At SERA, a group of staff passionate about design created Design Interest Group Integrated Thursdays (DIG IT for the acronym-lovers in us) to strengthen our dialogue about how design fits into our practice. At each event, staff is presented with a topic, given background, and asked to create a well-designed experience that addresses the topic’s […]
Occasionally, a group of emerging designers here at SERA will pool their talents and take on an independent design challenge. Such was the case when Krystan Menne, Kristin Slavin, and Jodi Hanson heard about the “[Imagine Downtown] Lafayette, LA” open-ideas competition a few months ago. Not only did this interdisciplinary team of designers dive into this […]
We have recently referenced some of the exciting augmented reality work we’ve been working on, but did you know that we’ve been using various technologies to engage the public during planning projects since the early 2000s? One of our goals at SERA has been to always communicate planning problems and potential solutions in ways that […]
Great cities are made up of great neighborhoods, and in Portland the best neighborhoods are those that are the most walkable. Sellwood, where (full disclosure) a few SERA employees reside, is one such neighborhood – a rational grid of Craftsman homes, great parks, a library, an historic outdoor pool, and a Main Street stocked with […]
To kick-off 2012, the Urban Design + Planning studio here at SERA hosted two out-of-state interns who were interested in getting a glimpse into Portland’s urban culture. As part of their time with us, each intern was asked to contribute a blog post as a reflection on their time spent in Rose City. Alexis Garcia, […]
Why do we enjoy certain parks over others? Is the magic in the design or are there other factors to consider? Welcome to Part 2 of our series on Portland’s O’Bryant Square, where we’re asking what it would take to improve this infamous urban park. In Part 1, we gave an overview of the park’s […]
Efforts by American corporations to leverage social programs have been on the uptick in recent years. One of the more recent initiatives is by Walgreens, the Illinois-based drug store chain that has over 7,500 stores in the U.S. Walgreens has implemented a new rewards program to encourage customers to integrate more exercise – specifically, walking […]
Matt Arnold and I recently returned from a three-day trip to Sisters, Oregon, where we presented five different streetscape design concepts for Cascade Avenue at the core of the city’s downtown. Cascade Avenue is also US 20, an ODOT-owned roadway that links Central Oregon to the Willamette Valley via Santiam Pass. The roadway itself needs to […]