Friday Preservation Roundup: December 16, 2011

[Brandon Spencer-Hartle]

The I-5 yo-yo. That's what this week has been for us at the HPLO. With such a great string of sunny days, we've been spending quite a bit of time in Marion County to work on a number of initiatives. First, the HPLO is gearing up for the 2012 Preservation Roundtable on "Oregon's masonry buildings: resilience, access, and economics" by conducting a number of site visits to great historic brick buildings. Second, we've been working with the new owners of a long-vacant settlement era house near Aumsville to secure and stabilize the building to allow for preservation and documentation options to be explored in 2012. Finally, we are in the process of reprinting A Past for Our Future, a crowd pleasing lecture given to HPLO members in 1997. A prize goes to the first person to correctly guess the author of the forthcoming booklet (we'll be announcing the reprint in the weeks ahead). 

Anyway, it's Roundup time. 

Calendarville. For the Portland crowd: HPLO will be talking reuse of historic schools on February 9th and a super special guest lecturer will talk design and infill on March 11th. For the State of Jefferson crew: The Preservation Roundtable on masonry buildings, complete with tours and workshop sessions, is set for March 16 in Jacksonville. We'll post details on our website in the weeks to come, but we just wanted to give you a head's up.

Eugene. Much-needed conceptual drawings of a rehabilitated Civic Stadium will soon become a reality thanks to the HPLO's Endangered Places Preservation Grant program, and the Taco Time building is being rebuilt for apartments leaving some concerned about the site's above and below ground archaeological resources. 

Grantsylvania. The State Historic Preservation Office has just announced a great new grant opportunity for owners of "diamonds in the rough" properties around the state. The deadline is January 27th. 

Medford. George talks urban renewal and storefronts. 

Portland. Many remain concerned by the omission of "historic preservation" in the Portland Plan, a well-known mansion is up for grabs, Schoolhouse Electric has moved into a very cool rehab'd warehouse in NW, more on the Arleta Library (we think it needs an HPLO conservation easement on it!), it looks like historic Ankeny Street will stay carfree, there's lots of talk about an apartment "boom" in this article (which has so much info in it about infill, teardowns, and new projects that it's a must-read), PPS is looking forward to round two for the construction bond, The Woods may be shutting down, leading some to be concerned about the fate of the 1928 building, Oregon Home reviews the AHC's Albee tour, and PSU may be thinking about replacing the Smith Memorial Student Union.

Redmond. Thanks to support from the Kinsman Foundation, the HPLO is pleased to announce that we will be providing funds to support the nomination of Petersen Rock Garden to the National Register.  

Oregon City. More news on Blue Heron. 

Seattle. I know what you're thinking, "that's not Oregon!" Well, no, but our friends at Historic Seattle will be looking for a couple of people to join their team and we thought you Preservation Roundup'ers would like to know about the job postings before everyone else. 

That's it for this week's Preservation Roundup. This time next week I'll be in Southern Oregon on my way to a little vacation away from the office. So, will there be a Roundup? Check back next week for the answer to that. Have a great weekend and, as usual, thanks to Building Oregon for the photos. 

P.S. Don't forget to help fuel our year-end campaign!