In the last two years or so, BOORA Architects has conducted extensive master planning work for Stanford University. Now the Portland firm has received a bigger commision: the $70 million Environment and Energy (E+E) Building, which will accommodate a new interdisciplinary initiative for the integrated study of energy and natural systems. As gleaned from BOORA’s website, […]

On Saturday, Oregonian architecture critic Randy Gragg, will deliver an Oregon Council of Humanities-sponsored lecture that figures to offer a smorgasbord of food-for-thought. It’s called “Against Nostalgia: The roots of a new direction for architecture and planning in Oregon”. Gragg recently returned to the paper after a yearlong sabbatical as a Loeb Fellow at Harvard […]

This time of year with spring arriving, sunny and rainy skies can alternate several times a day. And recently I was reminded how important the right light can be for a shot – even in the age of Photoshop. The other day I happened to be stopping briefly at the University of Portland, so I […]

Matthew Stadler is the author of four novels and the editor of local publishing house Clear Cut Press. He also is active in the visual arts world (he co-curated last fall’s Portland Modern group show at Disjecta), organizes a popular dinner-speaker series for visiting authors called The Back Room, and writes for magazines like Dwell […]

My recent blog post and people’s continuing discussion in the comments section about OHSU’s opportunities in South Waterfront given their recent $40 million windfall, in which I argued for a signature building by a top-shelf architect, got me thinking about a related issue: the ego that can often accompany great talent. In the last few years, […]

Metro has a great idea going. In a first-of-its-kind effort in the nation, the Portland metro area’s regional government has created an online marketplace for usable commercial construction materials that have been taken out of a building during renovation or demolition. Need a door? A window? Well, it’s only a click away now. About 20% of […]

The burning of one building and the closing of another have me saddened for the architecture but heartened by the spirit of the people closest to them. First there is Morningstar Mission Baptist Church, which tragically burned down last week to the horror of its loyal members and the delight of TV news crews eager […]

Oregon Health & Science University today announced a $40 million anonymous donation - the largest in the school’s history. The gift will support the future construction of a new medical school building on OHSU’s South Waterfront campus, which they are now calling the Schnitzer Campus in honor of the Schnitzer family’s donation of the land […]

The inaugural I. Donald Terner Prize was awarded on January 31 to the 8NW8 affordable housing project designed by SERA Architects and developed by Central City Concern. The Terner Prize, which comes with a $25,000 award (dinner on CCC, anyone?), recognizes successful and innovative affordable housing projects and their leadership teams. It’s administered by […]

As reported in The Oregonian on January 23 by Dylan Rivera, OHSU plans to sell a block of its land in the South Waterfront to Pacific Retirement Services Inc., a Medford-based developer that will build a 325-foot tall senior housing center. Designed by Ankrom Moisan, the firm that has ballooned over the last several years […]

Portland Architecture is proud to welcome a new ongoing sponsor: Portland Modern, a local real estate company owned and operated by Bob Zaikoski. Bob specializes in modern residential architecture. His website features a special section devoted to Rummer Homes, midcentury-modern homes in the Portland area built by developer Bob Rummer throughout the 1960s and early […]

I think we can all agree that the Street of Eames tour is a welcome event. Last year’s tour featured some excellent local midcentury-modern single family homes, and on April 14 comes this year’s follow-up. Best of all, the whole thing is a fundraiser for after-school programs for homeless and low-income children at Chapman Elementary. […]

Last week I visited an open house at Portland State University to see the three finalists’ proposals for a new rec center planned for a very prominent position: across from PSU’s urban center on the downtown plaza bisected by the streetcar. Although all three were good proposals by very capable firms, I came away with clear […]

Randy Gragg’s Q&A with architect Charles Rose in Saturday’s Oregonian was for the most part an interesting, measured, thoughtful conversation. But by the end I came away wincing at a couple of half-cocked displays of disrespect and bad form. Rose, the Boston-area architect selected by the Oregon College of Art and Craft to design a new […]

A few of years ago at an AIA conference I met Gordon Price, who was then a city council member in Vancouver, BC and is now the director of The City Program at Simon Fraser University (and whose disembodied head appears at left). He’s also a frequent visitor to Portland. Recently Gordon emailed me with […]

An Associated Press story syndicated in today’s Oregonian addresses a topic I’ve long been passionate about: the plight of Amtrak. Specifically, the national rail system is facing its worst on-time rates since the 1970s. Overall Amtrak is on time 68% of the time. But here on the West Coast, Amtrak’s Coast Starlight line between Seattle, Portland […]

The last few years have seen a succession of libraries in the Portland area designed by Thomas Hacker Architects. The Woodstock branch of the Multnomah County Library system in Southeast was ranked as one of the top 10 library projects in the nation by the AIA and the American Library Association. The Beaverton library is […]

Yesterday I was rummaging for something in the basement and found a handful of old photographs of various Portland buildings, most of which originally came from the Oregon Historical Society but that I picked up at a garage sale years ago. One photo - or in this case what seems to be a drawing - […]

This weekend I was driving by the former Washington High School (later Washington-Monroe) along Southeast 12th Avenue near Morrison and noticed a demolition in progress. Somehow, despite reading The Oregonian cover to cover every day (or at least skimming it), I’d missed the report that Beam Construction has made a deal with Portland Public Schools […]

The University of Oregon’s up-and-down campaign to generate funds for a new basketball arena has generated a lot of press over the last couple years. New athletic director Pat Kilkenny, a millionaire and longtime Ducks fundraiser, signed on with the new arena fundraising effort in mind. Beat reporters also inherently tend to follow the money […]

In two articles in today’s Oregonian, one in the Business section and one from In Portland, Fred Leeson looks at downtown’s retail challenge. “Facing competition on all fronts,” the In Portland subheadline goes, “business leaders bank on the city center’s biggest transformation since World War II to win back shoppers.” In the other article, Leeson summarizes […]

In two articles in today’s Oregonian, one in the Business section and one from In Portland, Fred Leeson looks at downtown’s retail challenge. “Facing competition on all fronts,” the In Portland sub headline goes, “business leaders bank on the city center’s biggest transformation since World War II to win back shoppers.” In the other article, Leeson […]

In Friday’s Oregonian Randy Gragg reports on the unveiling of much-anticipated designs for Laika Entertainment’s new campus. Unsurprisingly given that Nike co-founder Phil Knight owns Laika, the new project’s designer is TVA Architects. No quarrel about that: TVA and head principal Robert Thompson exhibit a “brand of classical, highly modernism, a la Mies van der Rohe […]

In Friday’s Oregonian Randy Gragg reports on the unveiling of much-anticipated designs for Laika Entertainment’s new campus. Unsurprisingly given that Nike co-founder Phil Knight owns Laika, the new project’s designer is TVA Architects. No quarrel about that: TVA and head principal Robert Thompson exhibit a “brand of classical, highly modernism, a la Mies van der […]