Historic Preservation Award Honors Oregon Black Pioneers

The George McMath award will be presented to the Salem-based nonprofit, which strives to recognize African American pioneers in Oregon.

When Willie Richardson moved from South Carolina to Oregon in 1978, she came with her three sisters and their families. Though the five adults and six kids traveled in cars rather than in a covered wagon, as African Americans from the South moving West to reinvent their lives, they were akin to pioneers.

Forty years later, the Oregon Black Pioneers, a group Richardson has shepherded since 2004, is being honored with the 2017 George McMath Historic Preservation Award, presented annually by the UO Historic Preservation Program in the School of Architecture and Allied Arts.

The award will be presented at a luncheon beginning at 11:30 am Wednesday, May 17, at the White Stag Block, 70 NW Couch Street in Portland. Tickets, which cost $50, may be ordered online after March 16 at hp.uoregon.edu/mcmath. For information, call 541-346-3697.

The Oregon Black Pioneers board of directors (first row, left to right):
Suesann Abdelrasul, treasurer; Natalia Fernandez, collections (in red print dress); Janet Jacquier, internship recruitment development (seated, beige sweater); Zoe Morrison, chair of marketing; Willie Richardson, president; Gwen Carr, secretary. Back row (left to right): Tatianna Bryant, co-chair, virtual museum development; Jonathan Cain, chair, virtual museum development; Martha Rutherford, chair, board development; Kim Moreland, vice president.

Since 1993, the Oregon Black Pioneers has produced publications, exhibitions, conferences, and stage productions, delivered presentations in classrooms and boardrooms, recognized burial sites of black pioneers in Oregon, and published two books, Perseverance: A History of African Americans in Oregon’s Marion and Polk Counties, and African Americans of Portland.

The group was recently asked to help with the UO’s plans to create a Black Cultural Center.

In partnership with the State Historic Preservation Office, Oregon Black Pioneers has documented historic sites statewide that have been centers of African American population. The long-term goal is to prepare a National Register of Historic Places’ multiple property document for the whole state.

“We want to bring the story of African Americans in Oregon alive,” Richardson said, “and make sure that not just our children who look like us but everybody sees the value of and how we are part of the fabric of this state we all call home.”

Researching the history of blacks in Oregon is often sobering, Richardson said.  “As you delve into it you are really humbled by what the folks who cleared the pathway for you did, even against horrendous circumstances and obstacles placed in their way,” Richardson said. “You feel honored to tell their stories because it’s their stories and their lives that made it possible for us to be here in this state.”

“All Aboard: Railroading and Portland’s Black Community,” the group’s exhibition held at the Oregon Historical Society in 2013, focused on the African American community around Portland’s Union Station from the 1800s to 1940s. The exhibit was later displayed in Salem and Eugene.

Oregon Black Pioneers is now working to mount “Racing to Change: Oregon’s Civil Rights Years,” which will be on display at The Oregon History Museum starting in January 2018.

The prestigious McMath Award “will elevate us to another layer of outreach to other folks out there and hopefully some of them will want to become involved,” Richardson said.  “We are delighted that, for the first time, the McMath Award recognizes an organization rather than an individual,” noted James Buckley, director of the UO’s Historic Preservation Program. “It has required a true team effort for the Oregon Black Pioneers to locate and celebrate the many pieces of African American history in this state, and we are excited to highlight their many accomplishments.”

 

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Victoria!

Parliament Buildings, photo copyright Michael Foort.

In preparation for the Marion Dean Ross/Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians conference in 2017, we have reserved a block of rooms at the Union Club of British Columbia.  The conference will be held in Victoria, June 16-18, 2017.  The discounted block of rooms is limited, so we wanted to get the news out early to help you with your summer planning.

The Union Club will also serve as the site of our Saturday banquet.  It is a great place to immerse oneself in historic Victoria!  A PDF with more information on the special room rates is available here or at the SAH/MDR website at http://www.sahmdr.org/conference.html.

For more on the Union Club visit their website at http://www.unionclub.com/About-The-Club.aspx

The conference theme and program are coming together and more details will be available soon!

We’re looking forward to seeing everyone in Victoria!

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Sally Donovan to Receive McMath Award

Historic Preservation students on a field trip to Bridal Veil Falls in 2000 for an “Issues in Historic Preservation” class. Instructor Sally Donovan, second from right.

Sally Donovan is the recipient of the 2016 George McMath Award for excellence in Historic Preservation.  Established by the University of Oregon in conjunction with Venerable, Inc. in 2009, the McMath Award celebrates a leader in the field who has made significant contributions to historic preservation in the state of Oregon.  The award is named for George McMath, FAIA, who is considered one of the fathers of the preservation movement in Portland.

While the 2014 McMath Award was given to Don Peting, long-time director of the University of Oregon’s Historic Preservation Program, Sally is the first graduate of the program to receive the honor.  After graduating in 1987, Sally occasionally dropped-in to teach classes, one of which was “Issues in Historic Preservation,” the occasion for the photo above.  In retrospect, that one-day field-trip came close to covering pretty much every issue in preservation, illustrating Sally’s breadth of interests and awareness of place.  There was restoration (Crown Point), adaptive reuse (McMenamin’s Edgefield), infill (downtown Troutdale), landscape (Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area), preservation by neglect and when to give up the fight (buildings of the Bridal Veil Falls Lumbering Company, demolished in 2001), and yep, a cemetery (Bridal Veil).  I’m sure there was more, now lost in the fog of memory and unrecorded due to the limitations of print film.  However, I would be remiss in neglecting to mention Bruce Howard, Sally’s husband and compadre (most likely the one behind the camera for the group shot), providing support and insightful commentary from his informed civilian perspective.

Congratulations on the McMath Award Sally and Bruce!  Your former students find you most deserving!

More on Sally Donovan from the UofO AAA Newsletter:  http://aaa.uoregon.edu/news/mcmath-award-recognizes-sally-donovan-exemplary-cultural-resources-work-habshaer-photography

The McMath Award luncheon will take place on May 11, 2016.  Tickets will be available beginning on April 1 and can be ordered online or by calling 541-346-3697.

 

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10 That Changed America

In April PBS will begin broadcasting a new series, 10 That Changed America, focusing on the nation’s best houses, parks, and towns.  The University of Washington’s College of Built Environments will offer a sneak peak of part two, 10 Parks That Changed America, along with a panel discussion on Wednesday, March 30, 2016 at UW’s Architecture Hall 147, beginning with a reception at 6:00 pm.  The event is free and open to the public, but attendants are requested to RSVP by March 23 by clicking here.  Since Seattle’s Gas Works Parks is prominently featured in the program, it is most appropriate that the headliner of the panel is Rich Haag, designer of the park and UWLA Professor Emeritus.  Other speakers will include Rachel Gleeson, of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates; Geoffrey Baer, host of the series; and series producer Dan Protess.

Those that can’t make it to the panel discussion will be able to see the program itself on April 12th on OPB as well as KCTS, check your local listings and don’t forget about 10 Homes that Changed America on April 5th and 10 Towns that Changed America on April 19th.

 

 

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Lectures and Events in Seattle

The University of Washington College of Built Environments will add Roland Terry and Grant Jones to its Roll of Honor in a celebration at UWs Architecture Hall on April 29th, 2015, at 6:00 pm.

Grant Jones

Roland Terry

The Roll of Honor was created in 1986, enabling the College to formally recognize extraordinary practitioners in the fields of architecture, construction management, landscape architecture, real estate and urban planning and design. The “Roll” was established then when the building underwent a remodeling;  at that time eight names were listed.  Additional names were added in the late 1990s, in 2002 and in 2008 for a total of fifteen.

Previous inductees include: Elizabeth Ayer, Fred Bassetti, Carl Gould, Lancelot Gowen, Richard Haag, Norman Johnston, Paul Kirk, Wendell Lovett, Lionel Pries, B. Marcus Priteca, Robert Reamer, Victor Steinbrueck, Ellsworth Storey, Paul Thiry and Myer Wolfe. 
If you missed Thaisa Way’s presentation on Richard Haag at our annual conference, here’s your chance to catch up with a book launch at Peter Miller Books, 2326 Second Avenue in Seattle, on May 1st from 6:00-8:00 pm.  Richard Haag will be present to sign copies of the book and will also give a short talk midway through the evening.

 

The celebration of the UW Department of Architecture’s Centennial continues with a lecture by Jeffrey Karl Ochsner titled Back to the Future.  The lecture will take place on May 6th, at 6:00 pm, in Architecture Hall 147.

Jeffrey Karl Ochsner FAIA is a Professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Washington, where he has taught since 1988 in the areas of architectural design, urban design, historic preservation, and architectural history. He served as Chair of the Department of Architecture from 1996 to 2002. He holds adjunct positions in the Departments of Landscape Architecture and Urban Design & Planning. He began serving as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for the College of Built Environments in July 2007.

Professor Ochsner is author of H. H. Richardson: Complete Architectural Works (1982), editor and co-author of Shaping Seattle Architecture: A Historical Guide to the Architects (First Edition, 1994; Second Edition, 2014), co-author of Distant Corner: Seattle Architects and the Legacy of H. H. Richardson (2003), and author of Lionel H. Pries, Architect-Artist-Educator: From Arts & Crafts to Modern Architecture (2007), and Furniture Studio: Materials, Craft, and Architecture (2012).  The Publishers Association of the West awarded Lionel H. Pries, Architect-Artist-Educator two medals for design;  the book was a finalist for the 2008 Washington State Book Award in History/Biography.  Professor Ochsner has published in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, JAE: Journal of Architectural Education, Pacific Northwest Quarterly, ARCADE and other journals.  At the 2014 Annual Conference of the SAH/MDR he presented The Emergence of Northwest Regional Modernism: 1930s-1950s.

 

Seattle’s Miller Hull Partners will present On the Ground on May 20th at 6:00pm in Architecture Hall 147.  

The Miller Hull Partnership’s design reputation is based on simple, innovative and authentic designs. Since its inception in 1977 the firm has pursued a rigorous logic in its design approach in the belief that architectural programs are best solved directly and efficiently. Throughout the firm’s history Miller Hull has received over 200 design awards and has been published in numerous national and foreign design journals. Miller Hull’s design philosophy centers around two essential architectural ideas. One is to use a building’s structure to create a significant place within a site, and the other is to be sensitive to climate and to respond to environmental demands with the form of the building. These ideas evolve from an appreciation of the extraordinary beauty of the natural environment and have allowed Miller Hull’s projects to have an unusually clear fit to their surrounding context. Founding partners David Miller and Robert Hull, both raised in Washington State, have explored the development of two dominant themes in America’s western regional architecture: the need to establish a defined place within the landscape and the art of rational building. Their attitude toward building in the landscape takes advantage of a mutual inflection in which architecture and landscape seem to need each other for completion. In their residential architecture they attempt to capture the spirit and vitality of the West by focusing on the tensions between nature and materiality; detail and structure.

The UW Architecture Department’s Lecture Series generally takes place at 6:00 pm in Architecture Hall 147 and are free and open to the public.  Continuing education and IDP credits are available for attendance.  For more information on future lectures see http://arch.be.washington.edu/.

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If you’re going to San Francisco…

Fort Point, built before the Civil War, at the Golden Gate. Photo: National Park Service.

Our sister chapter, the Northern California Chapter of the SAH (NCCSAH), will be featuring historic seacoast fortifications as the focus of their fall tour.  From their August Newsletter:  Saturday, September 27, NCCSAH will be doing an all-day tour of the fortifications in the Presidio and the Marin Headlands that once protected San Francisco Bay. Golden Gate National Parks historian Steve Haller will lead the tour.  The cost for non-members is $70 and includes a one-year membership.  For a copy of the NCCSAH August Newsletter which includes a tour registration form, click here.

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UO Honors Don Peting With McMath Award

Don Peting in action during the 2013 SAH MDR Conference in Salem.

Marion Dean Ross Chapter member Don Peting is the 2014 recipient of the George McMath Award for excellence in historic preservation.  Past recipients of the award include William J. Hawkins (2013), Hal S. Ayotte (2012), Elisabeth Walton Potter (2011), Cathy Galbraith (2010), and James Hamrick (2009).

Established by the University of Oregon in conjunction with Venerable, Inc. in 2009, the McMath Award celebrates a leader in the field who has made significant contributions to historic preservation in the state of Oregon.  The award is named for George McMath, FAIA, who is considered one of the fathers of the preservation movement in Portland.

In 1998 I was looking for a change in scenery and decided to attend that year’s Pacific Northwest Preservation Field School, run by Don Peting, at Fort Stevens.  Don turned out to be one of the most interesting people I’d met, with an astounding depth and breadth of knowledge, bottomless curiosity, an ability to explain complex technologies to even the most lunk-headed former liberal arts majors, and patience.  On top of everything else, he was more fun than a barrel of monkeys.  A year later I was enrolled in the Historic Preservation Program at the University of Oregon.  In other words, I may be slightly biased when I say that Don Peting is the preeminent preservation educator in the West.

Don arrived at the University of Oregon in 1963, with a freshly minted Master’s Degree in Architecture from Cal Berkeley.  With the exception of a few sabbaticals, one of which lead to his receiving the Rome Prize, he continued teaching full-time (in actuality more like double-time) until his retirement in 2002.  He was instrumental, together with Marian Card Donnelly, Philip Dole, and Michael Schellenbarger, in getting the U of O’s Historic Preservation Program off the ground in 1980.  In 1995, under Don’s direction, the HP Program was expanded with a summer field school.  While this allowed students enrolled in the program to gain extended hands-on experience, it also served to introduce professionals working in related fields as well as interested amateurs to historic preservation practices.  In the course of 19 field schools, with the 20th in the works, projects have ranged throughout the Pacific Northwest, meaning Don and his disciples have crawled over and under structures in Oregon, California, Washington and Idaho.  Like the Preservation Program itself, the field school is interdisciplinary and cooperates with multiple local, state, and federal agencies.  As a result of this, end of session group photos tend to be a who’s who of preservation practice, often with the students of one year subsequently reappearing as instructors.  This is also an illustration of how hard it is to resist the siren song of Don, because you know that whatever happens, you will learn something new and you will have a good time.

The McMath Awards Luncheon will take place on Wednesday, May 14 2014 from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm at the White Stag Block in Portland.  Tickets are available through the University of Oregon Ticket Office.
At present, tickets for the event are SOLD OUT.   For information about possible openings contact Crissy Lindsey (clindsey@uoregon.edu) or Liz Jacoby (ejacoby@uoregon.edu)

Resources:

Gerdes, Marti.  ”Don Peting to Receive McMath Award.”  News from A&AA, March 2014.  Available online at http://hp.uoregon.edu/news/don-peting-receive-2014-mcmath-award

More on the 2014 Pacific Northwest Preservation Field School at Fisher Bottoms in Eastern Idaho at http://hp.uoregon.edu/pnwfs.

 

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2013 Annual Meeting & Conference Program

Oregon State Capitol, Salem

The program for our 2013 Annual Meeting and Conference has been set!  This year we’re offering on-line registration and accepting credit cards for the first time.  Check out this wonder of modern technology, courtesy of Eventbrite, here!

The meeting will take place Friday-Sunday, October 18-20.  The theme is The Willamette River Valley, Settlers and Founders.  Accordingly, Friday kicks off with a visit to GeerCrest Farm, which is still owned by the descendants of the original donation land claim settlers.  That will be followed by a tour of the Willamette Heritage Center (Mission Mill) and a panel session on the state of the Willamette Valley’s Settlement-Era Homesteads.

On Saturday morning paper sessions rule.  On-theme papers include Searching for the Charles and Melinda Applegate Cabin and Blacksmith Shop in Yoncalla;  Mahlon Harlow, Willamette Valley Pioneer: His Influence and Legacy;  and Along the Oregon Trail: Using Architectural History to Connect National History Curriculum to Boise’s Past and Present.  Presentations that expand the thematic scope include Linn County Survey;  Pioneers of Place on Portland’s Suburban Frontier: The Oak Hills Subdivision;  and Cascadians atop the Cascades: Public Ski Lodges Designed for the Willamette Valley.  Saturday afternoon and evening are equally full of content with tours of the Capitol Mall and Willamette University, followed by a trip to the Oregon State Hospital Museum.  The day concludes with dinner and a keynote lecture by Dr. Leland M. Roth titled Oregon’s Capitol: The Intersection of Tradition and Modernism.

The subtitle of our chapter’s published history is “Scholars and Sightseers,” and like the previous two days’ activities, Sunday’s closing events reinforce that appellation with tours of the Deepwood Estate and historic downtown Salem.

More details and a printable and mailable registration form are available in the Program for the 2013 Meeting of the Marion Dean Ross Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians.

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Mid-Century Modern in Spokane!

The Ferris House in Spokane by Walker & McGough. Photo by J. Craig Sweat Photography.

There are several upcoming events in Spokane of interest to mid-century modern fans.  As you know, the National Trust conference is being held in Spokane this year from October 31 to November 3, 2012.  Some of the highlights of mid-century modern Spokane will be featured in the “Thoroughly Modern Spokane” tour, which takes place from 8:15 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. on Friday, November 2.   There are just a few seats left:  http://www.preservationnation.org/resources/training/npc/.

As part of our 2012 conference, Michael Houser, Washington State Architectural Historian, will present a paper on “Modern Architecture: Spokane at the Leading Edge,” on Saturday November 3, beginning at 2 p.m.  On a related topic, Diana Painter will talk about the state of the art in preserving mid-century resources in the west, with a particular focus on the recent survey of mid-century modern resources for the State of Montana:   http://www.sahmdr.org/meetings.html.

Two upcoming exhibits also feature mid-century modern architecture in Spokane.  Spokane architect Glenn Davis is curating an exhibit on architects McClure and Adkison and Walker and McGough, which will open Thursday November 1 at the Spokane Public Library at 906 West Main Avenue, at the corner of Lincoln Street and Main.  Also watch for the opening of “Spokane Modern Architecture 1948-1973,” which will be on display at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture (The MAC) beginning March 2, 2013 through November 2.  Here’s a teaser: “Explore Spokane’s legacy of Modern architecture through the eyes of Spokane’s mid-century “form-givers”—a group of young architects trained by Walter Gropius, schooled in Europe, and wooed by Frank Lloyd Wright—who not only changed the face of Spokane architecture forever, but also received national recognition for their efforts.”  And for those who may get to Spokane before the beginning of the conferences, an exhibit at The MAC mounted on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis is on display from October 17 through October 27 on “Secret Spokane – Center of the Cold War.”  For more information see http://www.northwestmuseum.org/.

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UW Fall Lecture Series

Architecture Research Office and dlandstudio’s New Urban Ground transforms Lower Manhattan with an infrastructural ecology.
Image courtesy Architecture Research Office (ARO) and dlandstudio. Barry Bergdoll Lecture “The Museum and the Art of Advocacy from Catherine Bauer to Rising Currents” at UW 11/1/2012.

The University of Washington’s Department of Architecture’s Fall Lecture Series will feature presentations by Barry Bergdoll (11/1/2012) and Patricia Patkau (11/15/2012).

Barry Bergdoll, the Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at MoMA and past president of the national SAH, will speak on “The Museum and the Art of Advocacy from Catherine Bauer to Rising Currents”  on November 1, 2012.  An associated exhibit reception will take place at Architecture 250, at the University of Washington, at 5:30 pm.  The lecture will take place at Architecture Hall 147, beginning at 6:30 pm.  Blog posts by Barry Bergdoll can be found at the MoMa Inside/Out Blog at http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/author/bbergdoll.

Mr. Bergdoll is also a professor of modern architectural history at Columbia University and holds a BA from Columbia, an MA from King’s College, Cambridge, and a PhD from Columbia, his broad interests center on modern architectural history with a particular emphasis on France and Germany since 1800.

Bergdoll has organized, curated, and consulted on many landmark exhibitions of 19th and 20th-century architecture including “Building Collections: Recent Acquisitions of Architecture” opening at MoMA in November 2010; “Rising Currents: Projects for New York’s Waterfront” at MoMA (through October 11, 2010); “Bauhaus 1919-1933: Workshops for Modernity” at MoMA (2009-10); “Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling” at MoMA (2008); “Lost Vanguard: Soviet Modernist Architecture, 1922–32” at MoMA (2007); “Mies in Berlin” at MoMA (2001), with Terence Riley; “Breuer in Minnesota” at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (2002); “Les Vaudoyer: Une Dynastie d’Architectes at the Musée D’Orsay, Paris (1991); and “Ste. Geneviève/Pantheon; Symbol of Revolutions,” in Paris and at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal (1989).

He is author or editor of numerous publications including, Bauhaus 1919-1933: Workshops for Modernity (winner of the 2010 Award for Outstanding Exhibition Catalogue, Association of Art Museum Curators); Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling (winner of the 2010 Philip Johnson Book Award, Society of Architectural Historians); Mies in Berlin (winner of the 2002 Philip Johnson Book Award, Society of Architectural Historians and AICA Best Exhibition Award, 2002); Karl Friedrich Schinkel: An Architecture for Prussia (winner of the 1995 AIABook Award); and Lẻon Vaudoyer: Historicism in the Age of Industry; and European Architecture 1750-1890, both in the Oxford History of Art series. An edited volume, Fragments: Architecture and the Unfinished, was published by Thames and Hudson in 2006. He served as President of the Society of Architectural Historians from 2006 to 2008.

Patricia Patkau is one of two principals at Patkau Architects in Vancouver, BC.  From the firm’s website (http://www.patkau.ca):

In over 30 years of practice, both in Canada and in the United States, Patkau Architects has been responsible for the design of a wide variety of building types for a diverse range of clients. Projects vary in scale from gallery installations to master planning, from modest houses to major urban libraries. Many projects have involved functional programming, management of detailed public processes, and design of complex buildings and sites.
Current work includes a Visitors’ Centre at Fort York National Historic Site in Toronto, the Tache Hall Music, Art, and Theatre Complex at the University of Manitoba, the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport at the University of Toronto, a series of Cottages at Fallingwater, Mill Run, Pennsylvania, as well as a variety of residential projects in diverse locations ranging from a northern island off the coast of British Columbia to a farm in Ad’Diriyyah, Saudi Arabia.
As the circumstances of the work change, our interests expand. We seek to explore the full richness and diversity of architectural practice, understanding it as a critical cultural act that engages our most fundamental desires and aspirations. We refuse singular definitions of architecture: as art, as technology, as social service, as environmental agent, as political statement. We embrace all these definitions, together, as part of the rich, complex and vital discipline that we believe architecture to be.

Patricia Patkau’s lecture, titled “Small Works,” will also be held at Architecture Hall 147, on Thursday November 15, at 6:30 pm.

The University of Washington’s Fall Lecture Series is free and open to the public.  For more information on upcoming lectures and other events go to http://arch.be.washington.edu/

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