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The Portland Center for Architecture is hosting a design competition to temporarily convert street parking into public gathering space.

A jury next month will select up to three designs for parking spaces in front of the center on Northwest Flanders Street through the Portland Bureau of Transportation‘s Street Seats program ().

The city program, in its third year, is modeled after similar initiatives in San Francisco and New York to transform street parking into patios. After successfully piloting Street Seats in 2012, PBOT this past fall announced plans to allow 10 more installations, mostly outside restaurants and bars.

This year, PBOT officials hoped to encourage the creation of more Street Seats accessible to the public instead of only customers of private businesses. The public Street Seats in front of the Center for Architecture will help, said Lucas Gray, board member of the American Institute of Architects’ Portland chapter.

AIA Portland, which runs the center, is seeking creative submissions for “active streets,” he said.

“The main idea is to get something that’s more than just a seat,” he said.

A request for proposals for the competition is available at . Design submissions will be accepted until Aug. 19.

The Street Seats will be installed in front of the Center for Architecture on Sept. 20 in honor of , an international event where metered parking spots are transformed into temporary public parks. The installations will stand for about six weeks – through October, Gray said.

There is a possibility of the Street Seats being reinstalled on Alberta Street through a collaboration with the Alberta Main Street group, he said.

“We’re working on getting businesses interested in adopting them,” he said. “We’re hoping to have a home for them afterward.”