Architects are often thought of as only helping to design and build buildings for a building owner. However, we want to be more involved in our neighborhoods in an integrated way. Public Interest Design is a field where architects work with community members and help by giving back time and design expertise. Karina likes to keep her ties with the Portland State School of Architecture and help prepare the next generation of architects and designers to become professionals. She also works with the Portland Audubon to bring important information to communities and architects about the built environment and its impact on birds. The following are a few projects Karina has been involved with over the past several years.
Karina first became involved with outreach with the Portland Audubon while working on her Master's at Portland State University. She was in a class called Networked Urbanism where it was up to the students to go out into the city and find issues that affect the city and nearby territories. She was interested in Biophilia and nature in the city and found herself making her way to the Portland Audubon for the first time. There she learned about the issue of building glass and how up to 1 Billion birds die a year running into building glass in the US alone. She then worked with a fellow PSU student, Filmographer Liz Cosko to create a film to educate not only the public, but also professionals, building owners, builders, and facilities managers. The link to the film is here. After graduate school, Karina continues to work with the Portland Audubon and continues to advocate for Bird Safe Design. She was involved with the Green Building Policy Resolution 37122 and Portland's 2035 Plan related to Bird Safe Design, including testimony for Central City 2035 Plan. Karina works with Mary Coolidge of the Portland Audubon to continued outreach with PSU and UO architecture students, including a design studio with Associate Professor Jeff Schnabel at PSU that coincided with a conference at the Oregon Zoo called Ecology and Architecture: Integrating Bird Safe Design. Currently, Mary and Karina are working with PLACE Landscape Architecture and will potentially be working on a new architecture studio for the Fall 2019 term at Portland State.
While working on her Master of Architecture and Certificate in Public Interest Design, Karina created a project with CPID intern Therese Graf based on the the chrysalis of a butterfly for a community engagement project at the Gateway Park on Halsey Boulevard. The chrysalis motif was borrowed from Horatio Law's permanent Chrysalis structure that was planned for the final park. Volunteers from PLACE Landscape Architecture also helped throughout the process. To read more about the project visit the Center for Public Interest Design and PSU. Photography by CPID, Darrell Adams, and PLACE Landscape Architecture.
Karina Adams Architecture continued to work with Therese Graf and Horatio Law after the Gateway Park project on a community engagement project in the Southpark Neighborhood of Seattle. More information to come. Photography by Horatio Law.
More information to come