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When Lucas Gray and his girlfriend, Kristin Slavin, bought a house in Northeast Portland a few years ago, they quickly became involved in their neighborhood.

Both have their master’s degrees in architecture, so they approached the Vernon School PTA and offered pro bono professional design services.

鈥淲e said, 鈥榃hat do you want? Is there anything you need professional design services for?’ 鈥� Gray said.

As it turned out, the K-8 school had a play area that flooded in rainy weather, Gray said, so a team from the firm he co-founded three years ago, Propel Architecture, designed a covering.

鈥淭he idea was to do a quick rendering to get people excited (and) to put on their website,鈥� Gray said. 鈥淭hen the PTA talked more and discussed more with the parents at the school what they really needed, and narrowed it down to focusing on the community garden.鈥�

The little garden on the school’s west side is open to both neighborhood residents and students, and the PTA decided that it could become more of an educational tool if an outdoor classroom were created. Propel donated design services and finished preliminary plans. Fundraising has begun 鈥� though more dollars are needed to cover the cost of construction and materials.

鈥淲e’ve designed a split-roof structure with the idea that one of them will be a planted roof facing south,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he other will be a metal roof to collect rainwater, and they can use the rainwater to water the gardens and keep the plants growing.鈥�

The project will create opportunities to teach kids not only about gardening, but also about sustainable building and making a structure 鈥渆nvironmentally conscious,鈥� Gray said.

The project started with contributions from students and plenty of input from PTA members, said Eileen Hendrickson, PTA committee chairwoman for the outdoor classroom. About three years ago, students in grades 6-8 created concepts that the professionals were able to build on, she said.

鈥淧ropel and parents (on the committee) took it through several iterations to enhance the durability, simplify the mechanics and try to find an affordable way to build,鈥� she said. 鈥淚’ve been really touched by this team’s work, which is not just four posts and a roof. They’re doing it in a very thoughtful manner.鈥�

Propel has provided leadership via 鈥渃onstant attention and feedback over the course of the last year,鈥� Hendrickson said.

Developing the drawings for design and engineering of the outdoor classroom and garden has been a tedious and time-consuming task, Hendrickson said, and Propel has been a guiding force.

鈥淧ropel has always been on the forefront, helping our PTA moving forward,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut it has very much been 鈥� a collaborative effort, with other parents who are architects and engineers who have worked with Propel.鈥�

Hendrickson said she hopes that Propel’s involvement will encourage other design firms to get involved with community projects.

鈥淚t is very beneficial to have a local architecture firm doing a lot of the grassroots projects and outreach,鈥� she said. 鈥淏y the very nature of them talking with other groups and companies it encourages others to build community where it needs to be built.鈥�

But construction costs money, Gray said, and the Vernon School project will receive none from Portland Public Schools. His conservative cost estimate is about $50,000, but that would include donated materials and reliance on volunteers to contribute some of the labor.

Hendrickson said a general contractor is needed, and she is hoping that a local construction company will contribute some man-hours.

Donations of cash as well as materials to the Vernon PTA are tax-deductible, Hendrickson said. Anyone who wants to help can contact Gray at [email protected].

鈥淭hey can contact me and I’ll put them in touch with the right people,鈥� he said.

Project construction is just the beginning, Hendrickson said. She hopes the outdoor classroom will become an evolving space based in part on input from future students.

鈥淭he subcommittee working on the drawings was also thoughtful on how the structure can evolve,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e hope to have future students play a role 鈥� maybe an art project or some other idea so that students will have hands-on experience.鈥�