SeeingGreen ™

For someone who prefers walking, biking or taking mass transit to driving, I sure like to look at cars. I probably owe this predisposition to genetics, since you can’t walk half a block with my dad before he’ll pause to check out the rear end of a four-wheeled hottie. However, given my inclination […]

Last week I went on a tour of Burnside Rocket, Portland’s newest (and reddest) green building. Situated on the eponymous thoroughfare that divides Portland into north and south, Burnside Rocket is the latest brainchild of Kevin Cavenaugh, an architect and developer whose portfolio includes other favorites of mine - Ode to Roses and Box […]

My first job was working as a page in the library in the town where I grew up. Shelving books, mending torn pages and showing patrons how to navigate the Dewey Decimimal System was my simple charge. It was then that I developed a love for libraries that has never vanished. I […]

Depending on how you see the world, the space underneath our highways are liabilities or opportunities. Sure trolls and other misunderstood characters live under bridges and freeway on-ramps, but there is another school of thinking that sees these dark and spooky spaces as potential spots for public markets, art installations and pocket parks.

In this […]

Yesterday I passed my neighborhood park and there was a swarm of people with plastic bags, shovels and sharp metal wedges attached to wooden sticks. No, it wasn’t the makings of a strange family reunion, but instead an eager crew of volunteers there to weed, mulch and monitor one of Portland’s “pesticide-free parks.” […]