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John Yeon was a self-taught architect whose career was studded with award-winning designs. The Watzek House, a masterwork that Yeon designed in the West Portland hills in 1937 at age 26, was immediately recognized as an architectural landmark; it was featured in the 1938 New York Museum of Modern Art exhibition.

The property, deeded in 1995 to the University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts, now serves as the home of the John Yeon Center, a place to foster ongoing discussions about the future of design and architecture.

At the helm is newly appointed Executive Director Randy Gragg, a journalist whose passion for architecture shaped his career and led to his selection to head the center.

“From the time I landed in Portland, I had a deep interest as an advocate for the building environment,” Gragg said.

He spent 17 years writing primarily about architecture as a reporter at The Oregonian, and later as the editor at Portland Monthly, where he continues to contribute as an editor-at-large.

Gragg met Yeon in 1982. Accompanied by the architect, Gragg toured both the Watzek House and The Shire, a Yeon-designed landscape in the Columbia Gorge across the river from Multnomah Falls. During the tours, Yeon shared with Gragg how his concepts had come to fruition on those projects.

“He was an avid environmentalist,” Gragg said. “He believed that architecture and landscaping should be woven into the natural setting.

“As a preservationst, he was also very particular about what needed to be saved.”

Gragg is taking Yeon’s ideology to heart in his role as director of the center.

“My job is building a constituency for properties – not museums, but active places for discussions, conversations about working on more than preservation. This is a venue for thinking about the future.”

To that effect, Gragg spearheaded a recent $2.5 million campaign to restore four Lawrence Halprin-designed fountains in a Portland area that was among the first urban renewal projects in the country.

“This is another extension of what we want to do here – build a constituency for these properties and invest in the legacy of good planning and building,” Gragg said.