PSU Magazine Spring 1996

Design team selected for heart of U-district plan The Portland-based architectural firm of Thomas Hacker and Associates is leading a design team that will guide the University's $28 million Urban Center Building and University Plaza project. Hacker's firm was chosen this winter by a committee comprised of local planners, industry representatives, and university officials. The architecture firm will provide overall concept experience to the Urban Center project. Past projects by Thomas Hacker and Associates include the School of Nursing and Biomedical Information Communication Center at Oregon Health Sciences University, the signature project for Lewis & Clark College, the Visual Arts Center at Southern Oregon State College, and Spokane Public Library. The firm also played a key role in the recent restoration of St. Mary's Cathedral in northwest Portland, built in 1924. Thomas Hacker said his firm put together a "nontraditional" design team representing such diverse back– grounds as art, landscape architecture, urban planning, and history. "This is a team that can relate to the different concerns of the city and community in a really strong way," says Hacker. Walker & Macy's projects include Pioneer Courthouse Square and the redevelopment of the South Park Blocks. design for the project, which is serving as the focal point of PSU's University District Plan. The Urban Center Building and adjacent plaza will be located along SW Montgomery Street between Fourth and Sixth avenues. The entire design team brings a wealth of award-winning local design Other key members of the design team include Walker & Macy Landscape Architects; artist Larry Kirkland of Larry Kirkland Studio; urbanist Ethan Seltzer, director of the Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies; and historian Chet Orloff '80, executive director of the Oregon Historical Society. Funding for the design and plan– ning of the $28 million project will come from federa l monies that PSU obtained in late 1994. PSU also expects to receive funding through state obligation bonds and lottery dollars and through a combination of federal, local, matching, and private funds . FROM THE PRESIDENT We are surrounded by the evidence of technological advancement. In fact, our society is so saturated with technol– ogy that, while it has made possible remarkable advances in nearly every field of endeavor and has created instant, world– wide communication, it also has changed the ways in which we live our lives and relate to one another. At times, we wonder whether we have Aladdin's lamp or Pandora's box. For example, the consumer products of technology– portable computers, personal music systems, electronic games, home entertainment centers-soak up time we might otherwise use in reading, writing, interacting with others. Everywhere we see individuals wearing earphones, absorbed in computer games, not interacting with the world around them. In education, we are just beginning to understand tech– nology's impact. Higher education's relatively exclusive franchise on the discovery and generation of knowledge and the delivery of instruction has disappeared. The Internet has opened up a world of information producers and suppliers. However, this proliferation of information carries with it a loss of quality assurance with much of the material on-line-like talk radio for an example-with simply no way to judge its quality or accuracy. Our chal– lenge, as information users and consumers, is to develop ways of assuring accuracy and credibility in an era which often stresses access and speed more than a thoughtful review of the available evidence. 2 PSU MAGAZINE SPRING 1996 At the same time, technology thoughtfully used can vastly increase our interaction with one another and bring equity to the opportunity for expression. It offers access to a broader array of material and can extend discussion beyond the limitations of time and place. At PSU, we are thinking about the many ways technology is changing the University. Our Millar Library faculty spent much of last year researching and discussing the library of the future, a resource with nearly instant electronic access to more and more information. Students in our new general education program, Freshman and Sophomore Inquiry, rely increas– ingly on computer technology for research and communica– tion. We are reviewing Inquiry classes to determine the impact of technology on learning. And the opening of Harrison Hall, our leading-edge high-tech classroom build– ing, has created the opportunity for faculty to learn to use multi-media techniques in teaching large classes. We also won a grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education to evaluate the effectiveness of the use of multimedia techniques in the classroom. These are just a few of the ways we are trying to discover whether technology is Aladdin's lamp or Pandora's box. I suspect we'll find elements of both, but I am confident that we will find both light and hope. ]udith A. Ramaley, President

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