April 20,1998 Contact Pauline Austin (541) 346-3129 PORTLAND--Students are designing a Hispanic Center for Downtown Portland, helping city planners figure out what to do with the historic Post Office building near the Park Blocks and looking for people-friendly ways to increase housing density around town--all free of charge. The students, who are enrolled in the University of Oregon's Urban Architecture programs, have made a big impression on the Rose City since last fall when the programs moved into new quarters on the fourth floor of the UO Portland Center, 772 S.W. Second Ave. "There are real benefits--both to Portlanders and to our students--in the relocation of this program into the downtown area," says Peter Keyes, director of the UO Urban Architecture programs. "Portland has one of the best downtowns in the country. Our students can learn a lot from just being here." Not coincidentally, the new location also is next door to the largest concentration of architectural firms in the state. As a result, Keyes says, the students now are able to learn more from professional architects than was possible in the old quarters on the Portland State University campus. Students from the program can, for example, shadow professionals and learn about the daily routine of working architects. But that's not the only way the program focuses on Portland. "There's a lot of action going on in Portland's neighborhoods and community groups. Our students can learn from them by seeing how architecture is connected with real life," says Keyes. He points out that the cooperation is mutually beneficial because UO students can do conceptual work for community groups to establish their goals and options before architects are engaged to work on actual projects. This spring, UO architecture students are working with the Oregon Council for Hispanic Advancement on a plan to build a Hispanic Center in downtown Portland. The Hispanic group wants the center to serve as a gathering place for Portland's Hispanic population and to combine retail, office space and affordable housing at one location. In another project benefiting the Rose City, Keyes' students are building on the architecture professor's on-going survey of older, higher density housing along the now-defunct streetcar lines. Keyes has prepared an inventory of this housing with more than 500 buildings now documented. Using these existing housing types as starting points, students are designing multi-family housing that is suitable for open spaces in existing Portland neighborhoods. Another student project will help Portland officials decide how to use the old U.S. Post Office building located next to the North Park Blocks. Under the guidance of UO professor Donald Peting, a nationally recognized expert on historic preservation, the students will survey the building and advise the City of Portland on the best way to use the space. The National Architecture Accrediting Board granted full accreditation to the University of Oregon's Portland architecture program this fall, and 60 graduate students are enrolled in the Portland-based master's program. An equal number of architecture students from the UO's Eugene campus join the Portland program students to study for a year at the UO Portland Center. -30- #F-6086/PDX,A&E,Arch,ORBUS