School of Architecture and Allied Arts in Portland

The School of Architecture and Allied Arts connects in multiple ways with the city of Portland and the metropolitan area through teaching, research, and service activities. Portland is one of the nation's best cities. It is an excellent urban laboratory for the University of Oregon and the school's engaged and active students.

Professional education in the arts, planning, and design requires access to national and international examples in urban design, regional planning, sustainability, community development, arts and culture, and historic preservation. The school is a frequent partner with citizens, neighborhood organizations, and city officials to

  • Explore urban design and planning ideas
  • Design housing, arts, and commercial centers
  • Plan for new transportation systems
  • Create new artwork, digital video, or animations
  • Sponsor community designs or symposia
  • Study historic buildings
  • Research energy efficiency in buildings
  • Establish professional internship experiences for students

Our first dean, Ellis F. Lawrence, founded the school in 1914, and traveled by train each week between Eugene and his office in Portland. The school continues to link its activities between Oregon's urban centers as well as with its rural communities.

With the opening of expanded facilities in Portland, the school anticipates more integration between Eugene-based and Portland-based teaching and research and greater contact with professional constituents.

ACADEMIC PROGRAMS

Architecture
At the UO Portland Center, the University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts offers a graduate-level first professional degree program in architecture. For more information on the Master of Architecture degrees, click here.

Digital Arts
Starting in fall 2008, the Department of Art's Digital Arts Program will offer a fifth-year bachelor of fine arts degree in Portland in the White Stag Block. The Digital Arts Program offers courses in animation, design, and the use of emerging technologies to create artwork. The program will also offer short courses in Portland during the summer 2008 session. For more information on the program and how to apply, please see darts.uoregon.edu.

Product Design
Starting in fall 2008, a brand-new bachelor of fine arts degree in product design will be offered in Portland in the White Stag Block. The degree is designed for students continuing on from a design-related four-year B.A. or B.S. program or earning a second bachelor's degree. The program will also offer short courses in product design during the summer 2008 session. For information about the program, including how to apply, please see pd.uoregon.edu.

Energy Studies in Buildings Lab
The Energy Studies in Buildings Laboratory's (ESBL) research projects are directed at understanding how buildings and related transportation and land use systems determine energy or resource use. The lab's goals are to develop new materials, components, assemblies, and whole buildings, and to assist designers, builders, developers, and communities in improving building and systems performance. Design tools have been developed by the lab to enable professionals to design more efficient communities and buildings. The staff includes architects, engineers, and computer scientists with experience on a broad range of projects. As a UO research center, the lab also can draw on other university faculty members in physics; planning, public policy and management; business; economics; landscape architecture; architecture; and other research groups as necessary to address the unique requirements of each project. The ESBL facilities include a computer simulation laboratory, two artificial skies, a heliodon, and a boundary layer wind tunnel.

John Yeon Center for Architectural Studies
The Watzek House is one of two houses in Portland that comprise the John Yeon Center for Architectural Studies.

The center is a program designed to foster research and appreciation of architecture, interior design, historic preservation, art, and landscape architecture by students, faculty members, professional architects, and designers. The John Yeon Center for Architectural Studies was founded in 1995 by Richard Louis Brown with the gift of the Watzek House to the University of Oregon.

The Shire: The John Yeon Preserve for Landscape Studies
The Shire is a unique landscape, sensitively designed by John Yeon, which occupies a seventy-five-acre waterfront site in Skamania County, Washington, in the heart of the scenic Columbia River Gorge. It is directly across from Multnomah Falls. The Shire is a carefully designed landscape with a sculpted lawn, a series of meadows, wetlands, vista points, river bays, and walking paths that John Yeon created over three decades. The John Yeon Trust donated the Shire to the University of Oregon in 1995.

The Shire, while being preserved as an example of landscape design, is a center for Pacific Northwest landscape studies. It provides an educational site for the study of landscape preservation, design, ecology, and management that creates opportunities for individuals and study groups to engage in research and discussion of landscape architecture, planning, conservation, and preservation issues associated with the Columbia River Gorge, the Pacific Northwest region, and the nation.

For further information or to schedule a tour, field trip, or visit, please contact the Yeon Graduate Research Fellow.

PROPOSED PROGRAMS

After the 2008 opening of the University of Oregon in Portland facility in the White Stag Block, the School of Architecture and Allied Arts will offer new advanced study programs in historic preservation and other professional disciplines.

Presentations, gallery exhibitions, public lecture events, student design presentations, and guest speaker talks also will be available at the UO Portland site for the public and area professionals. Programs will offer continuing learning credits for area professionals.

For more information, please contact
Karen Johnson, Assistant Dean
External Relations and Communications
School of Architecture and Allied Arts
karenjj@uoregon.edu (541) 346-3603

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