The University is expanding its capacity for programs in Portland starting today with the opening of a fully renovated facility on the White Stag Block in Old Town.
The new facilities will consolidate the University’s previously scattered Portland programs in one place, said Terri Warpinski, the vice provost for academic affairs.
Several programs have already relocated to the building, with their first classes beginning today. Most of the Portland academic programs will be moved in by fall 2008.
The facility, located at 70 NW Couch St. in Portland at the west end of the Burnside Bridge, consists of three existing buildings on the block that have been renovated and merged into one. They include the historic White Stag and Hirsch-Weiss Building, the ground floor of the Skidmore Block Building and half the ground floor of the Bickel Block Building.
The 103,000-square-foot building features classrooms, labs, studios, exhibit and lecture spaces, a new library and learning commons area, a collaborative computing environment and a new University bookstore and Duck Shop with a café, according to the University Web site.
The facility will house new and previously existing Portland programs in the School of Journalism and Communication, the School of Law, the Lundquist College of Business, the School of Architecture and Allied Arts and other programs.
The University has slowly expanded its programs in Portland since the 1880s.
By opening the White Stag building, named for the image on the famous “Made in Oregon” sign above it, the University is allowing its Portland programs to grow and have a greater impact on the community there, Warpinski said.
“By consolidating the University’s Portland programs in one place there is the opportunity for synergy and collaboration among the faculty with the capacity for flexible use,” she said.
The architecture school also plans to relocate its bachelor of fine arts fifth-year program to White Stag next year.
Art professor Colin Ives, the lead professor for the digital arts program in Portland, said it is beneficial for digital arts students to be in an urban environment so they can take advantage of more opportunities.
Moving to the larger, collaborative facility can strengthen other programs such as the School of Law’s Semester in Portland program that combines corporate law externships and courses, said law professor Steven Bender, director of the law school’s Portland program.
In 2006, the University signed an 18-year lease with Venerable Properties for the White Stag Block with the option to buy in eight years.
Warpinski said the idea of consolidating the University’s Portland programs first surfaced in 2003 when Venerable Properties approached the University with the option of leasing space in a building it was planning to purchase and renovate. At that time the idea was to relocate and expand some programs from the architecture and business schools there.
Venerable lost the bid to buy that property, but Craig Kelly, vice president of Venerable, said that after the initial plan fell through, Venerable continued corresponding with the University and expanded its construction plans to include more facilities. Then in 2006 it bought and began renovating the buildings on the White Stag Block.
The new facility is already having an impact the Portland area, Warpinski said.
“It is a way to enrich and support the professional needs in Portland,” she said. In addition, the exhibit and lecture space is open for public use.
Kelly, who has been monitoring the growth of the area since the start of construction, said, “I can’t emphasize enough the positive impact this has had on the community.”
The area, he said, had been neglected for decades. Now other large businesses and organizations are relocating there, such as Mercy Corps, which is moving its headquarters to the nearby Skidmore Foundation Building.
The individual programs make an impact as well, Ives said.
“One of the things that is going on is as the program moves to Portland, we see the impact the digital arts program has had on the community,” Ives said. The program will offer students more opportunities to make connections with alumni working in the area. Ives hopes this will develop into a “creative community in Portland.”
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