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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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 hosted a networking event this week at 1320 Broadway, the former Oregonian newspaper building designed by Pietro Belluschi. Fortis Construction is putting the finishing touches on a $15 million core and shell renovation, designed by Allied Works Architecture, for Seattle-based owner Urban Renaissance Group.

Work on the project has included removing drop ceilings and acoustic ceiling tiles to reveal 28-foot ceilings in the building’s lobby and former printing and broadcast spaces, exposing of original concrete structural elements, addition of a ramp to the basement for parking, and new entrances, windows, bathrooms , locker rooms and shower facilities.

The building contains 165,000 square feet of open creative office space, most of which has been leased. Elemental Technologies has leased around 101,000 square feet, D+H Financial Technologies will occupy another 45,000 square feet, and Ristretto Roasters will operate in the building’s lobby. The former printing press space at street level on Southwest Sixth Avenue and a ground-level space on the south side of the main entrance on Southwest Broadway remain open. Tenant improvement work is slated to begin in the coming weeks.

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Oregon may be the only state in the U.S. where volunteer design professionals visit public elementary schools and teach students about architecture. And according to those volunteers, they get as much out of it as the kids.

Chanelle Wiley, a design and model curator at PLACE Studio in Portland, is in her second year contributing to the Architects in Schools program.

“I never had this opportunity as a young kid and to be exposed to it in elementary school is such a gift,” she said. “I wondered how (the students) would grasp some of the concepts, but they totally catch on and they really excel. It blew me away.”

Kim Knowles, associate director of Architects in Schools for the Architecture Foundation of Oregon, said the 40-year-old program, which recently began its annual six-week run, was originally intended to be nationwide. Portland architect Marjorie Wintermute started the program in the 1970s, and then AFO took the reins in 2003.

“She has really helped make sure the program could have the longevity that it has, long before it was statewide,” Knowles said of Wintermute. “There are other cities that have a curriculum they provide to schools or do some sort of programming in schools, but I have not found another program where a design professional actually goes into the classroom.”

Architects in Schools has expanded out of Portland to other areas in Oregon, Knowles said. Approximately 80 classrooms in Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties are being served this year. She said 68 design professionals and five University of Oregon graduate students are participating this year.

“We started the statewide program in 2006 and it took a couple of years to get it going, but now we’re ongoing in Salem, Eugene, Medford, Ashland, Bend, Tumalo and La Pine,” she said. “Actually, anywhere in the state that we can get a (design) professional and teacher together we will, and we’ve also been in Hood River, Corvallis and the Oregon coast.”

Volunteers receive training in the fall and then in the spring they each spend at least an hour each week in the classroom.

The designers don’t just lecture, said Luke Arehart, a design professional at design-build firm Guild in Portland, but also lead field trips. Arehart, who is volunteering at Faubion Elementary, recently took 27 third- or fourth-grade students to tour Veterans Memorial Coliseum with architecture writer Brian Libby and architect Stuart Emmons. Both men are staunch supporters of efforts to preserve the arena.

But students also learn about design by building their own structures in class, Arehart said.

“Our residency goal this year is to design 10 tributes to notable Oregonians,” he said. “We will be designing the siting, programming and building a scale model.”

One of those people who will be depicted, he said, is Sacajawea, who helped lead the Lewis and Clark expedition in the early 1800s. Her story will be tied to teacher Jamie Makara’s instruction.

This is Arehart’s third year as an Architects in Schools volunteer. He said he loves interacting with the kids.

“For me it’s a really good energy source,” he said. “Not all 60 want to be architects, but we can show how professional steps can help them achieve goals and also about setting goals.”

Wiley this year will work with teacher Melissa Dunn’s fourth- and fifth-grade students at Skyline School in Portland. Wiley is planning to repeat last year’s project – designing buildings for 25 years in the future.

Wiley said she believes the students learn a lot. She was amazed at the concepts they understood.

“Each student wrote me a small thank you card and almost every one of them had a little drawing of an elevation,” she said.

Nathan Corser, global director of design and design principal at engineering firm CH2M HILL, has been an Architects in Schools volunteer for 15 years. He said it’s a lot of work, but worth it – both for him and his students.

Corser said he usually works with fourth- and fifth-graders, but this year he is working with second-graders at the Beverly Cleary School in Portland. He plans to help students understand the history of architecture.

“When you pull up an image of the (Roman) coliseum or the Eiffel Tower, even second-graders know about these things,” he said. “It’s really fun to walk them through it, to talk about how man made shelter and what does it say about the people that built them.”

Corser also takes students on walking tours and makes flash cards for distinctive architectural elements along the route.

“It’s fun getting them to say things like ‘pilaster,’ ” he said.

Even though Corser has many years of program experience, he said every year he worries about the time commitment – always more than an hour per week. But he’s always glad he participates.

“It’s very refreshing for me to hear their input and see their excitement,” he said. “It always feels like a burden, but it makes a difference.”

People interested in becoming an Architects in Schools volunteer next year will be able to sign up in August, Knowles said. More information is available at: .

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The Portland-based World Forestry Center, as part of its ongoing effort to promote the importance of sustainable forestry and the possibilities of building with wood, has assembled an exhibit of wooden architectural models.

Eric Vines, the center’s executive director, said that he worked with Jane Jarrett, executive director of the Architecture Foundation of Oregon, to acquire more than 30 models. The exhibit is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. through Feb. 26 at the center’s Merlo Hall, in Washington Park at 4033 S.W. Canyon Road. Admission is free.

“We sent out a request to a whole range of architecture firms from around the area, and many (models) came out of vaults and closets,” Vines said. “Many firms don’t make architectural models anymore; they do it all electronically with computer-aided design.”

Part of the goal, he said, is to encourage more use of wood in construction.

“We are trying to help people draw a connection between everyday products and using wood for building and the forests it comes from,” he said.

Vines added that the increased use of cross-laminated timber in construction is “an exciting new development.”

The World Forestry Center was established 50 years ago. Its 20,000-square-foot Discovery Museum through Feb. 6 is showcasing an exhibit on the creation of wooden furniture.

Vines said the reason the wooden architectural models are in Merlo Hall (home of the center’s administrative offices) instead of the museum is because although some are under glass, many are exposed.

“We didn’t want them to be touched or damaged, so we put them in here,” he said.

Vines said he hopes the wooden models inspire more interest in wood use.

“Our biggest hope is that people can appreciate the artistry and also the role wood plays in building and construction,” he said.

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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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A record number of Portland-area architects will participate in the Architects in Schools program this year, but some schools may nevertheless be left out.

Kim Ruthardt Knowles, associate director of Architects in Schools at the Architecture Foundation of Oregon, said 64 architects have signed up to participate; however, more are needed for outlying areas.

“We primarily need design professionals who can work in Washington County, North Portland and East Multnomah County,” she said.

The six-week classroom program won’t start until after Jan. 1, 2016, she said, but training will take place Saturday, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., at Portland State University’s Shattuck Hall Annex.

Any design professionals who want to participate can just show up for the training, Knowles said. They can also contact her at 503-317-7537 or kim_ais@msn.com and she will give them individual training.

“We need about four more design professionals,” she said. “I would meet with them one-on-one and make sure they have the materials and learn about the program,” she said.

In the classroom, architects work with teachers and students in third through fifth grades for one hour a week over a six-week period.

Teachers and architects work together to develop a curriculum for the class, which Knowles said can be linked to any classroom subject, ranging from math to social studies to creative writing. The curriculum reinforces state learning goals as well as environmental sustainability, she said.

“The program is based on a curriculum guide with lessons that the (design professionals) pick and choose,” she said. “The teacher partners with them.”

Architects in Schools was started more than 40 years ago, Knowles said, and the Architecture Foundation of Oregon took it over in 2003 from the Regional Arts & Culture Council. In that time, the program has grown to include 3,700 students in the Portland-metro area, Central Oregon, Salem, Eugene, Medford and Ashland. For more information, visit .

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The Architecture Foundation of Oregon is sending out a call for volunteers interested in working with the 2016 session of the Architects in Schools program

The AFO program matches professionals in the building industry with teachers to help students in the third through fifth grades learn about the built environment. Although most of the volunteers involved with the program are architects, engineers, landscape architects and contractors also are invited to become involved in the program.

Volunteers are asked to contribute an hour or two of their time each week, for about six weeks, said Kim Ruthardt Knowles, associate director of the Architects in Schools program.

Teachers who participate in the program are eligible to receive graduate credit through Portland State University. Design professionals may qualify for professional credit and development hours. Students involved in architecture programs may be eligible for practicum or independent study credits.

Applicants will be notified about participation in October. Orientation sessions will be held from October through January. Program sessions with students in classrooms will begin in January and run through March or April.

Jane Jarrett, executive director of the AFO, said her organization hopes this year’s program will repeat last year’s success. For the 2015 session, the number of teachers involved increased by 44 percent while about 100 building industry professionals participated.

“It’s really taken off in recent years, and last year we went from serving 93 classrooms to 130,” Jarrett said. “Architects are really busy, but everyone who does it seems to really enjoy it.”

The 40-year-old program can have a significant, positive impact on the students it serves by helping them begin to view and experience their surroundings in a new light

“They all have a sense of environment, but don’t necessarily have an understanding of what we do with structures placed in the environment, which is a huge impact,” Jarrett said. “They learn how buildings are built, why they face this way or that, and why you may not want to have a fire department next to a hospital.”

The curriculum for the Architects in Schools program has been developed and revised over many years, Jarrett said, and adhere to Common Core and other education standards.

The deadline for building industry professionals to apply to the program is Sept. 28.; applications from teachers are due Oct. 2.

Application forms are available on the AFO website at https://af-oregon.org/programs/architects-in-schools.

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The decades-long friendship between the late Portland mid-century architects Pietro Belluschi and Walter Gordon will be the focus of an upcoming event to benefit two nonprofit organizations.

Proceeds from a tour on Saturday of the Jack and Betty Meier House in Southwest Portland, designed by Gordon in 1970, will be split between the historic preservation organization Restore Oregon and the Architecture Foundation of Oregon.

The event takes place from 4 to 6 p.m. and will feature a talk by Belluschi’s son and Portland architect, Anthony Belluschi. He will read excerpts from the 50-year correspondence between his father and Gordon spanning from the 1930s through the 1980s.

Gordon’s designs are lesser known than those of Pietro Belluschi, but he is also considered a major contributor to the development of the Northwest Regional Modernism style, said Brandon Spencer-Hartle, a senior field programs manager with Restore Oregon. The event will offer a rare opportunity for the public to tour one of Gordon’s residential designs before it goes on the market, Spencer-Hartle said.

Gordon and Belluschi worked together early in their architectural careers at the Portland office of A.E. Doyle. They remained close friends throughout their lives and, although they lived on opposite sides of the country, stayed in touch until Belluschi’s death in 1994.

After working for A.E. Doyle, Gordon started his own Portland architectural firm and taught at the University of Oregon in Eugene and Reed College in Portland. He died in 1997.

Tickets for the tour and talk, “Entertaining Correspondence: The 50-year friendship of Pietro Belluschi and Walter Gordon,” are $50 each. Restore Oregon’s tickets are sold out; however, tickets through AFO are still available or by calling 503-542-3825.

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