News - Page 23 of 55

Placemaking at MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility Recognized with SEGD Global Design Award

We’re honored to receive a Merit Award in Placemaking and Identity from SEGD, the Society for Experiential Graphic Design, for experiential graphic design installations at the MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in Woodburn, Oregon. MacLaren’s new housing units feature colorful graphics designed by Mayer/Reed and artist Blaine Fontana, in collaboration with DLR Group and the MacLaren youth.

The design team explored authentic story telling with the incarcerated youth who shared images, poems, personal illustrations and stories that represent themes of integrity and transformation. The final graphics – rich with color, symbols, patterns and animal representations – are culturally meaningful for a population over-represented with minority identities.

These courtyard graphics humanize the living environment while supporting the Oregon Youth Authority’s “positive human development” approach. The awards jury appreciated how the work “opens the door for how we should be designing environments to create positive change, especially for those that need our help the most.”

Out of 340 worldwide submissions, 30 were honored with a 2020 SEGD Global Design Award for excellence in experiential graphic design.

Shannon Simms Named Associate

Mayer/Reed has promoted landscape architect Shannon Simms to Associate in recognition of her extraordinary professional and design leadership. A leader in active transportation and urban design, she is currently managing the landscape architecture discipline on the Urban Design Team for TriMet’s Southwest Corridor Light Rail that extends from Portland to Tualatin, OR. Shannon has also led the team’s efforts to establish the transportation mode and alignment of the Marquam Hill Connector, a key component of the Southwest Corridor project. Recent experience includes concepts and urban design for the Green Loop and the multi-modal portions of Better Naito in Portland, landscape design for the recently opened Concourse E extension at Portland International Airport, and trail components of the Ebey Waterfront Trail along the Qwuloolt Estuary in Marysville, WA.

PDX Next – Concourse E Extension Opens

The momentum of four years of hard work from 2,000 makers, builders, architects and designers could not be slowed, even by a pandemic. In mid-July, the Port of Portland unveiled its brand-new Concourse E extension, the first of many expansion projects under the PDX Next umbrella. The 800-foot concourse extension designed by Hennebery Eddy Architects and Fentress adds several much-needed gates, local restaurants, shops, artwork and a stunning view of Mt. Hood.

Mayer/Reed has worked at PDX for 25 years and we’re proud to be part of its evolution. For the new extension our landscape architects provided site design including a multi-use path, security fencing and signature landscape along the arrival roadway. At the interior, the extension premieres a new wayfinding sign system. Mayer/Reed collaborated with PDX Sign Master Plan firm, HOK, to realize the new PDX sign standards. We look forward to its implementation throughout the entire Portland International Airport.

BLACK LIVES MATTER
We Stand in Solidarity

The power of these words only scratches the surface of the pain and disturbing injustices that Black communities have endured for centuries. We must address the many complicated and layered challenges to erode systemic racism in our society.

As designers of the built environment, we acknowledge our responsibility to serve the community through equitable and inclusive design. We must do better to ensure that Black and other marginalized people have the access and respect they deserve.

Mayer/Reed has paused our outward messaging in the month of June to make an action plan for the work we must do internally to become allies and effective agents of change. We do not have the answers; yet we are committed to an evolving process and long term effort. In a gesture of transparency, we offer an outline of the first steps we are taking:

• Establish an internal diversity, equity and inclusion advocacy committee to support learning to identify and address implicit bias and systemic racism in design and the design process. Our committee will begin by creating a multi-faceted action plan for this essential work.

• Invest in diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-oppression training for all employees and leadership.

• Examine our human resources procedures and create an action plan to increase equitable practices in our studio and opportunities for marginalized people.

• Evaluate our pro bono, sponsorship and donation commitments to better support organizations that are committed to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion.

• Perform post-occupancy case studies of select Mayer/Reed projects to learn from the successes and inadequacies of past work and processes.

• Strengthen our internal and external commitment to educational, internship and mentor programs that strive to eliminate barriers facing people of color in their career pursuits in landscape architecture, interior design and experiential graphic design.

• As stewards of natural and urban environments, redouble our commitment to designing spaces that foster inclusion and equal access to health, safety and well-being.