Planning & Sustainability

Campus students bikes

Placemaking

Placemaking is a collaborative, community-driven process that brings people together to shape campus spaces through projects and programming. It transforms dull spaces into ones that celebrate cultural heritage, community needs, and aspirations.

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The Placemakers Exchange

This annual interactive event brings students and community leaders together to have action-oriented discussions on evening vibrancy, "third spaces" for connection, grassroot placemaking projects, and more. The event explores how we can shape Portland State to build deeper connections, safety, and everyday joy.

Centering voices of both our campus and the greater Portland area is the only way to ensure the PSU experience truly reflects and honors our diverse community. Because good placemaking isn’t just about design; it’s about bringing people together.

For 2026 / 2027, the Placemakers Exchange will shift into a speaker series occurring each term. 

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SPARK AWARD

Awarding $2,500 to the boldest, most creative, and community-centered placemaking ideas on campus.

SPARK AWARD

Past Placemaking Speakers

PSU brings the OGs and the upstarts, the nerds and the community developers to mix it up about the State of Place in Portland. Panelists share honest, "messy" real-world success stories, exploring the complexities and triumphs of implementing high-impact urban interventions on campus and beyond. 

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Lizzy Caston

Co-Manager, Alberta Last Thursday + Senior Associate with Leland Consulting

Sharing strategies on building community and economic resilience through innovative urban transformation.

picture of Ryan Al-Schamma on a light brown background

Ryan Al-Schamma

Architectural Designer with GBD Architects & Founder, Stay ON the Grass

Leading the charge on "tactile activations" and grassroots re-greening projects across Portland.

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David Raycroft

Co-founder, Geek Week PDX

Connecting local business culture with community building to celebrate Portland’s unique identity.

picture of Lisha Shrestha

Lisha Shrestha

Executive Director, Division Midway Alliance

Offering deep insights into fostering cultural belonging and community-driven development in SE Portland.

picture of Matt Wagner sitting at a kitchen table

Matt Wagner

Founder, Creative Neighborhoods Pickathon Non-Profit

Exploring how place-based cultural agendas and creative programming can drive neighborhood pride.

Sample Discussion questions

  • You have 30 minutes to eat lunch on a beautiful spring day. What kind of events, performances, services, or furniture would draw you to the Urban Plaza?
  • How can we turn our plazas into third places where people feel a sense of belonging?
  • What are simple, low-cost visual threads we can run through the district to tie it together and meaningfully connect space to culture?
  • How do we center the value of connection with the land to heal and build community health and resilience to this district?
  • How can we create 'unfinished' spaces on campus that allow students to leave their own mark?
  • How can we design a 'Placemaking Lab' that functions like a community tool shed, giving students the resources to make their heritage and culture visible on campus? 

Students, faculty, staff, and the larger community are essential in the placemaking process at PSU! The intent of Placemaking at PSU is to empower people to become placemakers and work collaboratively and justly to create a vibrant and inclusive campus. Placemaking provides an opportunity for a living lab experience where the campus is the lab and student work influences the future development of the campus.

Retired urban planning professor Ellen Shoshkes taught PSU’s Public Space class for several years and partnered regularly with Campus Planning staff to get her students involved with placemaking projects on campus. Prof. Shoshkes focused her Fall 2019 Public Space class around one of PSU’s skybridges. Campus skybridges were identified in PSU’s 2019 Open Space Plan as an opportunity site for open space activation. The project was coined “Pie-in-the-Sky” and concluded with a “pop-up” event with free pie on the skybridge as a way to increase foot traffic and draw campus engagement with the class. Shoshkes’ students incorporated furniture, elements of interior design and wayfinding, along with a survey for feedback around future use of the space. 

Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE) Capstone projects supervised by engineering instructor Evan Kristof have partnered with the Planning & Sustainability Office multiple times to study Montgomery Plaza. The first Capstone project was completed in March 2020 and resulted in the project team recommending  infrastructure improvements on the plaza. Beginning in January of 2025, a new group of CEE students has taken on Montgomery Plaza as their Capstone project. They are currently evaluating the next phase for the plaza, a curbless environment with onsite stormwater treatment, power, and potential outdoor covered space for winter gatherings. The students have also created a survey to engage their community and gather information around how people use the plaza and what they would like to see in the future. 

The Courts was a pilot skatepark located on PSU property just south of Shattuck Hall. The lot was in need of activation; The Portland skate community started activating the space and eventually a partnership was born. A new site on campus for The Courts 2.0 is currently under construction and is funded by a $300,000 Community Livability grant from Prosper Portland, designed in partnership with Walker Macy, Skaters for Portland Skateparks, and Collective Concrete.