Tag: volunteering

Building the Future of Historic Preservation: Teaching a Course on Building Preservation Plans

Nestled on a hilltop above Skyline Boulevard in Southwest Portland, the Aubrey Watzek House sits quietly, almost as a suspended moment of early modernism just minutes from downtown Portland. The Watzek House, designed by renowned Oregon architect John Yeon and built in 1937, is his masterpiece in wood and the precursor to Pacific Northwest Regional Modernism. The house is now owned by the University of Oregon’s College of Design.

This famous house has carefully articulated use guidelines — and designation as a National Historic Landmark and a local City of Portland landmark. But the house, like any aging structure, is showing its susceptibility to age and the Pacific Northwest elements. While a roof replacement is planned for the short term, the Watzek House requires a long-term preservation plan that takes a proactive approach to anticipating, planning for, and implementing maintenance and repairs that retain the historic building’s integrity. A comprehensive look at the building’s current condition, use, and its future is also long overdue. This need is the impetus behind a graduate-level historic preservation planning course taught by principal David Wark and associate Carin Carlson at the University of Oregon’s School of Architecture & Environment Historic Preservation Program.

A group of historic preservation planning students stand on the lawn outside of a the Aubrey Watzek House, an example of Pacific Northwest regional Modernism.
Students outside the Aubrey Watzek House in Portland, Ore.

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Hennebery Eddy’s First Community Service Scholarship

In 2018, Hennebery Eddy awarded its first Community Service Scholarship to associate Nick Byers, AIA, supporting his proposal to provide design services to a school with limited access to volunteer design professionals. The community service scholarship is part of the firm’s larger philanthropic effort, Hennebery Eddy Gives, which provides a framework for volunteering, financial contributions, and pro bono work to support community development where we work, live, and play. Here, Nick shares the process, successes, and lessons learned from his project.

Hennebery Eddy community development service project - Newly constructed raised planters at Clackamas River Elementary School
Newly constructed raised planters at Clackamas River Elementary School.

Please describe your service project. How did you conceive of it? 

In the summer of 2014, I volunteered with a group at an elementary school in Portland, where we assisted in improving a tired courtyard into a vibrant open space, complete with new landscaping, raised planters, and trees. The effort was led by a local construction company, and the final product was a beautiful new courtyard that gave the school a greater sense of pride and provided the opportunity to add gardening and healthy eating to its curriculum.  My fond memories of this project inspired my service project proposal for Hennebery Eddy’s community service scholarship.

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Here Lies Hunger: Hennebery Eddy’s Award-Winning ‘Canstruction’ Partnership with INLINE Construction

Two design-build partners. One Revit model. Six hours to build. And 3,515 cans.

“Here Lies Hunger” brought home two awards from this year’s Canstruction Portland volunteer competition benefitting the Oregon Food Bank: Best Use of Labels and People’s Choice. Hennebery Eddy teamed with INLINE Commercial Construction to dream up this design-build canstructure paying homage to the original Oregon Trail educational computer game ubiquitous in 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s classrooms.

Team Leader Jacob Simonson: “We realized that if we wanted to have a really successful structure, it needed to be something that someone could relate to and already had some sort of connection to.”

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What the Architects Architect and What Interior Designers Design: Hennebery Eddy and afo’s Architects in Schools

This spring, architect Monica Mader and interior designer Elyse Iverson volunteered as co-teachers for the Architecture Foundation of Oregon’s (afo) Architects in Schools (AIS) program. For six weeks, architectural design and engineering professionals visit elementary schools on a weekly basis, teaching a series of lessons that introduce students to various aspects of the industry and profession. Below, Monica summarizes their six-week residency at KairosPDX, a public charter school in NE Portland focused on serving low-income students and students of color.

What was your goal for the students in your AIS program?

By​ ​the​ ​end​ ​of​ ​the program, we wanted the students to ​be​ ​able​ ​to​ ​demonstrate​ ​an​ ​understanding​ ​of​ ​their​ ​own community​ ​and​ recognize​ ​valuable​ ​components of a​ ​​neighborhood​ ​in​ ​relation​ ​to​ architecture.

Students completed a self-assessment at the beginning of the program, sharing their knowledge and learning goals.

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Community Service: Volunteering with Portland’s ReBuilding Center

Portland’s ReBuilding Center is a community development resource that uses building and remodeling materials to create positive outcomes in the Portland area.

As part of their DeConstruction program, crews glean reusable materials from demolition sites, salvaging about 85% of a building’s parts. These materials are taken to a re-processing lot, where volunteers remove nails, screws, staples, and the like.

The ReBuilding Center then uses this lumber in the construction of tiny homes for the houseless, as instruction material for their award-winning ReFind Education Program, or for re-sale in the ReBuilding Center’s public store at 40-90% off market value. It’s the triple bottom line of sustainability in action — environmental, economic, and social — and that’s the kind of community service we get behind.

As part of the firm’s annual Day of Service participation on Martin Luther King Day, our in-house Sustainability Committee organized a group volunteer shift at the processing lot. We liked it so much, we’re headed back on President’s Day for a second shift.

Hennebery Eddy pays for staff to volunteer up to 8 workday hours on MLK Day (or President’s Day) with an organization of their choice. Beyond our group activity, our staff also helped plant trees, weatherized homes for seniors, and lent a hand at local schools. These efforts are part of our net-positive philosophy in creating a better community around our business.

Preservation Education: University of Oregon Pacific Northwest Preservation Field School

Moran State Park historic preservation
Hennebery Eddy team member Josette Katcha surveys a CCC-era structure in Moran State Park.

Josette Katcha, a member of Hennebery Eddy’s Historic Resources Group, will be a guest lecturer during the Session 2: Materials Intensive week of the University of Oregon’s 2017 Pacific Northwest Preservation Field School, located this year at Fenn Ranger Station in the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest in Idaho. She will share the findings of Hennebery Eddy’s recent assessment of 1930s Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) structures in Washington State Parks. Her architectural preservation lecture will focus on CCC/Works Progress Administration materials, conditions, and treatment recommendations. Josette will speak the evening of Monday, Aug. 21.

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Hennebery Eddy’s First Day of Community Service

Hennebery Eddy Architects is no stranger to volunteering – as a staff and at the individual level, many of us have participated in efforts to give back to our communities. This year, the firm took its commitment to serve the community where we work, live, and create a step further. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, 12 Hennebery Eddy staff members participated in the firm’s first Day of Community Service. Employees were granted up to 8 hours to volunteer with a group or project of their choice. Read on for a summary of some of the projects!

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Sleeping Pod Initiative

No one can deny that Hennebery Eddy design staff member John Maternoski is involved in Portland’s architecture community. A 2014 graduate of the University of Oregon, John has worked with Habitat for Humanity, the AIA, and the Construction Specifications Institute. In Portland alone, he is on the board of directors of the Center for Architecture, he co-chairs the AIA Portland Emerging Professionals Committee, is a member of the Architecture Foundation of Oregon and Design Museum Portland, and volunteers with other organizations around the city. In fact, he’s so involved that he started the Portland Design Events website to help the community keep track of it all. “I’ve volunteered a lot for the architecture profession,” says John, “but I hadn’t spent as much time using my architecture skills for those outside the industry.”

This fall, the City of Portland Mayor’s Office, the Center for Public Interest Design (CIPD) at Portland State University, the Village Coalition (a group of advocates, activists, and houseless individuals committed to combatting homelessness), City Repair, Communitecture, and Open Architecture Collaborative formed the Partners on Dwelling (POD) initiative and invited the design community to design and build small, beautiful and safe dwellings. The completed pods would be displayed in downtown Portland and then used this winter at Hazelnut Grove, a houseless village in North Portland. John joined his friends Julia Mollner and Nada Maani to form a team, giving them all an opportunity to put their skills to use with an immediate, tangible outcome.

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