Community members and local dignitaries joined students, staff and project team members in celebrating the official reopening of a modernized Benson Polytechnic High School. The September 14 ribbon cutting marked a new era of innovation for Portland Public Schools’ 1916 career and technical education (CTE) campus.  

The modernization, led by Bassetti Architects, balances historic preservation with expansion, increasing space for state-of-the-art, hands-on learning. Mayer/Reed’s site design respects the campus’s classic symmetry while introducing universal accessibility and adding student-centered outdoor spaces throughout.  

Visitors to the grand opening event toured the building and explored new and redesigned outdoor spaces including the main entry landscape, a new central courtyard adjacent to the student commons and the multi-functional CTE courtyard with outdoor workspaces for construction, applied geometry, manufacturing and automotive workshops. 

Benson is the sixth high school to be modernized or rebuilt through the PPS School Improvement Bond program—all with landscape architecture by Mayer/Reed.