Our June meeting has been rescheduled to next Wednesday, June 23, at noon. Please join us along with Laila Seewang, Assistant Professor at the PSU School of Architecture, and Paddy Tillett, FAIA, Principal at ZGF Architects, who will introduce the PSU Urban Design Collaborative, which was initiated in December 2019.

About the PSU Urban Design Collaborative:

In December 2019, a PSU urban design task force was initiated between the College of the Arts and the College of Urban and Public Affairs. The task force was composed of 3 Architecture faculty and 3 planning faculty and were asked to find ways to further an urban design agenda at PSU – through its Graduate Certificate, and potential new collaborations across departments and between the university and the city. A series of founding events has taken place—a collaboration with PBOT reviewing the current Safe Streets Initiative and its potential future, and a series of conversations, Portland in Conversation, held over the Spring term. These initiatives were seen as a way of testing potential collaborations, topics, and agendas for the PSU Urban Design Collaborative as it moves forward.

Purposes:
The purposes of the Urban Design Collaborative (UDC) are twofold: to make urban design instruction and research more widely available at PSU, and to broaden collaboration between those pursuing teaching and research at the University, with design and implementation professionals in Portland.

The reach of design professionals in Portland is worldwide. Our city has long held a reputation for good urban design, but there remain many shortcomings, especially in the wake of 2020 civic disturbances. By engaging academic and professional capabilities with those of developers and city agencies responsible for the implementation of public improvements, we can greatly improve the quality of urban design in our community and beyond.


About the presenters:

Laila Seewang is assistant professor in the School of Architecture at Portland State University where she teaches design studios and architectural and urban history and theory. She also sits on the Board of Directors of Aggregate Architectural History Collaborative. She is a registered architect and an architectural historian and theorist whose research uses infrastructure as a lens through which to study environmental and urban design, in particular during the nineteenth century.

Paddy Tillett, founding chair of the Urban Design Panel and member of the PSU Urban Design Collaborative task force is an architect and urban planner. He is a principal at ZGF Architects LLP.