Oregon Zoo Education Center (Michael Durham)
BY BRIAN LIBBY
Montavilla Neighborhood Tour
A former monastery, 19th century farmhouses, Arts & Crafts Bungalows, and a vibrant streetcar era commercial district with a restored Streamline Moderne theater? It’s all in Montavilla. On this Architectural Heritage Center tour, one can take a walk through this historic streetcar neighborhood nestled below the east slope of Mt. Tabor while learning about its development and some of the one-time residents and architects behind the buildings. Tour meetup location to be announced. 6PM Thursday, May 16. $20 ($12 for AHC members).
Opsis Architecture - The Nature of Community
As part of the Fridays@4 discussion series hosted by the Portland State University School of Architecture, Opsis Architecture founding parner Jim Kalvelage and partner Mark Stoller will offer a retrospective of the firm's work and relationships spanning 20-years, from initiation to realization and beyond. Or, as they put it, "explorations of place through education, recreation, culture, and environment." Opsis has designed a host of well-regarded and highly sustainable buildings over its two decades, including twice receiving green architecture's highest honor, a listing on the American Institute of Architects' annual Top Ten Green Projects list, for 2014's Hood River Middle School Music and Science Building and the recently completed Oregon Zoo Education Center. Portland State University, Shattuck Hall, 1914 SW Park Avenue. 4PM Friday, May 17. Free.
Portland Vernacular - Buckman Neighborhood Tour
Buckman is one of the city’s oldest Eastside neighborhoods with a variety of vernacular housing types beginning with late 19th century cottages through the building boom years of the early 20th century when the bungalow and four-square were popular citywide. You’ll even see some early duplex and triplex houses that give Buckman a unique character as well as post-World War II multi-unit housing. Tour begins at SE 14th Avenue and Alder Street, behind Washington High School. 10AM Saturday, May 18. $20 ($12 for AHC members).
Historic Downtown Milwaukie Walking Tour
Milwaukie, Oregon was settled by pioneers coming west on the Oregon Trail in the late 1840s and early 1850s. The first settlers established lumber and grist mills and later several families established prosperous fruit orchards. Milwaukie and other Willamette River settlements lost out to Portland in the competition to become the major city on the Willamette by the early 1860s. Through most of the 19th century, Milwaukie was a semi-isolated rural enclave that depended on the ferry or rough wagon trails for connection to Portland and other communities. Milwaukie as a community did not grow until the coming of the electrified interurban railway in the 1890s. As this Positively Portland Walking Tour will reveal, the early 21st century has brought more residential growth and the beginnings of downtown re-development, with the downtown home to creative businesses like Dark Horse Comics. The MAX light rail is now spurring more commercial and residential development. Tour begins at Milwaukie City Hall, 10722 SE Main Street. 10AM Saturday, May 18. $15.
Architects in Schools OMSI Day
An exhibit celebrating the Architecture Foundation of Oregon's Architects in Schools program, where participating students exhibit the work they have completed during their Architects in Schools residencies. This Architects in Schools season was another huge success, reaching 5,400 students across the state of Oregon. Over 160 design and building professionals have spent over 3,500 volunteer hours in classrooms this year, educating students on the built environment and the process of designing and building communities. Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, 1945 SE Water Avenue. Begins 11AM Saturday, May 18. $14.50 museum admission required ($11.25 for seniors, $9.25 for youth aged 3-13, free admission for students with work being exhibited).
Walking Tour: Portland Architecture on the World Stage
In the decades before Michael Grave’s Portland Building grabbed global headlines, local modernist pioneers John Yeon and Pietro Belluschi brought fame to the city with architectural designs of their own. They were soon followed by big name firms such as Skidmore, Owings & Merrill as well as a few “starchitects” of their time, namely Charles Luckman (whose firm designed the Wells Fargo Center and Hugh Stubbins (designer of the PacWest Center). Added to this mix was the exceptional work of landscape architect Lawrence Halprin and a plethora of local firms including ZGF.This tour takes a look at the work of these and other architects that have left their mark on downtown over the past several decades. While gaining insight into Portland’s architectural recent past and near future, attendees on this Architectural Heritage Center tour will also learn about the impacts of urban renewal as well as concerns over pedestrian access and sustainability. Tour meetup location to be announced. 10AM Tuesday, May 21. $20 ($12 for AHC members).
Garden + Lecture Series: Pico Iyer with Diane Durston
As part of the Portland Japanese Garden's Garden + Lecture SEries, bestselling author Pico Iyer, whose most recent work is Autumn Light: A Season of Fire and Farewells, will be joined by PJG curator emeritus Diane Durston for a conversation about the Japanese sense of seasonality, living with the cycles of the seasons, and learning to accept the constancy of change. Iyer is a novelist, author of several works of non-fiction, and a featured TED Talks speaker, who has been referred to as “arguably the greatest living travel writer” by Outside magazine. He divides his time between California and Japan and has said that “home has less to do with a piece of soil than a piece of soul.” He has been a regular contributor on literature for The New York Review of Books, on travel for the Financial Times, and on global culture and the news for Time, The New York Times, and magazines around the world. Durston is a writer, lecturer, cultural consultant, and educator, who lived for 18 years in Japan. For more than a decade, she served as Arlene Schnitzer Curator of Culture, Art & Education at the Portland Japanese Garden, where she has been instrumental in expanding the Garden’s reputation as a center of cultural learning. She is the author of several books, including Kyoto: Seven Paths to the Heart of the City. Portland Japanese Garden, 611 SW Kingston Avenue. 2 and 4:30PM Thursday, May 23. $20 ($15 for PJG members).
Workplace [NOW!]: Mentorship
AIA Portland's Committee on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion hosts this discussion of mentorship with special guest Saskia Dennis-van Dijl, a principal consultant with Cameron MacAllister Group, as part of the Workplace Now! series. The event will open with a brief overview of what mentoring is (or should be) and its importance to the profession. After developing a common understanding around mentorship, attendees will break into short rounds of speed-mentoring. AIA Center for Architecture, 411 NW Flanders Street. 5:30PM Thursday, May 23. Free.
Julie Eizenberg — People Places: The Power of Emotional Intelligence
As part of an ongoing lecture series from Portland Design Pup (formerly Portland Design Events) comes this discussion from acclaimed Los Angeles architect Julie Eizenberg of Koning Eizenberg. Belief in the power of social interaction to improve quality of life underlies Koning Eizenberg’s interest in sustainable neighborhoods and rethinking of housing, community and educational settings. Julie Eizenberg will explain how it frames the form and flow of their buildings across various scales and building types and examine the emotional intelligence it draws on. Her talk will be preceded by a brief introductory lecture by Kaarin Knudson of (Larco/Knudson)
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. 6PM Thursday, May 23. $20 ($12 for AHC members).
Panel Discussion: Equity and Inclusion in Architecture
As part of the Fridays@4 discussion series hosted by the Portland State University School of Architecture, a panel of guest speakers will discuss their experience as people from under-represented communities in the architecture profession. Panelists will respond to several questions and share their perceptions of equity and inclusion in the field. More of a conversation than a presentation, the intent is to find different perspectives and opinions on what new graduates can expect and what action they might take to promote change in a historically white-male-dominated field. Panelists include Carleton Hart Architecture co-founder Bill Hart; Dena Davaniof C2K Architecture; Nicolai Kruger of the Nicolai Kruger Studio, 2018 PSU Master of Architecture graduate Cosette Hardman, Octavio Gutierrez of Mahlum Architects, and Kayla Anderson of Salazar Architect. Portland State University, Shattuck Hall, 1914 SW Park Avenue. 4PM Friday, May 24. Free.
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 Saturday, May 25. $20 ($12 for AHC members).
Modernism Meets Portland
Portland began a slow reinvention in the decades following World War II that included the arrival of new Modernist architectural landmarks, such as Pietro Belluschi's Equitable Building (now the Commonwealth), the Veterans' Memorial Coliseum - one of many large buildings designed by the Portland office of the world-renowned firm Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill (SOM), a series of fountain-parks in an urabn renewal area, and the city's tallest building - the First National Bank tower (now the Wells Fargo Center). In this Architectural Heritage Center presentation and panel discussion, Roger K. Lewis—an emeritus University of Maryland architecture professor best known for his Washington Post column, Shaping the City—will lead an examination of how Portland fits into the broader picture of Modernism in the United States. Joining Lewis for the panel discussion will be Becca Cavell of Bora Architects, Portland Parks Foundation executive director Randy Gragg, and retired architect and architecture professor Bob Hermanson. Architectural Heritage Center, 701 SE Grand Avenue. 10AM Saturday, May 25. $20 ($12 for AHC members).
Historic Ladd's Addition Walking Tour
The historic Ladd's Addition neighborhood is known for its "X in a box" street grid and fabulous Arts and Crafts houses. This is Portland's first Historic Conservation District and in many ways represents the Portland standard for a pedestrian and bike-friendly neighborhood with tree-lined streets, parks, churches and a neighborhood school. Within easy walking distance are some of Southeast Portland's most popular shops, restaurants and brew pubs. This easy-paced Positively Portland walking tour will highlight the well-preserved fabric of historic buildings that make this neighborhood one of the most livable in Portland. Tour begins at Palio Dessert and Coffee House, 1996 SE Ladd Avenue. 1PM Saturday, May 25. $15.
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, May 28. $20 ($12 for AHC members).
Architects Without Borders — Call for Volunteers: Q Center Improvements
Architects Without Borders-Oregon has begun working with the nonprofit Q Center (which provides services, information, referrals, classes, support groups, events, and a safe space for the LGBTQ community) to develop a vision for a more welcoming and functional community space at its location on Portland's North Mississippi Avenue. Can you help research planning and zoning issues and develop a set of as-built drawings in advance of a charrette in June? Come to this open meeting to find out more about this project and how you can participate. AIA Center for Architecture, 411 NW Flanders Street. 6PM Wednesday, May 29. Free.
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. 6PM Thursday, May 30. $20 ($12 for AHC members).
Design Museum Mornings: Innovation Through Iteration
The Design Museum Mornings series from Design Museum Portland continues with Nicole Schmidt, designer and founder of krowdsourced, who will recount her journey through entrepreneurship from a traditional design background. Nicole will showcase the best design practices implemented as she has built and grown her business, and how connecting with a community of like-minded creative thinkers has ensured the key to her success. Join Nicole Schmidt, designer and founder of krowdsourced, as she recounts her journey through entrepreneurship from a traditional design background. Schmidt will showcase the best design practices implemented as she has built and grown her business, and how connecting with a community of like-minded creative thinkers has ensured the key to her success. Umpqua Bank, 1631 NW Thurman Street. 8:30AM Friday, May 31. $15 (free for Design Museum Portland members).
Advertisements
Comments