Things to See and Do in Portland
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ThingsTHINGS TO DO/SEE to IN PORTLAND Do/See in PorThings to Do/See in Por By Carl Abbott are views toward the city from The World Forestry Center: Portland Center for (Contributors: Lisa Mighetto and the riverside walk in front of located in Portland’s beautiful the Performing Arts: William Willingham) the building, with good signage Washington Park; includes a in a complex of new and about riverine geology and museum where visitors can refurbished theaters. www. Eastside Esplanade/ history (because I contributed learn about the sustainability of pcpa.com Willamette River Loop: The the text). www.omsi.org forests and trees of the Pacific Eastside Esplanade stretches for Northwest and around the Oregon History Center: 1.5 miles along the Willamette Japanese American world. The World Forestry containing permanent exhibits River across from downtown. Historical Plaza: At the Center also operates two on Oregon history and usually It offers great views of the city northern end of Waterfront working forests managed traveling exhibits of interest. and has some cool public art. It Park, just north of the Burnside according to the principles The research library contains can be accessed by pedestrians Bridge, is a powerfully of sustainable forestry. www. millions of manuscripts, from the Hawthorne Bridge, the rendered landscape that PORTLAND worldforestry.org photographs, and maps Morrison Bridge, and the Steel comments on the World War II pertaining to Pacific Northwest Bridge. The full loop, starting internment experience. www. Westside MAX: Take the history. www.ohs.org from the Marriott, crossing the portlandonline.com/parks/ westside light rail line into the Hawthorne Bridge, heading finder/index.cfm?action=ViewPa suburbs to the Orenco stop in north to the Steel Bridge, rk&PropertyID=156 Washington County. Get off and returning via Waterfront and check out a new urbanist Park is a bit under 4 miles. Interstate MAX: The shortest development. Is it impressively www.40mileloop.org/trail_ segment of Portland’s light urbane or distressingly small? esplanade.htm rail system is a six-mile line The wave of the future or a through North Portland. Board Potemkin Village? Judge for downtown and ride to the end yourself. trimet.org/max/index. of the line. See very interesting htm public art at the stops, especially Photo courtesy of Lincoln Barber. the installation memorializing Old Town: Portland’s nightlife of Architectural Heritage the World War II internment clubs and music venues is fairly Center: The AHC is a nonprofit of Japanese Americans. See scattered. One concentration resource center for historic the Paul Bunyan statue in the of clubs is the Old Town area, preservation in the Portland The Portland, home of the Oregon Maritime Kenton neighborhood, a leftover north of Burnside between area. Located in restored 1883 Museum. Courtesy of John Dichtl. from the Oregon Centennial 1st and 4th. It tends to attract cast-iron building in the eastside Oregon Maritime Museum: Exposition of 1959. trimet. suburbanites ages 18-32. historic commercial district, the The museum is housed in the org/max/index.htm Gay-oriented clubs cluster AHC offers a range of research sternwheeler tug Portland, south of Burnside between opportunities, educational moored on the Willamette Oregon Zoo/Washington 9th and 12th. For detailed programs, and exhibits related River seawall at the foot of Park: For an energetic information about the music to its extensive collection of Pine Street. Portland has a rich expedition, take westside MAX and club scene, see the free architectural elements, building heritage of maritime commerce, into its deep tunnel to the zoo weekly papers Willamette Week parts, and period hardware. with a modern port that is a stop and ride the elevator to and Portland Mercury. www. This collection of architectural Exhibits major automobile importer and the surface. There you can visit oldtownchinatown.org artifacts is the largest west of the exporter of bulk commodities. the Oregon Zoo or the World Mississippi River. It is located at It struggles to compete with Forestry Center, an industry South Park Blocks Cultural 701 SE Grand Avenue and open Puget Sound and California sponsored museum. Walk Institutions: The South Park Wednesday through Saturday, for container cargo. The uphill from the station to access Blocks are the site for Portland’s 10:00 to 4:30 pm. www. sternwheeler, built as a working trails through Washington Park. big ticket cultural institutions. visitahc.org tug in 1947, is really impressive. You can follow them roughly www.oregonmaritimemuseum. downhill (northeast) for about Portland State University Pearl District/River District: org a mile to the Rose Test Gardens anchors the southern end North of Burnside Street, from and the Japanese Garden (open of this wide boulevarded the North Park Blocks west Oregon Museum of Science 10-4). From here you can expanse. www.pdx.edu to I-405, is the so-called Pearl and Industry: OMSI lies on take the No. 63 bus back into District. Like many cities, the east side of the river, a short the center of the city, or walk Portland Art Museum: This Portland has seen an explosion distance south of the Hawthorne another two miles (it’s almost all is a third-level museum with of demand for downtown Bridge. It is a typical family- downhill). www.oregonzoo.org; big ambitions. There is a small apartments and condos. Fifteen oriented science museum, www.washingtonparkpdx.org but good collection of the years ago, this was a warehouse complete with Omnimax native arts of the Northwest district with some artists and theater and submarine. There coast. www.pam.org galleries. Now it is full of 6 Things to Do/See in PorThingsTHINGS TO DO/SEE to IN PORTLAND Do/See continued in Por expensive condos, high end galleries, and $5 for a great view across the east side of Child Care interior design stores. Hop on the Portland Portland, where many of the city’s cool Creative Childcare Solutions can provide Streetcar, which runs along 10th, and people and cool neighborhoods can be babysitting services to Portland hotel guests. ride north into the district. Look for some found. www.portlandtram.org Call (503) 518-2274 for more information. privately financed public art, including The Facebook pages for ASEH and NPCH totem poles and a giant dog dish. Enjoy The aerial tram connects with the southern would be a good place to post requests Jamison Square and Tanner Creek Springs, extension of the Portland Streetcar, to trade babysitting services with fellow two new parks with deliberately contrasting which extends through the western side conference attendees. character. Speculate how many empty of downtown through the Pearl District nesters with good retirement incomes it to Northwest Portland. The Streetcar Commitment to Sustainability takes to fill all the space. pearldistrict.com/ connects three of the city’s key intellectual For a description of carbon credits, about_the_pearl_district.html institutions: Portland State University, see www.aseh.net/conferences/current- the Multnomah County Central Library, conference Powell’s Bookstore: Powell’s is an and Powell’s. ASEH and NCPH will ensure that waste at institution, claiming (probably accurately) www.portlandstreetcar.org the hotel is recycled, and we will provide to be the country’s largest independent recycling containers on the field trip/tour bookstore. It is big, with a vast selection of To find out more about Portland: buses. We will recycle the name badges, new and used books. It is on the Portland and are working with the hotel to get locally PORTLAND Streetcar, so you don’t have to lug your Chuck Palahniuk, Fugitives and Refugees: grown food for our events. Walking tours purchases all the way back to the hotel A Walk in Portland, Oregon is a quick and are provided (see section of conference on foot. A block away, at 921 SW Oak, quirky guide to some of Portland’s oddest program listing field trips), and information is Reading Frenzy, a fun bookstore that corners, although some of its facts are on local public transportation is provided specializes in comics, obscure magazines, highly suspect. But, hey, Chuck is a novelist. on page 3. independent zines, and the like. www. powells.com; www.readingfrenzy.com Carl Abbott, Greater Portland: Urban Life Questions and Landscape in the Pacific Northwest is John Dichtl, NCPH Executive Director Aerial Tram: connects the Oregon Health a historically based character study of (317) 274-2716; [email protected] and Sciences University (perched stupidly Portland and its metropolitan region. Carrie Dowdy, NCPH Program Director on a hilltop south of downtown) with the (317) 274-2716; [email protected] south waterfront, where industrial lands Connie Ozawa, ed., The Portland Edge: DC Jackson, ASEH Program Chair are in the process of conversion to high- Challenges and Successes in Growing (610) 330-5171; [email protected] rise development (interrupted by the real Communities is a recent current assessment Alexandra Lord, NCPH Program Chair estate downturn). The tram whisks medical of Portland area planning initiatives. (202) 354-6906; [email protected] researchers back and forth between the Lisa Mighetto, ASEH Executive Director hospitals on the hill and research facilities (206) 465-0630; [email protected] along the river. Civilians can ride it for ExhibitsEXHIBITS We invite you to visit the numerous book publishers and organizations exhibiting in the Grand Ballroom I throughout the conference. The Poster Sessions will also be