Message from the AIAO Executive Vice-President

Curt Wilson, AIA
AIA Oregon EVP

Portland CFA Status

We’ve had a long winter indoors (and with Zoom) and I’m happy for Spring and getting outdoors more.  Late March for my wife and I is the beginning of the mowing season on our property west of Eugene, which is oddly exciting this year.

The focus of this message is on the status of our lease for our main office in Portland, the Center for Architecture.  Our lease, the original lease signed in 2006, expires at the end of this year on December 31, and we have had been unable to negotiate a suitable lease extension with the building owner.  I apprised the AIA Oregon Board of Directors of this on at the March 19, 2021 board meeting, and we are preparing to move forward.

How’d we get here?  AIA Portland took control of the space in 2006 as the future Center for Architecture in Portland.  Other larger city chapters were also creating spaces that not only served as the operational headquarters for their AIA chapter with meetings, social events and educational programming, and space to support programming for architecture, design education and advocacy intended for the public at large.  Planning and design of the CFA occurred in 2007 and 2008, which was impacted by the Great Recession, and construction was completed in 2009.  The CFA was a vibrant place with a classroom, gallery space, meeting room, and staff offices in the heart of the Pearl District.  AIA Portland was a generous host for AIA Oregon (the former state council) meetings, which I attended regularly.  I also made many trips from Eugene for the Friday Education (FRED) series.  I love the space and was excited to work there when I took over as EVP/CEO in July 2019.

From my perspective as EVP, I saw a different side of the CFA.  The ceiling throughout our 5,000 sf space was damaged during an unusual weather event in February 2017 and the dispute with the building owner over responsibility remains unresolved.  The lease terms place AIA Oregon at risk for repairs to the building systems and other repairs that I feel is excessive for a tenant.  In addition, the costs of occupancy, including rent, tenant improvement loan payments, utilities, insurance, etc. were approximately one third of our 2020 operational expenses.  While we are addressing the needs of the CFA, we need to consider the context of our transition to a single state chapter, and the need to equitably service members across the state.

In 2020, AIA Oregon President Amy Vohs and I convened a Facilities Task Force.  Bill Hart, AIA and I co-chair the facilities task force, and the participants include board leaders, representatives from all sections, and members from the AIA Portland Section.  Click HERE to read the 11/11/2020 Message from Bill Hart about the purpose of the Facilities Task Force.

The Task Force was asked to evaluate the CFA in Portland and the Octagon in Eugene, to discuss our spatial needs to support engagement, education, design advocacy, and operations across the state, to consider revenue/expense considerations, and to make a recommendation to the Board regarding our future occupancy in the CFA.  Keep in mind that this occurred during the work-from-home environment of the pandemic when the CFA was last open in late March 2020.

The Task Force summary report to the Board presented at the December 2020 board meeting includes:

1. Our facilities planning should be based on physical presence in all sections and should reinforce the single state chapter-local section model.

2. The operational budget should incorporate equitable funding for the space in all sections.

3. Our long-term commitment to space should be nimble.

4. The CFA is the central location for operations, socializing, advocacy, and education. These functions are vital to our organization, but do not need to happen in the same location.

5. Our presence in all sections should be associated with cultural institutions that support design, architecture, and community.  A university campus is located in each section center.

6. The main office for AIA Oregon should remain in Portland, and be conveniently located to as many members as possible.

The task force recommended that AIA Oregon not exercise the 5-year extension in the current lease, but instead negotiate new terms with the building owner for a shorter duration, and shift more of the responsibility for the repair and maintenance of building systems to the building owner.  The Board agreed at the December 1, 2020 board meeting, and a letter was sent to the owner later in the month.

Efforts through our commercial broker to negotiate new terms with the building owner have not been successful, and the Facilities Task Force recommended to the Board to terminate negotiations and to focus efforts on finding a future home.  This discussion occurred at the March 19, 2021 board meeting and we are moving forward accordingly. 

As we move forward, we are organizing our related efforts into three tracks.

Track 1:  Find a new space for AIA Oregon.  This will be a Facilties Task Force lead effort.

Track 2:  Address the lease-required repairs to the CFA before the end of the lease.  This will be an EVP lead effort.

Track 3:  Prepare to vacate the CFA by the end of the year.  This will be a staff lead effort.

As we search for new space, we want input from as many members and partners as possible.  As we all quickly pivoted to a new way to work and engage in response to Covid, the Facilities Task Force believes that we’ll engage, learn, advocate, and support our communities in new ways, and our commitment to physical and digital space should reflect this.  We need your help.  We need more perspectives guiding our decisions.

If you are interested in participating on the Facilities Task Force, or have comments to share, please contact me at cwilson@aiaoregon.org.  In addition, we expect to provide updates through Thursdays@Three articles, and discussion sessions through the Thursday Roundtable venue.

We are working with Doug Carter, our broker with Norris Stevens, for advice on the Portland real estate market and to scout out potential space for us.  Our initial direction to Doug is:

• Look for 3,000 to 5,000 sf of space.

• Focus on locations in areas of Portland near concentrations of members.

• Consider locations near architecture schools and/or other cultural institutions in Portland.

• Focus on transit corridors.

As we plan for the remainder of the year and the transition to our new EVP/CEO, I strongly recommend that we find ways to celebrate the Center for Architecture at 403 NW 11th in the Pearl District.  I’m generally sad that one of my last significant tasks of my tenure is to report to you that we will not remain in the space, but I’m confident that it is the best long-term decision for our chapter.  If you have comments, concerns, or want to understand more details involved in the decisions that got us to this point, please reach out to me at the email address listed above.

Message from an AIO Board At-Large Director

Katherine Austin, AIA
AIAO At-Large Director

Hello, I’m Kathy Austin, and I’m your newest At-Large Member of the Board. I was licensed in 1991 in California after graduating from UCLA in 1986 with an M Arch. I’m currently licensed in Oregon after moving here six years ago to Bend. Though I moved here from CA I was born in Maryland and raised primarily in Alexandria VA. I have a BFA and MFA in painting from Boston University.

I have a long history with AIA, having joined in 1991. I served 5 years on the Housing Knowledge Community at National and then 3 more years on the Board Knowledge Committee. I am a past President of the Redwood Empire Chapter and served on the California Board representing my Chapter. This past Grassroots was my 10th. So I’m a bit of an AIA nerd, if you will. One of the main reasons I’ve been a long-time AIA member is for its advocacy for our profession.

Advocacy and its impact on our profession is a significant part of my being. I am currently on the Bend Section’s Leadership and have been on the City of Bend’s Affordable Housing Advisory Committee for four years. Bend members may recall that I helped put on a couple of programs on Affordable Housing as that has been my focus since starting my own practice in 1995.

In addition to my AIA involvement, I’ve been a Planning Commissioner, City Councilor and former Mayor of the small town of Sebastopol in California. I understand deeply the connection between our state and local laws pertaining to land use and its impact on our profession. I am part of a stakeholder group in Bend re-writing our zoning code to meet HB2001 to allow for the missing middle housing we so greatly need. I know what is coming to all of our cities in Oregon and would like to help where possible as a resource to our members. Additionally, I sit on the board of Housing for All - a Central Oregon group dedicated to all issues around housing affordability. We advocate locally and support State Legislation that impacts Housing.

So yes, I do have a practice, but as I get older I’m in a position to work more part-time. My most recent work is in that missing middle type of housing. I work on live/work, cottage clusters, town homes, mixed-use and small lot subdivisions. I’ve designed homeless shelters, multi-family affordable housing, self-help build homes, senior housing and Habitat for Humanity homes, all at a higher density. My nickname in CA was Dr. Density.

On the State Board I have advocated to start a Housing and Community Development Committee patterned after the National Knowledge Community. We have had one informal meeting for those interested. I hope to grow interest in the group and help advocate for issues on Housing for our members. I am also the liaison for the Committee on Local Affairs and lead that group in Bend. I believe there will be times for crossover between those two committees and with the Legislative Affairs Committee. Synergy is our friend.

I’d like to see more involvement from our membership in Advocacy for our profession. I hope that I can serve as a resource to our membership in that regard. If you are interested in joining our Housing and Community Development Committee or forming a Committee on Local Affairs please get in touch with me directly or through Kathy Wendland. Our voices are respected by our elected officials; we are recognized as experts in our field. You shouldn’t be so busy with work that you don’t look up and examine how you can impact our entire built environment with your Advocacy. I hope you will join me in that effort.

Katherine Austin, AIA, Architect

Message from an Urbanism Next Planning Committee Member

Scott Clarke, AIA
Associate, PIVOT Architecture
Urbanism Next Planning Committee Member

We live in a time characterized by change. How we communicate, meet, socialize, read, and work have transformed so fundamentally that the world I knew, say, in college, now seems like a quaint work of historical fiction. So, too, will our current situation be considered by us not far from now. As we work our way through this rather perilous time, we can take stock in where we are and where we’d like to be. If there is an upside to the current turmoil, it’s that this moment represents an opportunity to reconsider things about our world that we have long considered immutable.

Technology, of course, is responsible for much of this change and some of the turmoil. Consideration of the consequence of technology to urban form is at the core of the work of Urbanism Next, a research, education, and consulting initiative of the University of Oregon. Urbanism Next is directed by Nico Larco, AIA, Professor of Architecture and Urban Design. The organization is inherently multi-disciplinary, engaging a broad range of professionals including planners, technologists, lawyers, communication people, journalists, economists, real estate experts, and others. Together, these professionals gather with the intent of understanding how our cities have the potential to evolve as new technology alters their meaning and purpose. Autonomous vehicles, micro-transit, e-commerce, and the sharing economy are all examples of technological developments that may have profound consequences to our urban environments. Mindful consideration of these and other similar issues, it is presumed, can facilitate identification of positive outcomes from these changes, and it is acknowledged that lack of careful thought about our cities’ inevitable change will very likely result in poor outcomes.

My engagement with Urbanism Next stems from my recent concentration in transit projects. For the last five years, I’ve been mostly engaged in the design of bus rapid transit systems in a variety of western states. My involvement with TriMet’s first BRT project, now under construction along Division in East Portland and extending to Gresham, led to my participation in Urbanism Next’s annual conference nearly three years ago. I shared what we were up to with the Division Transit Project in a pre-conference workshop, and then was able to participate in a captivating and well-run conference filled with great speakers, interesting topics, and good conversations. I left with a greatly expanded understanding of why I cared so much about the transit projects I’ve been engaged with, as I better understand how essential they are for the wellbeing of the cities they serve. These systems are absolutely essential elements of equitable and sustainable communities. They connect us with opportunity, food, health care, and importantly, with each other. These systems accomplish all of this while conserving space and reducing the amount of energy and resultant emissions required to provide the mobility we need to lead happy, productive, and healthy lives.

I also came away from the conference concerned that architects were underrepresented among conference attendees. This is a little disappointing, as the issues discussed are fundamental to our work, and our perspective is needed in these discussions. I often reflect on the shift of perspective that occurs when I engage in transit projects. Like most architects, I previously conceptualized my domain as extending from within some piece of real estate to, usually, a border on at least one edge formed by a right of way line. Now, I’m concerned with the space between two right of way lines, looking to the properties beyond. The public realm that lies between those two lines needs us! We are responsible for understanding the relationship between physical form and human experience. The quality of the public realm is dependent on our engagement with its design. Of course, that public realm is also profoundly affected by what is placed at its edges. Resultingly, the work of those engaged with either side of the line is of deep concern to the scope of consideration represented by Urbanism Next’s endeavors.

Two years ago, Curt Wilson asked me to represent AIA Oregon on Urbanism Next’s conference planning committee, and I gladly agreed. I’ve served since, so was engaged in last year’s conference and its transition from a physical to virtual format. The virtual conference had the same sense of vitality and relevance as the first I attended, so planning for the upcoming second virtual conference, to be held March 17-19, was done with the confidence that this format can provide meaningful experiences for its presenters and participants. I hope that you will consider joining me in a few weeks as we continue to explore the kinds of cities we aspire to create and live within. For more information see https://www.urbanismnext.org/events-categories/conferences.

Scott Clarke, AIA

Scott Clarke, AIA, is an associate at PIVOT Architecture in Eugene, Oregon. He has been engaged in bus rapid transit projects in Oregon, Utah, and Washington, as well as many non-transit projects over the last 20 years. He is a frequent pro tempore studio instructor at the University of Oregon, and was president of the AIA Southwest Oregon Chapter in 2014.