Portland Scottish Rite Temple, 1903 (Portland Valley Scottish Rite)
BY BRIAN LIBBY
Docomomo Oregon Modern Mixer
Rescheduled after last week's snow, this is a free social networking event for Docomomo (which stands for documentation and conservation of the modern movement) members, non-members, and modern design enthusiasts and advocates to converse with the chapter's board. One can get to know fellow members and non-members while learning about upcoming chapter events and programming, advocacy, and how to help move modern architecture's preservation forward. Rontoms, 600 E Burnside Street. 5:30PM Thursday, March 1. Free.
Design Museum Mornings: Nature Play in the City
Outdoor and risky play has proven to have a powerfully positive effect in childhood development, encouraging kids to explore, imagine, and create. Traditional playgrounds can limit a child’s ability to connect with surroundings and challenge their minds and bodies. Ben Johnson, an associate landscape architect at GreenWorks leading this discussion, will describe how he embraced the challenge of bringing a natural playscape inside Portland’s Urban Growth Boundary, resulting in the Westmoreland Nature-Based Play Area. The project features structures that exercise sustainable practices and double as play objects, from salvaged concrete repurposed for water play elements and many salvaged logs for climbing features and custom benches. This project opened in 2014 and is wildly popular with children and adults alike, earning the ASLA Oregon Honor Award. AIA Center For Architecture, 403 NW 11th Avenue. 8:30AM Friday, March 2. $10 plus $2.61 service charge (free for Design Museum Portland members).
Downtown Fraternal Lodges & Secret Societies Tour
Fraternal lodges, also known as secret societies, played an important social role in early 20th century Portland. These organizations not only provided an active social outlet in the pre-electronic age, but also offered a financial safety net in the days before government programs fulfilled that need. They also provided a place to create and maintain business relationships. This Architectural Heritage Center tour, includes six architecturally significant and historic fraternal lodge buildings, including the former Elks and Masonic temples, as well as the Scottish Rite Center. Tour meetup location to be announced. 1PM Friday, March 2. $25 ($15 for AHC members).
Portland’s Historic Preservation Wins and Losses
Well before the implementation of the 1966 National Historic Preservation Act, the Portland area witnessed many important buildings saved and many lost. Over the past 50 years, preservationists have continued to work tirelessly, preserving many of the most well-recognized buildings and neighborhoods, while still facing an uphill battle against demolitions. In this Architectural Heritage Center talk, members of its education and advocacy committees will share stories of important historic preservation wins and losses in the Portland area. Attendees will hear how Pioneer Courthouse was saved (more than once) from the wrecking ball and how the dismantling of Harbor Drive helped those trying to save Old Town from further destruction. One will also learn about the losses – especially neighborhoods wiped out by urban renewal and freeway development and some notable landmarks, like Portland’s Union Stockyard building and the Orpheum Theater. Architectural Heritage Center, 701 SE Grand Avenue. 10AM Saturday, March 3. $12 ($8 for AHC members).
Lair Hill Neighborhood Tour
It turns out that Lair Hill is not named for a hill. Named for pioneering Portland lawyer and newspaper editor William Lair Hill, this residential neighborhood and subject of an Architectural Heritage Center tour is one of Portland’s oldest. Lair Hill contains a fascinating mix of historic homes, along with notable buildings significant for their connections to the city’s early immigrant populations. It’s also a neighborhood that was impacted by urban renewal and freeway development. Tour meetup location to be announced. 10AM Saturday, March 3. $20 ($12 for AHC members).
2018 Urbanism Next Conference
Join experts from the private, public, and academic sectors as we look at how autonomous vehicles, e-commerce, and the sharing economy are impacting cities. Emerging technologies are having profound effects not only on how we live, move, and spend our time in cities, but also increasingly on urban form and development itself. Planners, architects, landscape architects, developers, academics and many others will come together for presentations, sessions, and interactive workshops and charrettes to learn about the secondary impacts of emerging technologies on land uses, urban design, transportation, and real estate markets and the implications of these changes for equity, the environment, the economy, and governance. Oregon Convention Center, 777 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. 8AM Monday, March 5. $475 ($425 for academics or members of the American Institute of Architects, American Planning Association, American Society of Landscape Architects and Urban Land Institute).
Old Town Tour
For those interested in history and architecture, no visit to a city is complete without seeing its Old Town – and Portland should be no exception. With a streetscape reminiscent of New York’s famed SoHo, Old Town contains one of the largest collections of cast-iron fronted buildings in the US, with most concentrated within the neighborhood near our famous Skidmore Fountain. On this fascinating tour, you’ll see the oldest standing buildings in downtown, while also learning about some of the city’s earliest architects and how cast-iron played a central role in their designs. You’ll see fine examples of historic preservation in action and also learn about some of the lost architectural gems that once lined the streets near the river. Tour meetup location to be announced. 10AM Tuesday, March 6. $20 ($12 for AHC members).
Experience Hybridization
Join Carly Cannell, founder of the New York-based multidisciplinary design studio Weetu and a University of Oregon graduate for an interactive discussion around what she calls experience hybridization: her firm's collaborative creative process. Cannell will touch on her journey from Northern California farm girl to Manhattan-based entrepreneur as well as the importance of resilience, vulnerability, collaboration and emotional intelligence, and her fearless fall forward into a life of design. Weetu is a multi-disciplinary design studio working at the intersection of interiors, architecture, marketing and branding. University of Oregon, White Stag Block, 70 NW Couch Street. 5:30PM Tuesday, March 6. Free.
CSI Portland Chapter Industry Forum 2018
The Portland Industry Forum is intended for designers, engineers, contractors, product representatives and project owners, providing the design and construction community an annual informative and stimulating look at what’s new and innovative in the industry. Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park Avenue. 3:30PM Wednesday, March 7. $25.
Pearl District Walking Tour
The Pearl District was practically deserted 25 years ago. On this Positively Portland Walking Tour, attendees will see how the district has been transformed into a dynamic walker-friendly neighborhood with contemporary and adaptive high rise housing, fine dining and world class entertainment. The Pearl District in Portland has become a model of high quality urban living and a must-see destination for visitors to our world-class city. Tour begins at AIA Portland Center For Architecture, 403 NW 11th Avenue. 1PM Thursday, March 8. $15.
Get Certified/Meet The Primes
This event, presented by general contractor Skanska in partnership with Metro, the Oregon Secretary of State, the Oregon Department of Administrative Services, and the Port of Portland, is intended to help prequalify with prime contractors to maximize opportunities available for certified firms; prepare for current and future projects; understand how to streamline your state certification; maximize state certifcations through unique public contracts; and understand how state certification helps grow a business. Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs, 731 N Hayden Meadows Drive. 9:30AM Friday, March 9. Free.
South Park Blocks Walking Tour
This eleven-block portion of the downtown area was first platted and donated to the City of Portland in 1852, transforming a fire break parcel into the most desirable residential area of its day, complete with schools, playgrounds, stately homes and places of worship. On this Architectural Heritage Center tour one can take a stroll through the groves of elms and recount some of the stories they would love to tell about the area’s history and architecture. The South Park Blocks stand alone as a place of revitalization, refreshment and cultural allure. Tour meetup location to be announced. 10AM Saturday, March 10. $20 ($12 for AHC members).
One City/Many Futures: The Portland We Are Making (Part One)
Buildings are rising everywhere. Streets are clogged. Maybe you’ve heard there is a new Portland Plan or that half a billion will be spent to “widen” I-5. How many bioswales and bike lanes are enough? How many highrises? There’s lots of talk about equity, but is anyone creating it? Is Lents the new Pearl? How do all the changes to Portland fit together? Do they? "One City: Many Futures" will offer a panoramic view of the next Portland with an unprecedented line-up of the people and projects defining the city’s future: top city officials, developers, architects, and community activists shaping the places that we live, work, and play. In this first of three jam-packed talks hosted by Randy Gragg and featuring up to seven presentations each (the other two talks will be held on March 19 and March 26), presentations will be given by Prosper Portland director Kimberly Branam, Bureau of Planning and Sustainability director Joe Zehnder, Joy Alise Davis of the Portland African American Leadership Forum, Mercy Corps Northwest director John Haines, an unnamed member of Allied Works Architecture (on the PGE Park expansion), East Portland Action Plan co-director Mustapha Finney, Madeline Kovaks of 1000 Friends of Oregon, and more. Portland Armory, 128 NW 11th Avenue. 6PM Monday, March 12. $20.
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