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A group of high school students interested in design careers has offered fresh views to a longtime effort to build a public market in Portland.

The two dozen students were participants last week in the annual University of Oregon Portland Design Camp hosted by the School of Architecture and Allied Arts. Now in its seventh year, the weeklong camp is aimed at exposing teens to the closely aligned disciplines of architecture, digital arts and product design. This year, camp organizers partnered with the Historic Portland Public Market Foundation, a non-profit organization that for the past 15 years has worked to build the James Beard Public Market.

Camp participants had a chance to create their own designs for the proposed market 鈥� named for the Portland-born late chef, cookbook author, syndicated columnist and television personality . At the conclusion of the camp last Friday, the students shared their concepts with the public during an open house and final critique at the White Stag Block in Portland.

鈥淲e’re always thrilled to have new perspectives look at it,鈥� said James Beard Public Market project manager Jennifer Mannhard. 鈥淲e’re trying very hard, as far as outreach, to get as much general public involvement as possible. You never know where a brilliant idea will come from.鈥�

The University of Oregon alumni who teach the camp were looking for a community-oriented theme and this year were inspired by the recent public release of conceptual designs for the market by Norwegian architecture firm Snohetta, said camp instructor Alex Atallah, a UO architecture graduate who now works for Portland-based GBD Architects.

鈥淲ith the unveiling of the James Beard Public market, it was the perfect tie-in,鈥� he said.

Connecting the camp’s lessons to the market project provided a real-world design problem to confront and ample opportunities for the students to explore what it would be like to work as a designer, according to Atallah.

鈥淭he main idea is getting high school students interested in design,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t’s getting them thinking about what they want to do.鈥�

Working in groups similar to the way they would as design professionals, the students conceived their own versions of the James Beard Public Market on the proposed project site at the west end of the Morrison Bridge. Campers also designed logos for the market and products shoppers could use to carry produce and other purchases back to their homes.

鈥淚 think the James Beard Public Market is the perfect project for Design Camp because it shows the multidisciplinary and collaborative nature of design,鈥� said Alison Ho, a freelance graphic designer and the camp’s digital arts instructor.

To inform their design decisions, camp participants toured the project site with Mannhard and the market foundation’s executive director Ron Paul, and visited a Portland farmers market to observe and sketch. Other field trips included a tour of GBD Architects’ downtown Portland office.

On Thursday, the students practiced their skills at architectural drawing by sketching the layout of their bedrooms and homes on a large piece of butcher paper tapped to the floor of a classroom in the White Stag Block.

Camp participant Norris Meigs, a freshman at Riverdale High School in Southwest Portland, said she enrolled in the camp because she was interested in graphic design. But after learning more about architecture in the camp, she’s considering pursuing a career as an architect.

While putting finishing touches on a drawing showing the layout of her house, Meigs said she appreciated that the camp offered the opportunity to consider how she would approach the James Beard Public Market project.

鈥淚 think it’s really fun, especially because there’s going to be a new (market) soon,鈥� she said.

The camp helped Ella McMullin, a junior at St. Mary’s Academy in downtown Portland, answer a lot of her questions about what it’s like to work as an architect. She was also pleased to learn about the diverse range of design career opportunities.

鈥淚 like all the different parts of design there are,鈥� she said.