Barry Bergdoll, departing chief curator of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, will be in Portland on Saturday to speak about the relationship between museums and architecture.

The lecture, “Barry Bergdoll: Architecture, Museums and the Art of Advocacy,” will be hosted by the University of Oregon’s John Yeon Center and begin at 2 p.m. in Whitsell Auditorium, at the Portland Art Museum, 1219 S.W. Park Ave.

Bergdoll announced plans last year to leave his post at MoMA to take a position as the Meyer Schapiro Professor of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University. His successor at MoMA, Swiss architecture and art history professor Martino Stierli, will take over in March 2015.

During his Portland lecture, Bergdoll will reflect on the long history of museums’ relationship to architecture. He will also discuss his seven-year tenure at MoMA, including curating exhibitions on the Bauhaus design, Soviet modernist architecture and the early career of German-American architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Currently, Bergdoll is working on an exhibit surveying mid-century Latin American architecture.

Tickets for the event are $15 for adults and $12 for seniors or students and can be purchased online at .

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Zany Maze, a permanent outdoor exhibit currently under construction at , is the first phase of the museum’s $1.8 million Outdoor Adventure exhibit. The maze is being built by from a design by landscape architects .  More after the jump.

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The city of Albany is looking to the past to build a better future for its downtown.

Last month, Albany City Council allocated $110,000 in urban renewal money to support a project that calls for creation of a carousel, museum, arcade and food building. A drive unit manufactured in 1909 will power the carousel, which will feature horses and other animals carved and painted by hand by local volunteers.

An independent organization is leading the $10 million project, but city officials chose to contribute money to ensure it becomes the attraction they foresee stimulating downtown revitalization.

The decline of Albany’s downtown began when a new mall opened in a growing business area.

“In 1995 our downtown, like many, was suffering,” Albany Urban Renewal Director Kate Porsche said. “Our stores moved out to the shiny, new mall – the J.C. Penney and so on.”

Officials formed an urban renewal area and created a town center plan. Urban renewal money went toward rehabilitation of historic structures in downtown. The next challenge, Porsche said, is to fill those improved buildings with tenants.

But the city also is seeking attractive and interesting projects as “bookends” for its downtown.

When the URA was created in the 1990s, Albany resident Wendy Kirbey owned a coffee shop in downtown and heard rumblings of a city search for new “anchor projects.” Then, on a trip to Missoula, Mont., she saw a community-created project that blew her away – a carousel.

“I came back with the idea that that would be a wonderful thing to do,” Kirbey said. “It’s married in with our historic buildings and homes; I thought it fit us like a glove.”

Kirbey’s idea blossomed into an organization – the Albany Historic Carousel and Museum. With city money, the group purchased a lot on one end of the main downtown street, at 503 First Avenue W.

Eight years later, volunteers are carving and painting 52 animals for the carousel, six potential alternate animals and two carriages. More than 300 people have combined to log 120,000 volunteer hours.

Sponsorships have been purchased for all 60 of the carousel pieces, operations manager Tyson Brown said. The final product will be 50 feet in diameter – larger than a riverfront carousel in Salem – and weigh more than 19 tons. The Dentzel family, which has a legacy that ties to the type of carousel being built in Albany, donated the drive mechanism.

Each animal was designed by a professional artist. The first set was designed by Terryl Whitlatch, who has worked for Disney and on “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.” The second set of animals was created by artist Kurt Christensen, who has performed animation for PBS.

Brown, the carousel group’s one full-time staff member, noted that “masters” were paid to ensure consistency of carving and painting.

The organization had created its own preliminary designs for the carousel building, which will include a museum, an arcade, concessions and meeting areas. The city intervened in that plan.

“When we looked at the quality of the carousel itself, it was really world-class – and they really needed the opportunity to look at some of the best design talent in the world,” said consultant George Crandall, who has been involved for years in Albany’s downtown revitalization plans.

Brown said the organization was unable to pay for that sort of design process on its own, so the city offered to fund a contract through urban renewal money.

“The idea was to help them design a building with public involvement,” Porsche said.

A committee that included Albany’s mayor, city representatives and a group of carousel organization members selected to design the building. Jonah Cohen, a THA principal, said his challenge is to create a design that doesn’t compete with the carousel, and that fits into the character of downtown Albany.

While THA is working on the design, the carousel group is continuing to raise the remaining $4 million needed for the project. Brown acknowledged that the effort is challenging, particularly because no more animal sponsorship opportunities exist. But the group is seeking to break ground on the carousel in 2013 and then open the building in 2014 or 2015.

Brown estimates that the project is drawing 2,000 visitors each month. They can watch volunteers carve the animals, examine parts of the carousel and visit a museum that contains some finished products as well as historic items on loan from the Dentzel family.

“If the carousel is successful, the people who visit will eat at our restaurants and shop at our ships. That’s good for everybody,” Porsche said. “We believe it’s a major part of our future.”

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The Portland Children’s Museum is ramping up for its “Zany Maze,” the first phase of an outdoor development that will provide a new, free experience for visitors.

Carol Mayer-Reed, partner at Mayer/Reed, the architecture firm designing the outdoor exhibit, said the maze will allow the institution to “express itself outside.”

The maze will sit on a 9,200-square-foot, partially concrete area that formerly was the dome home for OMSI’s planetarium, Mayer-Reed said. Outside the maze, a small slope will let kids roll, and picnic tables and benches will provide space for “hanging out.”

The maze is designed at a child’s scale, so that kids can feel hidden, but parents can see over the hedges to supervise.

“The idea of the maze is that it has surprises, twists and turns,” said Melody Bridges, the museum’s director of marketing.

But the maze, a $188,000 project, is merely a small prelude to an outdoor project that will eventually cost $1.8 million, Bridges said. A 46,000-square-foot area is planned to stretch from the front of the museum around the side and become a natural, “wild space,” Bridges said.

“Families look for a safe place to enjoy nature,” Mayer-Reed said.

The outdoor adventure area will have water features and lots of vegetation.

Bridges said the park will appear to kids to possess “risk,” but be safe. The park will, in fact, be completely ADA-accessible. But unlike a normal playground, no artificial play equipment will be installed. The project includes an outdoor amphitheater, trails and “tree pods” for play, Bridges said.

“We like to think of it as the best backyard ever,” Mayer-Reed said.

Plus, the adventure areas will be open through all seasons.

“Oregonians aren’t timid when it comes to rain,” Bridges said. “These are intended to be year-round exhibits.”

The team is hoping that free exhibits outside the museum will draw people in. They also will let kids “blow off some steam” either before or after visiting the museum, Mayer-Reed said.

The Portland Children’s Museum is paying for both portions of the outdoor adventure project through philanthropy.

Landscape architect Chris Ingalls is the project architect for Mayer/Reed. The general contractor is

“On the Boards” is a weekly feature that spotlights local firms’ best design work. Submissions from architectural and engineering firms are encouraged. Please email ontheboards@djcorprod.wpengine.com or call 503-802-7240.

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USS Ranger CV-61

Length: 1,046 feet

Width: 130 feet across and 249.5 feet at extreme beam width

Average crew carried: 3,826

Cruising speed: 34 knots

History: The ship earned 13 battle stars for service in Vietnam; it also served during Operation Desert Storm. Movie credits include “Top Gun” and “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.”

Source: USS Ranger Foundation

Few people would debate the merits of repurposing outdated buildings in the Portland-metropolitan area.

But one nonprofit group wants to take a step further and repurpose an old aircraft carrier to serve the community.

The group is working to bring the USS Ranger – a former naval ship that, at 1,046 feet, is longer than three football fields – to a mooring spot in Fairview. The USS Ranger Foundation is seeking donation of the ship by the U.S. Navy to not only convert the Ranger into the world’s largest floating museum, but also into community space, educational space and even an emergency preparedness center.

Since it was commissioned in 1957, the USS Ranger CV-61 has served in a war and been featured in movies. But the U.S. Navy has decided that the ship must be moved from its current location in Bremerton, Wash. If a new home can’t be found for the Ranger by 2015, the ship will be torn apart and the metal will be sold for salvage.

That’s where the , a nonprofit group based out of Gresham, comes into the picture.

“The fact of the matter is that this is in our control and we have the exclusive rights to the ship,” said Lonnie Dicus, senior adviser for the foundation. “If it doesn’t go to us, it gets cut up.”

Other nonprofit organizations have completed similar projects around the country, though this would be the first one in the Pacific Northwest. The USS Midway in San Diego, which acts as a museum and memorial, attracts nearly a million visitors a year. The Intrepid, in New York City, has served as one of the city’s emergency response centers since the NYC Office of Emergency Management was displaced as a result of 9/11.

“Other projects on these ships tend to be museums and memorials,” Dicus said. “(The Ranger project) would be much more.”

The nonprofit is in the middle of the second step of a four-step process to acquire the ship. After narrowing down a location for the ship – the Chinook Landing Marine Park in Fairview – the group is now focused on raising money and securing the regulatory permits required for the project.

The group has cleared one hurdle already, by receiving confirmation from the Columbia River Pilots Association that it could safely move the ship up the Columbia River from the Pacific Ocean. Under ideal circumstances, the ship can make it up the river, the confirmation letter said, but the organization would need to work with Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad to coordinate passage through the railroad bridge. Dicus said those discussions are under way.

The other major issue is raising money to pay for relocation of the ship.

“The foundation’s goal is (to raise) $15 million by opening in 2015,” said Shannon Chisom, the USS Ranger Foundation’s development director who was brought on to lead the fundraising campaign.

Two years into its effort, the group has raised more than $600,000, according to Dicus. That amount is significantly greater than the $50,000 raised in the first year, he said.

“Next year is going to be real telling,” Dicus said. “If we’re going to be legit, we need to be over the $2 million or $3 million mark this time next year.”

The group has 130 people involved in the effort and a lot of support from key decision makers. Resolutions of support were passed by seven nearby cities, including Portland; two counties; the state Senate and Metro. Also, letters of support were written by seven members of Congress, Gov. John Kitzhaber, five local business organizations and several veterans’ associations.

“We’ve built a very solid, very deep political base,” he said. “It’s now about the regulatory and approval process.”

Consult Econ, a market research and project feasibility firm, has estimated that the project would create 536 jobs for the area and have an economic impact of $46.1 million annually. Read the .

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Construction of a $9.3 million expansion to the iconic Maryhill Museum of Art in rural Goldendale, Wash., will present challenges more often associated with a project in the middle of a city than with one in the middle of a desert landscape in the Columbia Gorge.

That is because most of the space around the museum is reserved for visitor parking and public grounds – leaving little room for staging and increasing the difficulty of scheduling, said Bob Schommer, co-owner of , the prime contractor.

“The museum is an operating museum. It has parking lots and grounds, but those are for the public to use,” Schommer said. “To not disturb any of that we really do have to squeeze into a very small area.”

Few manufacturers, aside from concrete, are in the area, which means the company has to carefully plan out when materials will arrive to match up with installation dates, he added.

“It might be out in the sticks, but in some ways it really is like working in a metropolitan area because of the space and scheduling issues,” Schommer said.

Crews this week started digging for the 25,500-square-foot addition. Work is expected to wrap up in spring 2012 on the mostly underground structure, which will house storage space, a new exhibit hall and an educational area for visitors, Schommer said.

“They’ve wanted to build this addition for at least 15 years,” Schommer said. “They have about five times as much stuff as they can display.”

Right now, museum art not on display is spread out across several small rooms in the mansion. After the expansion is built, those collections will be consolidated into one place, and the smaller rooms will become available for more exhibits, said Colleen Schafroth, the museum’s executive director.

“The educational space is also much needed,” Schafroth said. “Currently we have to use gallery space for that, and it’s real difficult for visitors. With the new space we can also do messier workshops – with painting or clay.”

The new structure will include a large, rooftop deck overlooking the Columbia Gorge where the museum can host events or people can go to enjoy the view, she added.

“The idea is to create a plaza to enhance views of the gorge and to replace what is essentially a parking lot,” Schafroth said. “The other thing is we’ll be putting a new indoor-outdoor café there, and we hope to use the area for some outdoor art or painting workshops.”

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design silver certification will be pursued for the expansion, which was designed by . Energy efficient glass, passive solar energy and other typical green features will be used, as will an unusual heating and cooling system, Schommer said.

“It has in-floor radiant heat using water that actually comes from a spring on the property,” he said. “That actually creates quite efficient energy savings.”

Schommer & Sons has worked with the museum on a variety of smaller projects since the late 1990s, but this one is much bigger. Its contract for the expansion work is $6.6 million, Schommer said.

The company is employing some subcontractors from the Goldendale area and is also bringing in several subcontractors from Portland, he added. Approximately 40 workers will be involved at any given time.

The museum was built as a mansion by a man named Sam Hill, a wealthy railroad and utility baron in the early 1900s. The site was too remote to develop into a small Quaker town, as Hill initially planned, and so he turned it into a museum named after his wife, Mary Hill.

“He spent a lot of time in San Francisco and ended up meeting a lot of European royalty,” Schommer said. “And when he died he ended up with all sorts of Eastern European art and objects, which then ended up in the museum. And through the years, the museum has endured. It has a small but very dedicated following.”

Donors have contributed to a fundraising effort that began in 2007 for the expansion, called the Mary and Bruce Stevenson Wing. The museum has gathered approximately $8.9 million so far, Schafroth said.

“Overall we’ll need a total of $10 million to finish it the way we really want to, so our fundraising effort will continue,” she said. “But we felt it was important to get started with the construction now.”

The mansion is near a bluff overlooking the Columbia Gorge, on top of fractured basalt rock that can be difficult to excavate. Construction on the site must be planned carefully to protect the historic building and not disrupt the picturesque landscape, Schommer said.

“Some disturbance can’t be helped, but you have to make sure everything stays as natural looking as possible,” Schommer said. “We’re removing the basalt without blasting, but since it is rock it takes some significant equipment to do that mechanically.”

Workers are using a giant track-hoe excavator to remove the material and dig the 20-foot-deep structure, he added.

“We anticipate some drilling when we get into areas of rock that are harder – we’ll drill to relieve the pressure,” Schommer said.

Another challenge will be to create the rooftop deck, which will cantilever out over the gorge wall, Schommer said.

“That’s all cast-in-place concrete, and pouring it will be challenging,” he said. “It’s hard to access, and we’ll be pouring concrete almost into midair.”

The company plans to work on structural aspects through the fall, and add finishes in late fall and next winter, he said.

The site is scheduled to open sometime in April 2012, he added.

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