Portland: The Latest Architecture and News

Taking place at 6:00pm PST on Friday, March 1, internationally acclaimed architects Fuensanta Nieto and Enrique Sobejano will deliver their fourth presentation in the “Placing” lecture series offered by the Department of Architecture at Portland State University, which is free and open to the public. Based in Madrid and Berlin, Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos is known for projects that marry a contemporary architectural language with traditional settings and historic structures. Their work includes the Madinat al Zahra Museum in Córdoba—recipient of a 2010 Aga Kahn Award—and extensions to the Joanneum Museum in Graz. More information after the break.

This year’s Portland State Department of Architecture lecture series, which starts October 4 and runs until May 2, focuses on the theme of ‘Placing’. Six internationally renowned leaders from the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, art, planning, and anthropology will tackle this once-controversial idea and discuss the ways in which the active processes of siting, locating, positioning and placing things and people in the world are conceived and embodied in their work. Dan Wood of WORKac will start off the lecture series, followed by Sheila O’Donnell and John Tuomey of O’Donnell+Tuomey Architects, Kevin Daly of Daly Genik Architects, Fuensanta Nieto and Enrique Sobejano of Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos, Tim Ingold of the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen, and Julie Bargmann of D.I.R.T. Studio. For more information, please visit here.

Presented by the Department of Architecture at Portland State University, the MeasuringUP symposium is dedicated to advancing regional knowledge and efforts for environmentally responsive architecture. Taking place May 10-11 on the Portland State University campus, the event sets out to discuss the following questions: Are green buildings in use measuring up to their targets? What role do building occupants play in the discussion of performance? How can research in buildings inform and improve design practice? And how can successful strategies be replicated at a larger scale? More information on the event after the break.

Portland State University’s Department of Architecture recently announced that architect and professor Gilles Saucier will deliver the third presentation in their inaugural lecture series, titled “Firsts,” given by the department. Saucier is currently a design partner of Saucier + Perrotte Architects in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and an invited professor and critic at a number of Canadian and American universities, most recently at MIT in 2011.Saucier will speak on Thursday, February 23, at 7pm, at Shattuck Hall Annex on the Portland State University campus. These lecture series, which are free to the public, explore the concepts of origins and beginnings, long a subject of interest among architects. More information on the event after the break.

Landscape Architect: OLIN Location: Portland, Oregon, United States Architect: ZGF Project Team: Laurie Olin, FASLA Consultants: Mayer/Reed, KPFF Consulting Engineers, SOLARC Architecture and Engineering, Interface Engineering, Benya Lighting Design, Tad Savinar, CMS Collaborative, Corson Studios, Karen Whitman Projects Project Area: 22,000 sqf Project Year: 2009 Photographs: ZGF, Eckert & Eckert

The Department of Architecture at Portland State University proudly announces its inaugural lecture series, titled ‘Firsts.’ The series spans the 2011-2012 academic year, beginning October 6, with presentations by six notable academics, artists and professionals in architectural practice worldwide: Petra Kempf, John Ochsendorf, Gilles Saucier, Jeremy Till, Sarah Wigglesworth and Paul Pfeiffer.

The concepts of origins and beginnings, long a subject of interest among architects, will be explored throughout the series of lectures. As the Greek word Arche (meaning ‘first cause’) is at the root of the word architecture, the guest lecturers will discuss their own ‘first causes’—the spark that led them to follow their career path—as part of their presentations. The lectures in the series begin at 7pm in the Shattuck Hall Annex at Portland State University (at SW Broadway and Hall Streets) and are free to the public.

More information on the lecture series after the break.

ZGF Architects and PoSI teamed up to provide a concept submission for the International Living Future Institute’s 2011 Living City Design Competition which has been recently awarded a People’s Choice Award voted by the attendees of the Living Future 2011 conference.

Their submission entitled Symbiotic Districts: Towards a Balanced City explores the symbiosis between five EcoDistricts in Portland, Oregon as well as regional systems and examines how strategies in a single district contribute to the city’s overall performance.

Competition Team: ZGF Architects, Portland Sustainability Institute, CH2M Hill, David Evans and Associates, Greenworks PC, Newlands and Company, Inc., Portland State University, Institute for Sustainable Solutions, and Sparling