91视频

Amy Donohue, a Bora Architects principal since 2007, for the past 20 years has focused mostly on designing higher education spaces, but also performing arts venues and collaborative work environments. She also has taught at the University of Oregon and serves on the board of the nonprofit Literary Arts.

Donohue, a 91视频 Woman of Vision last year, recently spoke with the 91视频. She shared how a $40 million grant from Microsoft will benefit students here and in China, how an innovative classroom design improves learning, why Northwest designers take more risks than others and how her volunteer work was inspired by a love of literature.

91视频: You were a speaker this week at InProcess, a quarterly lecture series of the Portland chapter of the American Institute of Architects where you talked about your latest projects. Can you bring us up to date?

Amy Donohue: I spoke about a partnership between the University of Washington’s Computer Science and Engineering School and Tsinghau University in Beijing and Microsoft. Microsoft is making a large donation for a graduate degree program where students can graduate with a master’s in science and technology that combines technology and entrepreneurship and design.

It’s a unique program with a design thread running through it. Technology and entrepreneurship often overlap, but this one has design as part of it. It’s all a project-based curriculum and is team-oriented.

Wright Runstad & Company is developing the base building (in Bellevue, Washington) and we have been asked to develop the interior 100,000 square feet that will include a maker space for making objects as well as advancing technology and the overlap of those two. It’s a groundbreaking project with a total donation from Microsoft of $40 million, though half will go to operational costs over the next number of years.

Students will be working in teams in the massive maker space, where you can make almost anything. It will have a large (metal) laser cutter, a full wood shop, 3-D printers, sewing machines, and from the lowest to highest tech, anything else you can think of. We had the ground-breaking (event) this week.

91视频: As Bora’s leader in designing academic environments, what are the latest trends in designing for education?

Donohue: There’s been a great deal of interest in the design of alternative large, round classrooms, and campuses from all over the country are taking note. The focus in the past has been on the best new housing and best new amenities (for students) and now, because of lack of attention, the emphasis is on learning environments to capture students. It’s not just the social side of the campus, and this (concept) has not been done anywhere else.

91视频: How was the round classroom concept used in your interior design of the new Learning Innovation Center at Oregon State University in Corvallis?

Donohue: Rather than starting with a typical classroom and adjusting to allow that interaction to take place, we wrapped the design around the activity based on fundamentals of that human interaction, a bit like theater in the round, with the instructor in the middle. In a 600-seat auditorium you can have 14 rows (between a student and the instructor), but with the instructor in the middle, students are only eight rows away. Eye contact is much better and students have the sense that they’ll be noticed in class because students can see one another and there’s a little bit of peer pressure to pay attention and get engaged. Round rooms do ask more of students and faculty, but it’s all in the service of increasing interaction. You can’t sit in that room and look at Facebook 鈥� you’re front and center.

91视频: How has the new classroom design affected learning at the Learning Innovation Center?

Donohue: After it was completed last fall we had a colloquium and invited faculty there to talk to other faculty about teaching in the round. We heard that students really enjoyed the interaction, and the learning outcome is better: grades, attendance, test scores were all better and students were asking more questions. Instructors are also enjoying the interaction and obviously pleased that students are doing better. They’re energized by the new space and how easily they can get out in the audience. It does require them to move more, and if they ask any questions they have to turn 360 (degrees) to make sure they haven’t missed anyone.

91视频: When you were chosen as a 91视频 Woman of Vision last year, you said after working in New York early in your career you concluded that Northwest architects are more 鈥渙pen to pushing the boundaries鈥� in design. Can you elaborate on that?

Donohue: There’s a certain freedom being on the West Coast in general, in art and design and history. The West doesn’t have as much history, so we feel a bit lighter and do a bit more and experiment a bit more. We do a lot of work with tech companies, and it’s no accident that most of the big tech powerhouses are located on the West Coast. That goes back decades because of many factors, but it’s a little bit because of that West Coast renegade attitude and always looking forward. We’re not so entrenched in what has been done and we’re always looking for new ways things can be done.

91视频: In addition to your design work, you’ve also been a longtime community volunteer and currently serve on the board of Portland’s Literary Arts nonprofit. Why is that important to you?

Donohue: They are working to make sure that everyone has a voice and everyone can tell their story, from the most experienced to the least experienced. Everyone has a story. Literary Arts is a major force in Portland and nationally in terms of literary organizations. We bring artists here every year and pack the (Arlene) Schnitzer Concert Hall to hear writers talk about their work. We also bring the Moth Radio Hour, which sells out super-fast and is such a great evening for Portland. We also have been very involved in a program to bring writers into high schools. We hire the writers and they work with students to teach them to write and tell their own stories. It really connects students to people who can help them find their voice and that makes a meaningful difference to lives in this town and in this state.