free.
Tour the Fair Haired Dumbbell!
Get an up close and personal look at one of the most talked about new buildings in Portland, the Fair Haired Dumbbell, in this Architecture Foundation of Oregon tour. Visitors will hear from Kevin Cavenaugh, the building’s developer and co-designer , along with other members of the design team from FFA Design. Learn about the funding model, the challenges the site presented, and the colorful artwork on the exterior. Fair-Haired Dumbbell, 11 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. 5PM Wednesday, September 20. $25.
Trace It Back
The Oregon Chapter of the International Interior Design Association's September Forum features an informative overview of materials transparency, coined “Trace it Back.” Michael Johnson, the Director of Sustainability at 3Form, will present on how materials transparency relates to green building, and socially/environmentally responsible manufacturing. This CEU will touch on the following points: provide an understanding of a life cycle analysis, educate on the use of Environmental Product Declarations or EPDs and other transparency documents, and it will shed some light on the benefits of transparency in the marketplace. Interior Office Solutions, 811 SW Sixth Avenue. 5:30PM Thursday, September 21. $15 (free for IIDA members).
The Work and Legacy of William Fletcher, Northwest Modernist
This lecture by Troy Doss, a principal with FFA Architecture and Interiors, will look at the career of firm co-founder William Fletcher, a talented practitioner of the Northwest Modern residential style that, like the work of architects Saul Zaik, John Storrs, Van Evera Bailey and others, took inspiration from the early houses of John Yeon and Pietro that fused International Style modernism with the influence of local barns and farmhouses as well as Japanese architectural traditions. Design Within Reach, 825 NW 13th Avenue. 6PM Friday, September 22. $10 suggested donation (free with purchase of Midcentury Modern William Fletcher House Tour).
Gothic Revival church architecture: from Pugin to Portland
19th century English architect and designer Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin was was also a prolific writer, publishing several books outlining his architectural principles as a leading proponent of the Gothic Revival style. Presenter Kathryn L. Burton, Ph.D., who has taught at Oregon State University and West Virginia University but now manages the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Gordon House near Silverton, will examine several Portland churches designed in this style in relation to Pugin’s principles, in order to better understand how the style was translated across space and time. She’ll also discuss factors that influenced Pugin’s work and some of his most important designs. Architectural Heritage Center, 701 SE Grand Avenue. 10AM Saturday, September 23. $20 ($12 for AHC members).
Mid-Century Modern William Fletcher House Tour
A founding member of the Portland architectural firm FFA (Fletcher Farr Ayotte), William Fletcher’s work was inspired by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and the international style of architecture, but was also influenced by Oregon’s NW Regional Modernism which was flourishing at that time. The resulting homes, as evidenced on this Restore Oregon annual tour, are both modern and appropriate for the landscape. Tour locations provided with tickets. 10AM Saturday, September 23. $45 ($35 for Restore Oregon members).
Pearl District tour - Preservation in the Midst of Change
Over the last 20 years, the Pearl District has been transformed from industrial enclave and rail yards into one of Portland’s most popular residential, cultural and retail districts. A century ago, the area went through a similar transformation, from a working class housing area at the edge of a marsh to the city’s biggest industrial and warehousing area. Many of Portland’s best known architects of the period designed buildings for important local and national companies. Most of these buildings remain, with their exteriors intact, and new uses inside. But as the pending demolition of the Pacific Northwest College of Art's Feldman Building (a renovated old warehouse) reminds us, the current wave of development could threaten more historic buildings. Tour meetup location to be announced. 10AM Saturday, September 23. $20 ($12 for AHC members).
Tour the Aubrey Watzek House
The University of Oregon's John Yeon Center for Architecture and the Landscape invites the public to tour Portland's only National Historic Landmark residence, the Aubrey Watzek House. Completed in 1927, the house helped kick off the Northwest Modern residential style, combining Bauhaus modernism with local vernacular influences such as barns and farmhouses as well as the influence of Japanese architecture. Over the ensuing decades, the genre would grow with houses by Pietro Belluschi, Saul Zaik, John Storrs, Van Evera Bailey, William Fletcher and many others. But Yeon's Watzek remains the crown jewel. Watzek House, 1061 SW Skyline Boulevard. 11AM, 1PM and 3PM Sunday, September 24. $20-30.
Decon + Reuse ’17
The Building Material Reuse Association's international conference and expo on deconstruction and reuse features three days of presentations by leaders and innovators in the reuse and deconstruction fields, sharing their best practices, case studies and research. This event is the premier opportunity for networking with one's colleagues and learning about new tools and practices. Portland State University, Smith Memorial Student Union, 1825 SW Broadway. 8AM Monday-Wednesday, September 25-27. $450
Pioneers to Postmodern: downtown walking tour
Taking a whirlwind tour of Portland's architectural history via this downtown Architectural Heritage Center tour, attendees will learn about the first wooden structures near the river as well as the elaborate cast iron, stone and terracotta decorated buildings of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. From there one will be transported into the modern age and the sleek designs of Pietro Belluschi and the postmodernism of Michael Graves. Tour meetup location to be announced. 10AM Tuesday, September 26. $20 ($12 for AHC members).
Architects Without Borders: a design/build experience in Arusha
Matt Leavitt, an Architects Without Borders/Oregon steering committee member and a designer at Hacker Architects, will speak about his experiences in Arusha, Tanzania, where he worked with other volunteers and local craftsmen building a children's foster home under the auspices of Real Architecture Workshop. RAW organizes design/build experiences for students and young architects in locations around the world. AIA Center For Architecture, 403 NW 11th Avenue. 6PM Wednesday, September 27. Free.
New York’s High Line and Portland’s Green Loop: Linear Parks and Urban Futures
New York’s High Line park, an innovative promenade created on a disused elevated railway, is one of the world’s most iconic new urban landmarks. Portland’s Green Loop, a proposed six-mile linear park and active transportation path, is an ambitious design concept promoting a new type of civic ecology. Featuring presentations by urban theorist Christoph Lindner and representatives of the City of Portland’s Urban Design Studio, this evening of discussion will explore how these two linear park projects connect with a range of pressing urban issues facing cities, including sustainable design, gentrification, historic preservation and cultural resources, community activism, and the privatization of public space. Linder's work focuses on the interrelations between cities, globalization, and creative practice. Recent books include, with Brian Rosa, Deconstructing the High Line: Postindustrial Urbanism and the Rise of the Elevated Park, Global Garbage: Urban Imaginaries of Waste, Excess, and Abandonment, and Cities Interrupted: Visual Culture and Urban Space. The Urban Design Studio at the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability advances the design quality of places citywide. The Urban Design Studio employs visual and graphic technologies to illustrate ideas and concepts about future physical changes as Portland continues to grow. Architectural Heritage Center, 701 SE Grand Avenue. 6:30PM Thursday, September 28. Free.
Stumptown Goes Uptown: Architect Warren H. Williams in Portland, 1873-1888
Arriving from San Francisco in early 1873 after a devastating fire destroyed many of Portland’s modest wood and brick buildings, Warren H. Williams spent the next fifteen years designing dozens of structures. As attendees of this Architectural Heritage Center tour will learn, the interiors often featured exceptional materials and workmanship. His cast-iron structures lent an air of classical elegance to downtown streets. Williams also drew plans for a sewer line, a tax collector’s boat, a hospital, and a roadhouse, and worked with other talented architects and mentored beginners who developed careers of their own. Did his work ever cross the line into excess and ostentation? Architectural Heritage Center, 701 SE Grand Avenue. 10AM Saturday, September 30. $20 ($12 for AHC members).
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