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Advocacy News
Announcing our new blog Portland Preservation
With so much going on in the Portland area related to historic preservation, we thought it was time to create a tool to keep people up to date as much as possible. Our new blog Portland Preservation will help you stay on top of preservatyion issues in and around the Portland area. We hope you'll check it out!
Portland Public Schools Historic Buildings Assessment:
Portland Public Schools has just released the results of their recent Historic Buildings Assessment. For more information about schools in your neighborhood or an others you may be interested in, click here.
Memorial Coliseum - UPDATED 10/12/09
• The Portland Development Commission has a new site specifically dedicated to the Rose Quarter Development Project: "Future Rose Quarter development will realize the long-anticipated community vision of a pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use district that showcases leading edge sustainability practices, creates jobs, and is well integrated and connected with the surrounding neighborhood and adjacent Lloyd district. This twelve-month project process will result in the creation of a Rose Quarter Development Strategy and a determination on the future of Memorial Coliseum."
If this issue is important to you, be sure to sign up for their mailing list so that you will be automatically notified when new information is posted on the site.
• The National Park Service has officially listed Memorial Coliseum in the National Register of Historic Places! The newly formed Rose Quarter Stakeholder Advisory Committee will now have to keep this designation in mind as they meet to detemine recommended future uses for the Coliseum and development in the Rose Quarter. Congratulations to everyone who has worked to preserve this modern Portland architectural icon.
To read more about this listing or other structures recently added to the National Register in Oregon, click here.
Historic Preservation Needs Assessment
The Bosco-Milligan Foundation, owner and operator of the Architectural Heritage Center, is expanding field services and technical assistance citywide, with the goal of helping residents preserve what is important to them, in their corner of the city. This project is assisted by a Partners in the Field challenge grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Our first step was to ask Portland residents like you what your primary concerns are and to find out what tools and training you need in order to be more effective in preserving your neighborhood history.
Beginning in October, 2008, we held a series of five meetings across the city of Portland, to collect information from residents who are interested in or concerned about historic preservation. Responses have now been compiled into a Historic Preservation Needs Assessment, available below. Based upon this report, workshops will be developed to address common themes and to provide technical assistance and training for residents interested in becoming pro-active preservationists.
Click Here for a PDF of the 2009 Portland Historic Preservation Needs Assessment.
Economic Reasons For Investing In Historic Preservation
The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation has posted an article on the their Web site on the implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act as it relates to historic preservation. They offer a compelling case for spending money on preservation because “Dollar for dollar, historic preservation is one of the highest job-generating economic development options available.”
Click here for the full article, with links, including quotes from our "guru" Donovan Rypkema.
The Future of Skidmore/Old Town Historic District
The previously announced City Council hearing date of 3/19/2009 has been continued to an undetermined future date. Stay tuned!
The proposed zoning code amendments that would allow much taller buildings on five “opportunity sites” will be the primary issue under debate, along with the proposed Design Guidelines and a Resolution to encourage the use of Eric Ladd’s cast iron artifacts in projects in the district.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has weighed in, opposing the zoning amendments and supporting the design guidelines and cast iron resolution, as we have. See the Bosco-Milligan Foundation’s letter to City Council (PDF) and the National Trust’s (PDF), plus a statement from Art DeMuro (PDF), Chairman of the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission. See the Portland Planning Bureau’s website for all of the documents that the Council is considering as it decides the future of Portland’s National Historic Landmark district. The National Park Service has expressed their concern about the impacts of the taller new buildings on the NHL status of the district.
Portland Public Schools
by Cathy Galbraith
Historic Landmark Commission Hearings
Click here for more information on Historic Landmark Commission public hearings and other commissions overseen by the City of Portland’s Bureau of Development Services.