Keller Fountain, 1978 (The Oregon History Project)
BY BRIAN LIBBY
South Auditorium District Walking Tour
Presented by DoCoMoMo and led by architectural designer and planner Jonathan Konkol, this South Auditorium District walking tour explores modernist planning, architecture and public space in the era of Urban Renewal. It will examine the ideas behind the demolition of s-called blighted districts and their redevelopment along a modernist vision of cities. It will also look at what was destroyed to make way for this vision. The walk and narrative will be supplemented with maps and images showing the district before, during and after redevelopment. Tour begins at Keller Fountain Park, SW Third Avenue and Clay Street. 2PM Sunday, September 16. $15 ($10 for DoCoMoMo members, $5 for students) plus service charges.
Downtown Portland's North End Tour
This Architectural Heritage Center tour explores the abundant architectural and cultural history in the downtown neighborhood wedged between Old Town and the Pearl District. Along the way attendees will see 19th century gems like the Mariner’s Home building, which has recently been rehabilitated and turned into the Society Hotel. One will also learn how the area became New Chinatown, and later Japantown, while seeing landmark buildings like Union Station, the US Custom House, and a historic fire station. Tour meetup location to be announced. 10AM Tuesday, September 18. $20 ($12 for AHC members).
Kasagi: Gates of Hope
In 2013, two nearly identical beams of a sacred Shinto gate landed on the Oregon coast after having been tragically washed away in the 2011 tsunami and earthquake that struck Japan. After traveling 5,000 miles across the Pacific, these two crossbeams of the gate, known as kasagi, landed within 120 miles of each other less than one month apart. Virtually unidentifiable, they could have been abandoned, forgotten, and lost forever. Instead, the quest to return the two battered pieces of wood slowly brought people together from across the globe in a message of support for the people of Japan. In this lecture, Portland Japanese Garden curator Sadafumi Uchiyama and board of trustees president Dorie Vollum will recount how the Garden led the effort to find the kasagis’ rightful home and ensure the sacred pieces’ safe return. Portland Japanese Garden, 611 Southwest Kingston Avenue. 4PM Tuesday, September 18. Ticket price undisclosed.
Bridging the Gap: Commercial Real Estate and Energy Efficiency
The Columbia River chapter of the Association of Energy Engineers and Energy Trust of Oregon the latest in their Energy Engineering Forum series. A panel discussion by green building experts will discuss the challenges and solutions to working within the complex commercial real estate market. Panelists include Wade Lange, vice President and regional Manager of American Assets Trust; Emily Pearce, vice president at Waypoint Energy; and Melynda Retallack, owner of Ink:built Architecture. Ecotrust, 721 NW Ninth Avenue, 2nd Floor. 12PM Wednesday, September 19. Free.
School Furniture Showcase
The Association for Learning Environments, a non-profit organization devoted to improving the quality of classroom settings, hosts this open house to view new concepts in school furniture design. Teachers, facility managers and administrators are encouraged to come view and tryout various pieces of furniture on display. There will also be an informal discussion of impressions, needs and concerns for furniture in K-12 schools. DOWA-IBI Group, 907 SW Stark Street. 5:30PM Wednesday, September 19. Free.
Why Materials Matter: Building Product Impacts
The Materials Matter initiative from the American Institute Architects' Portland chapter is a five-session series delivering comprehensive, high-level knowledge and strategies for assessing and selecting healthy, sustainable materials, as part of an effort to empower architects to become advocates for materials transparency, and in so doing enhance the design of a healthier, greener, more prosperous, and more equitable built environment. Session 1, Building Product Impacts, provides an overview of why materials matter for both environmental and human health. The session focuses on what impacts material substances can have on our environment and how we measure and track those impacts. It will introduce the primary methods used to assess the environmental impact of materials, including life-cycle assessment, and the tools available to help identify and prioritize healthy, sustainable materials. AIA Center for Architecture, 403 NW 11th Avenue. 8AM Thursday, September 20. $700 for entire series ($500 for AIA members, $300 for Associate AIA members, $150 for students), $140 for single session ($100 for AIA members, $60 for Associate AIA members, $30 for students), all with service charges.
EPC Happy Hour : Crandall Arambula
AIA Portland's Emerging Professionals Committee hosts this roving happy hour series as a means of design engagement, collaboration and implementation for young (and not so young) professionals engage. This month's host, Crandall Arambula, which under the leadership of George Crandall and Don Arambula has provided planning services for numbers cities and towns across the nation. Crandall Arambula, 520 SW Yamhill Street #4. 5:30PM Thursday, September 20. Free.
IIDA Oregon Chapter: September Maker Forum
Join the IIDA Oregon Chapter in an exploration of emergent creative culture, where local artists and makers from MadeHere will engage in an interactive panel discussion led by Kelley Roy of ADX Maker Space. MadeHere is dedicated to showcasing the talents of the Pacific NW - based designers, artisans and makers. Guests will enjoy unique selections of food and refreshments while learning more about the makers experience, processes and inspiration for creating custom furniture, art and craft. United Refrigeration, 1015 SE Stark Street. 5:30PM Thursday, September 20. $15 plus service charge (free for IIDA members and students).
Old Town Tour
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, comprising Portland’s only National Landmark Historic District. Visitors on this Architectural Heritage Center tour will 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. Along the way, visitors will also learn about some beautiful but long-lost buildings while also seeing great examples of historic preservation. Tour meetup location revealed with ticket purchase. 10AM Saturday, September 22. $20 ($12 for AHC members).
Downtown Milwaukie Walking Tour
With many buildings dating from the early to mid-20th century and beginnings as a shipping port, Portland's oldest suburb, Milwaukie, offers an interesting variety of architecture, including the 1930s early-modern City Hall, for this Architectural Heritage Center tour. Tour begins outside Milwaukie City Hall, 10722 SE Main Street. 10AM Saturday, September 22. $20 ($12 for AHC members).
Basements: Adding Living Space & Retaining Older Homes
Adding living spaces to our older homes is one tool to address the ongoing need for housing in Portland, and the often-underutilized basement can play a key role to meet this need. A basement remodel can also help address a growing or changing family, lessening the need to move away while also maintaining the architectural character of a neighborhood. For this Architectural Heritage Center workshop, design consultants Karen Richmond and Matt Sipes from the Neil Kelly Company will share tips and provide guidance on three common basement projects—the cosmetic remodel, accessory dwelling unit construction, and foundation upgrades—in addition to information about how to add extra bedrooms and bathrooms, egress windows and doors, as well as seismic upgrades and waterproofing all designed to make the space both safe and comfortable. Architectural Heritage Center, 701 SE Grand Avenue. 10AM Saturday, September 22. $12 ($8 for AHC members).
Historic Buckman Neighborhood Walking Tour
The Buckman neighborhood is the residential center of historic East Portland, an area that developed in the 1870s and 1880s due to its close proximity to the waterfront and railroad yards. Buckman retained its prominence on the East Side into the early years of the 20th century, but experienced a decline in population and elegance by the mid 20th century. After years of stagnation and incompatible infill, as attendees on this Positively Portland Walking Tour will see, this quintessential Portland neighborhood is experiencing a rebirth of residential appeal and commercial growth. Tour meets at Floyd's Coffee Shop, 1412 SE Morrison Street. 1PM Saturday, September 22. $15.
Central Eastside & Produce Row Tour
While Grand Avenue was the commercial hub of old East Portland, the area between Grand and the Willamette River has long been a thriving center of commerce and industry. As this Architectural Heritage Center tour will demonstrate, many of the historic warehouses and factory buildings in this area retain their original character but aren’t as recognized and appreciated as they should be. And today the Central Eastside is thriving, with a host of creative and food & drink-oriented companies working alongside traditional light-industrial businesses. Tour meetup location revealed with ticket purchase. 10AM Tuesday, September 25. $20 ($12 for AHC members).
Architects Without Borders: School in the Marshes
For this meeting of the Architects Without Borders Oregon chapter, the design team for the School in the Marshes competition will present their recent submission to the 2018 Dewan Award for Architecture. Chapter leaders will also introduce and recruit volunteers for AWB’s newest project, the design of a master plan for the Withergreen Foundation Nursery and Elementary School in Gardnerville, a suburb of Monrovia, Liberia. AIA Center for Architecture, 403 NW 11th Avenue. 6PM Wednesday, September 26. Free.
Pearl District Walking Tour - A Century of Preservation and 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 recent 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 revealed with ticket purchase. 10AM Saturday, September 29. $20 ($12 for AHC members).
Symbolism in Portland's Masonic Architecture
Portland has a wealth of current and former buildings designed and constructed on behalf of local Freemasons, a fraternal order at its peak in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These include the Mark Building, the former Masonic Temple that is now part of the Portland Art Museum, as well as the Scottish Rite Cathedral in the Goose Hollow neighborhood and the Pythian Building that's now home to the Elysian Ballroom. In this Architectural Heritage Center lecture, Tina Miller will discuss the architectural elements found on Masonic buildings, sharing the symbolism behind details such as building orientation and window placement, as well as the type of tools used by stone masons to construct buildings – tools that also have important symbolic meaning for Freemasons. Miller is a Freemason in the International Order of Le Droit Humain for Men and Women. She has a background in landscape design and is currently studying symbolism in Masonic architecture and furniture. Architectural Heritage Center, 701 SE Grand Avenue. 10AM Saturday, September 29. $12 ($8 for AHC members).
Licensed to Party
The first annual Licensed to Party will recognize and celebrate everyone (and their families) who recently got licensed in architecture, landscape architecture, or certified in interior design. Portland Design Events, the host, has rented out Peninsula Park for the day; all are welcome to attend. Peninsula Park,700 N Rosa Parks Way. 6PM Saturday, September 29. Free.
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