EXHIBITS
WHEN DOORS OPEN: PLACES OF PRIDE
Opened July 2025
The stories of early LGBTQ+ activists for historic preservation are being given greater recognition locally and nationally, including recent National Register designated buildings and research by the City of Portland.
The Architectural Heritage Center's new exhibit, “When Doors Open: Places of Pride”, examines the importance of identity and place.
Celebrate important people, places and pride with our new exhibit highlighting preservation and perseverance of Portland's LGBTQ+ community.
ILLUMINATED IRIDESCENCE: ARTISTRY IN STAINED GLASS
Opened December 2024
Iridescent are surfaces that appear to change colors as the angle or view of light changes. This effect is caused by lightwaves interfering with each other in thin films or microstructures, (eg. rainbows, opals, and butterfly wings.)
On display are some of our favorite vintage stained glass from our collection, including work by our founders, Jerry Bosco & Ben Milligan. The AHC previously was home to two studios: Genesis and West Block Glass.
ECHOES OF TRANSITIONS
Opened November 2024
ECHOES OF TRANSITIONS is a photography collection of historic doors and hardware details from around the world during years of travel by Alejandro IV Barragan, an award-winning Portland artist, videographer, photographer, and documentarian. Each door represents a poetic threshold, a moment where the path widens into a new stage of life.
TRANSITIONS are a point in the middle. A bridge between spaces. Two points in time. New directions often offer the promise of a new beginning. Transitions create a mental architecture we construct that places us together on multiple sides. All the possible futures on the road we are about to engage in.
PRESERVING PORTLAND THROUGH LOCAL ACTION: HISTORIC PRESERVATION IN THE ROSE CITY
Permanent Exhibit, Opened August 2023
In this exhibit the AHC comes full circle, presenting the story of the preservation movement in Portland from which the organization was born. The exhibit begins with the story of AHC co-founders Jerry Bosco and Ben Milligan, and their involvement in early grassroots movements in Portland engaging in historic preservation and salvage during a time of sweeping demolitions and new construction. Bosco and Milligan’s salvage and preservation work transformed into the establishment of the Bosco - Milligan Foundation and the Architectural Heritage Center, ensuring access to their collections and providing a home for education and continued advocacy centered on Portland’s built history.
The exhibit, traversing both floors of the Architectural Heritage Center’s Historic West’s Block, journeys through time and space, examining the local movement and people involved in preserving Portland’s built history. We explore the range of preservation efforts spanning initiatives to save large famous buildings, historic homes, and community neighborhoods, and the network of national and state influences on these local preservation efforts.
Through the nuanced presentation of many voices and stories that impacted the movement, Preserving Portland through Local Action: Historic Preservation in the Rose City prompts the questions: “what is preserved, and why?” and, looking forward, “what should we do now to preserve Portland for the future?”
