Renowned designer Michael Ford, known as the Hip-Hop Architect, is bringing his unique vision of urban spaces to Portland for an upcoming lecture co-presented by the Architecture Foundation of Oregon and Portland Design 91��Ƶ.

Ford hails from Detroit, where urban spaces built over the past century still play a big role in residents’ lives. He created the concept of Hip Hop Architecture using the three interconnected realms of education, practice and media to demonstrate the role of urban planning in the creation of the cities where hip-hop music and culture took shape.

“Mike’s work is directly aimed at bringing greater diversity to the field by making architecture accessible to the next generation,” AFO Executive Director Claire Blaylock said.

Ford will present his lecture on Hip Hop Architecture on June 14, from 5:30 to 8 p.m., at the Ziba Auditorium, at 810 N.W. Marshall St. in Portland.

Currently, less than 2 percent of architects in the United States are African-American. Ford wants to increase that figure through a revolutionary educational approach. By focusing on the crossover between theory and practice, his Hip Hop Architecture Camp allows young people to explore the idea of creating architecture for cities of the future.

In Portland, Ford will host the camp the week of June 11-15 at Benson Polytechnic High School, sharing concepts that are not typically part of the school’s architecture program. During the camp, students will work with not only architects, but also urban planners, community activists and hip-hop artists to create new and unique urban visions using Autodesk Tinkercad.

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Kegen Soifer bravely presented his idea first: building a job training center next to the existing homeless shelter. Another boy, Jayden Ta, said the center would teach nursing, technology and math.

Those were some of the ideas fourth-graders presented on Friday for the Broadway Corridor development during the program at Faubion School in Northeast Portland.

The program pairs design professionals with teachers to create customized projects for third- through fifth-grade students over a six-week period. Each year, the program serves 4,800 students across Oregon.

“Those are exactly the types of things we’re thinking of,” Prosper Portland project manager Sarah Harpole said. She coordinates the community engagement and planning activities for the Broadway Corridor, including the U.S. Postal Service parcel and Union Station. “How do we make this a place where everybody feels like they matter and everybody feels like they’re welcome here, and they have an opportunity to get a job, and to take care of their families? My job is to take all of those things and put them together and figure out a plan. How do we build something that takes care of our planet and helps everybody out?”

The kids’ ideas helped to answer those questions: a job training center, a park with a playground and a basketball court, bicycle racks, a community center, a light-rail stop, a grocery store, a dog park, a community garden, a sculpture, a café and, of course, apartments.

“I love coming to hear what you all are working on,” Kim Knowles told the students. She is the associate director of the Architects in Schools program run by the Architecture Foundation of Oregon. “I love hearing that you’re thinking about your community, public art and what’s best for people in Portland.”

The Broadway Corridor development was an ambitious project for them, but they took it on in stride, Architects in Schools volunteer Luke Arehart said.

The next step for students in Jamie Makara’s class is designing a site plan and building a 3-D model of their ideas to be on display in Portland.

“I love the fulfillment and energy that I get from the kids,” Arehart said. “It’s a lot of good energy. They’re up to try anything.”

Brian Libby, who runs a blog at www.PortlandArchitecture.com, spoke about the site’s history and the importance of old buildings like Union Station. He told the students that cities need people to go into design and figure out how to build the right spaces to meet needs.

Harpole said she was excited to hear from the students because the project is going to take about 20 years to build. By then, the fourth-graders will be 29 and 30 and looking for apartments and places to work.

“We’re trying to figure out what would make this be a place you’d want to live, where you would want to get a job and where you would want to go and have fun,” she told them. “I think a lot of your ideas here are what we’re going to be doing.”

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The Architecture Foundation of Oregon has found its next executive director. Claire Blaylock will take over the position currently held by Jane Jarrett, who will retire in November after 16 years with the organization

Blaylock was chosen from a pool of 20 candidates from across the country, said Stefanie Becker, vice president of the AFO board and and a member of search committee.  The committee was made up of current and past members of the organization as well as stakeholders.

“The diversity of our search committee was incredibly valuable when evaluating the candidates and coming to Claire,” Becker said.

Blaylock has spent the past two years as the executive director of the Clackamas County Historical Society, expanding institutional programming, establishing partnerships and developing plans for growth. She also managed the Museum of the Oregon Territory and the Stevens-Crawford Heritage House in Oregon City.

Her experience includes communications and fundraising, skills she honed while serving as president of the Oregon Museums Association.

Becker said that Blaylock’s ability to spread AFO’s message to a younger audience was a big part of the reason she got the job. The AFO board unanimously voted to ratify Blaylock’s selection to the post.

“She was really an exceptional candidate,” said Becker, who is director of integrated design for McCarthy Building Cos. “She has a lot of potential as a leader.”

Blaylock will assume the AFO position in November, when Jarrett’s resignation goes into effect.

During Jarrett’s time with AFO, the organization has grown from one employee to four paid staff members. Under Jarrett’s leadership, AFO also boosted its fundraising efforts and established the Architects in Schools program, which annually connects Oregon building professionals with more than 4,500 students in the Portland-metro area.

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The Architecture Foundation of Oregon (AFO) later this year will fete Donald J. Stastny as its 2017 Honored Citizen.

“In Don Stastny’s case, not only has he designed high-quality and important buildings throughout Oregon,” said Jane Jarrett, AFO executive director, but “his impact on the quality of design far exceeds his own clients and projects.”

Stastny founded StastnyBrun Architects in 1975. He has a bachelor’s degree in business from Oregon State University, a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Washington and a master’s degree in architecture and city planning from the University of Pennsylvania. He has been a practicing architect for more than 40 years.

This is the 25th year that the AFO has named an Honored Citizen, and Stastny is only the third architect chosen.

“We have tended to make awards to people outside of the profession,” Jarrett said. “We especially like telling our audiences stories about contributions toward quality design and place-making in Oregon that may not be as readily apparent as the architectural design itself.”

Stastny’s projects have included museums, multifamily buildings, office buildings, cultural centers and historic renovations. He has worked with 23 native tribes on memorials, cultural centers and strategic planning initiatives, as well as with public agencies on efforts to strengthen design.

“Don’s work with the General Services Administration and with the Oregon Military Department on their design excellence programs set a high bar for projects across Oregon and the nation,” Jarrett said.

In 2006, Stastny received the American Institute of Architects Northwest and Pacific Region’s Medal of Honor, and in 2009 he received the AIA‘s Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture.

Stastny will be honored at the AFO’s 2017 Honored Citizen gala, on Oct. 18 at the Oregon Convention Center.

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Portland State University architecture student William Chandler has won the 2017 Hatfield Architectural Award. Chandler, now in his third year pursuing a master’s degree, was honored at a luncheon last week.

“He demonstrated a deep understanding of community service through design,” said Jane Jarrett, executive director of the Architecture Foundation of Oregon, which sponsors the scholarship. “The committee found Willy’s portfolio to show a higher level of design than other applicants’.”

The award came with a $2,000 scholarship. Chandler will be able to use the money to cover education-related expenses such as tuition or loan repayment – even travel to supplement studio learning, Jarrett said.

Chandler, a Vermont native, has already been involved in projects as far away as Haiti. But he was drawn west “by a desire to ski,” he said. After receiving a degree in horticulture, with an emphasis on landscape design, from Montana State University, Chandler took a year off. Then he chose to continue his education at PSU.

“During my year off after my undergrad studies, I didn’t find the intellectual challenge I wanted,” he said. “Coming to PSU, I was given that intellectual challenge.”

The projects being tackled by the Center for Public Interest Design helped convince Chandler to enroll in PSU’s School of Architecture, he said.

“The center has worked with the Rosewood Initiative,” he said. “They do a lot of work with children and underserved populations.”

The Rosewood Initiative, a nonprofit, works to improve the lives of residents in the Rosewood area around Southeast 162nd and Burnside streets.

“I have also been able to work with the Right 2 Root program,” Chandler said. “That looked at helping the African-American population in the Albina neighborhood that have been displaced by gentrification.”

Chandler was a member of a team that entered the Portland sleeping pod design contest; it sought designs for dwellings able to serve homeless individuals. He also worked on a project to help the Northern Cheyenne Tribe reduce wildfire risk at its reservation in Montana, and traveled to Haiti to design steel play structures for children.

Of all of Chandler’s efforts, the most memorable one for him was the Opera a la Cart project. The idea was to build a traveling stage that would operate like a food cart but provide opera instead of food.

“It is like opera du jour,” he said. “In terms of my responsibility, the Opera a la Cart project was the biggest.”

The Hatfield Architectural Award honors the late Mark O. Hatfield, a longtime Oregon politician who died in 2011. He received the AFO‘s Honored Citizen Award in 1998.

AFO’s goal is to honor Oregon architecture students who combine design promise with community service. While the scholarship was given annually, the luncheon was suspended when Hatfield became ill in 2005 … until this year.

“When (Hatfield) became ill, and later passed away, we did not feel we had a (sufficiently attractive) program to continue the luncheon,” Jarrett said. “Now, with so many of our past scholars doing such great work in the Northwest and around the world, we felt it was time to bring the luncheon back.”

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Jane Jarrett has seen the best of times and the worst of times at the Architecture Foundation of Oregon (AFO). The organization’s executive director announced Wednesday that she will retire from the group on Dec. 31.

“It was good time as opposed to a bad time,” she said, noting that a need to spend more time with her family was a key factor in the decision. “We have a very strong board and very strong staff.”

The group has made vast strides during Jarrett’s 16-year tenure at the helm, according to Hoffman Construction Executive Vice President Bart Eberwein, who formerly served on AFO’s board.

“When Jane came on board, the organization was limping along,” he said. “It didn’t look great. It was little clubby (and) didn’t have as broad a reach as it does now.”

Eberwein is an example of Jarrett’s efforts to broaden the group’s influence. When she took over as executive director, the board featured almost entirely architects. Her vision was to include construction and engineering professionals to the mix; now only about 10 of the board’s 30 members are in architecture.

Outreach efforts went hand in hand with those to boost fundraising. When Jarrett joined AFO, she was the only paid staffer and she worked only part time. Now the group has four full-time staff members.

“It is almost hard to remember what it was like,” she said. “The only income came from a couple of different fundraisers. We needed to diversify our revenue.”

Success in those endeavors resulted in an increased budget that has allowed the AFO to sponsor public forums.

“We did weeklong forum on the Columbia River Crossing (in 2010),” she said. “We felt the public wasn’t getting the deep and broad coverage that they needed. We were delving into the design of the project. It was a real honor to work with people on the project.”

The AFO also has added an outreach program to put building professionals in schools. The program has grown from serving 800 students in 2003 to serving more than 4,500 students in the Portland-metro area.

“The growth has been fairly organic,” she said. “It has been largely word of mouth from the teachers.”

Building professionals spend 20 hours during a six-week period receiving training and then teaching area schoolchildren about the various aspects of the construction process.

Roderick Ashley, president of AFO’s board, said that continuing to build that program will be a key duty of the next director. He said he is hoping to have Jarrett’s replacement signed on by mid to late summer.

“We want to continue to strengthen the Architects in Schools program,” he said. “I suspect we will look national but focus regionally.”

Jarrett said that while there were projects she wishes the foundation could have taken on during her tenure, she’s proud of its accomplishments.

“The nature of a nonprofit is that there is never enough time or money to get all of the things done,” she said. “We made tough choices, and I am really proud of what we did with the resources we have had.”

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The Architecture Foundation of Oregon has added three people to its board of directors: Mark Peckover, a principal with Stantec; Barbara Clement, an associate partner with FFA Architecture and Interiors; and Brian K. Annand, a shareholder with Geffen Mesher.

“Mark has been serving on the finance and resource committee, and everyone recognized he is a great asset,” AFO Executive Director Jane Jarrett said. “With Brian, it is very important for us to have someone on the board who has experience in financial practices.”

Clement is returning to AFO’s board after previously serving in 2004.

AFO’s goal is for its board to feature a diverse group. A governance committee chooses its board of directors.

“We try to have not more than one-third of the board (be) architects,” Jarrett said. “We have engineers and marketing persons on the board and others. We want a variety of talents and perspectives.”

The goal of the foundation is to support Oregon’s quality of life and create awareness of designed environments.

AFO was started in 1981 by five firms: BOORA (now Bora) Architects, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, SRG Partnership, Yost Grube Hall Architecture and Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects.

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The deadline to apply for the Mark O. Hatfield Architectural Award, which the Architecture Foundation of Oregon has given to local architecture students since 1988, is nearly here.

Graduate and undergraduate students enrolled at either the University of Oregon or Portland State University architecture schools are eligible to apply for the $2,000 award. The deadline is Jan. 8, 2016.

Entry details are available at . Entries should include a design portfolio with three examples of architectural work, two letters of recommendation and an essay detailing community service contributions.

Community service is an important part of the application, according to the website, because Hatfield, a former U.S. senator who died in 2011, was dedicated to giving back to the community.

Community service can take many forms, said Haley Smith, administrative assistant for the Architecture Foundation of Oregon.

“Community service is (defined) pretty broad because we want to see a wide range of applicants,” she said. “Some have done volunteer trips, some have worked for Habitat for Humanity or any community service not required by other classes.”

Last year’s winner of the Hatfield award was Kiara Galicinao, a native of Lahaina, Hawaii. She started giving back to her community while in high school as a participant in the American Cancer Society‘s Relay for Life, Smith said. She also participated in many fundraisers through her involvement with the Hawaiian Club at UO and with DesignBridge, a student organization that links the university to the surrounding community by offering design and design-build services. Galicinao worked on a design and construction project for a nonprofit in Eugene, Smith said.

“She was interested and passionate about housing, and is taking what she learned from school back to Hawaii,” Smith said.

The AFO award committee will review the applications and announce a winner by the end of February, Smith said. The cash award is given with no strings attached, she said, and the winner will be invited to the AFO’s spring board meeting to talk about his or her project.

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Business for Culture and the Arts (BCA) on Wednesday will hold its annual “Arts Breakfast of Champions – Wherefore ART Thou?” at the Portland Art Museum from 7:30 to 9 a.m. The event recognizes local donors and businesses whose contributions of time, energy and funding have helped keep the arts and cultural atmosphere vibrant and active.

Bart Eberwein of Hoffman Construction will receive the John C. Hampton Award for Outstanding Leadership in the Arts.

“Bart contributes more time and resources to … well, not just us, but the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Literary Arts, Oregon Arts Commission, the Oregon Symphony and so many others,” said Jane Jarrett of the Architecture Foundation of Oregon. “It’s really amazing.”

Eberwein, said, “I do it because it’s fun. It’s also something that started when I joined this firm many years ago, and Eric Hoffman and Cecil and Wayne Drinkward told me to go for it, to involve myself in the community in any way I thought was important and they would be 100 percent supportive. It was already a part of the culture when I came on board, so my interest in the arts, our interest has become as much a natural extension of who we are as the projects we build. I’m really honored because of the name on the award, too. Those are big shoes to fill.”

John C. Hampton drove the lumber industry and the arts culture in Portland after World War II, helping create a city where arts are integrated into business and daily life.

Neil Kelly will receive the Creative Arts/Business Partnership Award. Tom Breunig, Neil Kelly corporate marketing manager, explained the cooperative effort that worked both for the firm and the Portland Children’s Museum & Portland Festival Symphony.

“We committed to donate $100 every time we had a design consultation,” he said. “In addition to the initial corporate sponsorship, we’re happy to announce that we’ve dispersed over $5000. As a design firm, we’re more interested in the artistic elements that go into what we do. This is a step beyond that, and we see it as a necessary part of being involved in building communities in the Pacific Northwest.”

Vigor Industrial will receive the Most Valuable Business Award for proving itself indispensable in efforts to advance arts and culture with donations of time, talent and funding.

Also, ZGF Architects will be recognized as the No. 1 donor to the arts in Oregon in the medium-size company category.

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SRG Partnership co-founder and principal Jon Schleuning recently was honored by the American Institute of Architects’ Northwest & Pacific Region for his contributions to the architectural profession.

He received the 2014 Region Medal of Honor Award, the organization’s highest accolade for individuals who have promoted public understanding of architects and architecture through excellence in design and service to the profession. The award recognizes notable contributions to the region, which includes Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, Hawaii and Guam.

Schleuning said it meant a lot to him that the honor singled him out from peers practicing throughout the region.

“I’m really humbled by it,” he said. “It’s actually really huge.”

He co-founded SRG Partnership with Dave Richen and Fred Gast in 1972; the firm now has offices in Portland and Seattle. Schleuning was instrumental in formation of the Portland Downtown Plan, efforts to install a light rail system and creation of Pioneer Courthouse Square. He said he is proud to have played a role in his hometown’s evolution into what it is today.

Schleuning said he has long emphasized to SRG staffers the importance of sustainability and designing buildings within their context or repurposing existing structures.

“It’s more than buildings; it’s more than design awards,” he said. “It’s about families of buildings. There is much more awareness today about eco-districts.”

SRG’s dedication to public, educational and owner-occupied projects was fostered by Schleuning. Among the designs he’s particularly proud of are the Oregon Market at the Portland International Airport – including its carpet – the Mount St. Helens Visitor Center in Castle Rock, Wash., and the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport.

Schleuning is a co-founder of the Architecture Foundation of Oregon and twice served as its president. He is a fellow of the AIA and has also played an active role in the Portland chapter, including service on the board and as a mentor of the next generation of architects.

Rapidly advancing design technology and work with a smart and talented group of young architects at SRG are among the reasons why Schleuning said he’s still eager to come into work each day.

“I’m practicing today because it’s the most exciting period that I’ve practiced,” he said.

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