Press Release: Event / November 2nd, 2011 / 3:30 - 4:00pm
A "cloud christening" to celebrate Cloud Cavu at Mt. Hood Station on Tri-Met's MAX line.
Constructed over the Mt. Hood Light Rail Station near PDX, a new sky-catching sculpture entitled "Cloud Cavu" lifts off with the arrival of fall's cloud cover.
Designed, fabricated and installed by Portland's rhiza A+D (with support from PDC and Summit Group), this sculptural paean to the Port of Portland is composed of brushed aluminum and stainless steel. Part aeronautic wing, part voluminous cloud, "Cloud Cavu" is formed around the experience of arriving and departing by plane through Portland's winter cloud-filled sky. Riding MAX to the airport one passes the sculpture with its allusion to takeoff and descent - touching down with a cluster of tilted stainless-steel rain-columns. The smooth metallic belly echoes the shape of a polished upturned wing or fish belly and an opening provides a glimpse of luminous blue beyond. The top and sides are matte, brushed, bolted patterns of turbulence, wind shear and laminar flow.
June 21st, 2011
R.E.A.L. Prep Charter Acadamy Opening Fall 2011
rhiza A+D, Hull properties, Elliott assoc. and SD Deacon corp. have joined forces with R.E.A.L. Prep Charter Academy’s Project Director, Site Director, the R.E.A.L. Prep Development Team and the architectural firm of Fletcher Farr Ayotte, Inc. to retrofit a 26,000 square foot building located in Portland's Pearl District. With a true collaborative effort, R.E.A.L. Prep, their sponsors and the building ownership have founded a generous partnership that will include seismic upgrades,interior renovations and an Earth Advantage sustainable building certification. The project team is committed to creating a state-of-the-art safe, environmentally conscious educational resource for students, families and our community.
June 20th, 2011
rhiza A+D selected for Interstate 5 / Willamette River Bridge Design Enhancements
Located on the north side of the I-5 Willamette River Bridge at the Whilamut Natural Area, "Camas Basket" marks arrival into and departure from the fertile Willamette Valley. The piece speaks to the future as a paean to growth and change. Emerging from the ground, segmented, galvanized steel stalks bend around and hold a Kalapuyan basket-in-the-making. The shape of the basket,inspired by camas roots, borrows from Kalapuyan basketry techniques in its twined loops of tube steel. Strands of the basket stretch upwards to form stalks in various stages of bloom. Petals bend to the southern sun and reflect a striking camas blue.
May 13th, 2011
Seed Building Open House Studios - Saturday, June 11th 4-10pm
Please join rhiza A+D and our neighbors for the annual North Coast Seed Building Open House. This event is always a good time filled with lots of art, food, wine, and music. Over 40 of our talented and creative neighbors will be participating including the River Street Studios a block over.
2127 N Albina Ave. We hope to see you there!
North Coast Seed Building Studios
April 11th, 2011
Phase One of Portland Design Works Office Renovation Complete
With Design assistance by rhiza A+D, PDW is now occupying the second floor offices of their new building and designing some cool new cycling accessories!
check out their beautiful simple products for urban cycling
February 1st, 2011
rhiza A+D selected for Mt. Hood Light Rail Station Public Art
Part aeronautic wing, part voluminous cloud, "CloudCover" is formed around the experience of arriving and departing by plane through Portland’s winter cloud filled sky.Arriving to or departing from the airport by train, the sculpture alludes to takeoff and descent- touching down with a cluster of tilted rain-columns. The smooth metallic bottom echoes the shape of a polished upturned wing or fish belly and an opening provides a glimpse of luminous blue beyond. From the sides and above the sculpture appears matte, riveted with patterns of wing tip turbulence, wind shear and laminar flow.
January 15th, 2011
rhiza A+D selected for Oregon State Hospital Public Art
A series of 13 Rain Shelter Sculptures recall elements of earth, sky and vegetation within the enclosed brick walls of the new buildings courtyards. Emerging out of the interior landscapes, the sculptures visually soften the buildings rectilinear backdrop while allowing courtyard inhabitants to engage their surroundings at a tactile bodily scale.
January 10th, 2011
Conexiones moves into their new space located on the second floor of 3500 NE MLK Jr. Blvd.
Designed by rhiza A+D the space will bring life to the new Center for Trauma Recovery an includes a movement studio (Studio Sol) and a meditation garden.
Read More about Conexiones an the Center for Trauma Recovery
November 20th, 2011
Seed Building Studios Storefront Improvements
PDC funded storefront improvements including a new folded plate stainless steel awning.
Press Release: 10:30 pm September 11th, 2010
Ten Tiny Dances - SINK: A collaborative dance performance with artist and dancer Anne Furfey. For the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA) Time Based Art (TBA) Festival.
SINK is a new dance piece, playing with the influence of architecture upon a confined space.
Performance, collaboration and dance has been an integral part of Anne Furfey’s life for over 20 years. She is thrilled to once again be on the tiny stage at TBA, and is appreciative to Rhiza for their willingness to come out and play! Anne can be found during the day working as an Occupational Therapist.
Read More about TBA and Ten Tiny Dances and get tickets for the show!
Press Release: July 12th, 2010
Big Pipe Portal receives award at national conference
Americans for the Arts (AFTA), the nation’s leading arts advocacy organization, has recognized a Portland public artwork as one of the year’s 40 best. “Big Pipe Portal: Making the Invisible Visible,” by the interdisciplinary design group, rhiza A+D received the distinction at the annual AFTA Public Art Network conference held in Baltimore, MD, June 24-25. The project, dedicated in May of 2009, was partially funded with percent for art dollars associated with above-ground construction for the Bureau of Environmental Services’ Big Pipe Project.
The 40 public art projects that were selected represent 29 cities in 15 states, and all are included in AFTA’s 2010 Public Art Network annual Year in Review. The artworks reflect exemplary, innovative permanent or temporary public art works created or debuted in 2009. This year’s review, unveiled at the conference in front of 200 public art administrators from across the country, was curated by two independent artists, Fred Wilson and Helen Lessick, from nearly 390 entries. In choosing Big Pipe Portal, Lessick stated, “I was impressed with this project's remarkable articulation of infrastructure. The fluid and square forms echo the flow and power of the river. The piece works as a portal, place, and metaphor, a sculpture changing our perspective and awareness of urban industrial forces too often ignored.”
Event: March 17th, 2010
Presentation and launch of design for Performance Works Northwest's new mixed use theater, flexible studio and artist-in- residence facility
Located in the SE Foster neighboorhood, the proposed new PWNW facility is an open light filled "industrial-type" space for making and presenting contemporary performance works. The expansion will provide 4,500 square feet of flexible performance space, mulit-use studio and artist's residence.
Event: Feburary 6th, 2010
NUNAVUT: A Performance for the Portland Art Museum's Young Patrons Third Annual Beaux-Arts Ball. By rhiza A+D in collaboration with performance artist and dancer Linda Austin
Based on an imagined trip of mathematical physicist Sir Roger Penrose to the Canadian Arctic Archipelago Territory of Nunavut.
Event: 3:45 pm Saturday, October 3rd, 2009
Timberline Lodge New Winter Entrance Dedication
Please join us at the dedication ceremony for the new Timberline Lodge Winter Entrance. The celebration is open to the public.
Dedication, 03 October, 2009
Press Release: September 3rd, 2009
rhiza A+D provides new Winter Entrance to Oregon's Historic WPA-Built Timberline Lodge
Portland, Ore. – (September 3rd, 2009) When October’s first snow falls on Mt. Hood, Timberline Lodge will sport an eye-catching new visitors’ entrance designed by Portland’s rhiza A+D. The graceful reticulated structure, like a snowdrift blown against the National Historic Landmark’s massive masonry façade, will be assembled at the onset of each year’s snow season and disassembled the following spring.
Under light powder the illuminated portal will glow like a lantern. But once the snow starts piling up, the lantern will morph into a snug contemporary igloo, able to stand up to the formidable snow and wind loads encountered on Mount Hood.
“The arch is the two-dimensional symbol for shelter. Spin that arch in three dimensions and you have an igloo," says rhiza A+D partner Ean Eldred. "In its relationship to landscape, resources, and the fundamental human need for protection from the elements, the igloo is a profoundly elegant design."
The entry is formed from a series of parabolic arches, with profiles waterjet-cut from half-inch-thick aluminum plate. Each profile is interlaced with continuously welded ribs supporting a double skin of translucent polycarbonate panels which are lightweight, durable and replaceable. After each spring’s disassembly, the arches will be stored off site to extend their lifespan.
"It will be an icon next to an existing icon" said Joachim Grube, co-founder and principal of Yost Grube Hall Architecture and President of Friends of Timberline, a group dedicated to the 1937 building’s preservation. “It's really the only design that could do justice to this venerable structure.”
The new entrance joins the legacy of giving, volunteerism and collaboration that is the cornerstone of Timberline Lodge.
Top: rendering at dusk and bottom left: interior of model, photo by rhiza A+D.
Bottom right: interior of model, photo by Jim Golden Studio.
Event: 4:30 thru 6:00 pm, Thursaday, September 24th, 2009
Big Pipe Portal Public Art Celebration at 4299 N. Port Center Way*, Portland, Ore.
Dedication Procession, 24 September, 2009
- Music by The Bristlecones who will lead a parade to the sculpture @ 4:30 pm.
- Tour the Swan Island Pump Station. Go 165 ft. underground to see the inner workings of the Big Pipe.
- Walk the Greenway Trail. Learn about the area's wildlife and history of the trail (approx. 1 mile).
*Direction heading North from downtown: head East on Broadway Bridge and turn right on Interstate Avenue. Turn slight left on N. Greeley Ave. Take ramp toward Swan Island Industrial Park. Merge onto N. Going. Turn left at first stoplight onto N. Port Center Way.
Event starts on the trail directly southof the Fedex truck parking lot. Follow signs for event parking near the site.
Funded by Percent for Art, Bureau of Environmental Services. Celebration presented by:
View looking to river through Big Pipe Portal
Press Release: September 3rd, 2009
rhiza A+D creates new sculpture celebrating Portland's Big Pipe Project
Eldred, says the sculpture is also intended as a ceremonial entrance to the river, which he calls "our shared identity." The art council's Peggy Kendellen, who managed the project, says the sculpture is the only public art planned for the Big Pipe project.
Although the Big Pipe Project is the one of the largest infrastructure project in Portland history, it is largely invisible. Working closely with the Bureau of Environmental Services and the Regional Arts and Culture Council,
rhiza A + D created the "Big Pipe Portal" sculpture to celebrate this hidden work by revealing and re-adapting massive pre-cast concrete segments and steel reinforcing used in the construction of the Big Pipe.
"From the beginning, the real impulse was to make something that manifests the scale of the pipe, this massive hidden infrastructure," says Ean Eldred
These pieces of infrastructure are now put to work in support of art and narrative. Emerging from the river's embankment, the sculpture traces the circumference of the hidden pipe and transforms it from an industrial artifact into a woven arch of currents and eddies.
View looking to river through Big Pipe Portal