Archinect - News

Downtown Portland says hello to new student-designed public parklet

2015-07-09T15:01:00-04:00

The first public parklet in downtown Portland, the installation is intended to help revitalize this stretch of SW Fourth Avenue in the heart of the SoMa EcoDistrict (for “South of Market Street”), giving students, faculty, and workers from surrounding offices a place to sit and enjoy their food-cart lunches in the sunshine, rather than racing back to their desks to eat.

Downtown Portland is no stranger to green public spaces, but the recently opened Fourth Avenue Parklet has that ideal recipe for a do-good-feel-good collaborative project. Twenty-six architecture students from Portland State University spent 18 months to design and construct the parklet, which also crowdsourced $15,640 in cash and in-kind donations from the local community.

The new parklet flaunts 3,475 pounds of steel, 250 feet of repurposed escalator handrail, 768 linear feet of sustainably harvested juniper, and drought-resistant native plants. It was built as a complementary hangout spot for people to relax and enjoy their grub from the nearby diners and food-cart pod along SW Fourth Avenue in Portland's SoMa EcoDistrict.

Keep doing you, Portland.

Image via.

Get Lectured: University of Oregon, Fall '14

2014-09-29T13:45:00-04:00

Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Fall 2014

Say hello to another edition of Archinect's Get Lectured! As a refresher, we'll be featuring a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the current term. If you're not doing so already, be sure to keep track of any upcoming lectures you don't want to miss.

Our next featured poster comes from the University of Oregon, School of Architecture in Eugene and Portland, OR.

All lectures free and open to the public.
PDX = Portland campus, Lawrence Hall
EUG = Eugene campus, White Stag Block

Want to share your school's lecture series? Send us your school's lecture series poster and details to connect@archinect.com.

GORDON GILL / Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture - Chicago, Beijing
Oct. 7 - PDX, 5:00 p.m. at Natural Capital Center, Ecotrust Building

PHILLIPE BLOCK / Block Research Group, ETH - Zurich
Oct. 13 - EUG, 5:30 p.m. at LA 206
Oct. 14 - PDX, 5:30 p.m. at WS 150

NEIL DENARI / Neil M. Denari Architects - Los Angeles
Oct. 20...

What would you do with Sabin Triangle?

2011-04-18T16:06:59-04:00

A happy example exists at the southwest corner of Northeast 15th Avenue and Prescott Street, a funny little jog in the road where a downtown-to-Alameda streetcar line used to end. After the streetcar stopped running, city leaders opted to plant a few trees and lay down pavement rather than rejigger the road or turn the triangle-shaped spot into something useful.

While architect Mark Nye and Architects Without Borders are working on a solution of their own, the Sabin Community Association will be holding a meeting on May 9th to determine what the triangle will become. David Sweet and Rosemarie Cordello, of the Sabin Community Association, had contacted Architects Without Borders to seek assistance on transforming this piece of land into something for the neighborhood. The city-owned property is not on the list of to-dos for local government and are "happy to let neighborhood groups figure out better uses for stretches such as this one" according to the Oregonian.