Sustainability at PSU

Placemaking

Placemaking

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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

May 20th, 2026 
11:30 - 4:00 pm | Smith Ballroom

This 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.

Your voice is essential so the PSU experience reflects our diverse community.

two people sitting on a tan couch talking in front of various posters on the wall

EVENT RSVP

Join the conversation and help shape our campus. RSVP to reserve your spot at The Placemakers Exchange on May 20th!
 

RSVP HERE

What to Expect

The Placemakers Showcase: One of the hallmarks of Placemaking at PSU is turning our campus into a hands-on "living lab". Explore a campus-wide poster session highlighting cross-departmental research, formal curriculum-based projects, and grassroots student initiatives that define PSU's physical and social identity.

Culture and Community: In keeping with the Placemakers Exchange tradition, the afternoon will feature a collaborative focus that reflects the intersection of cultural heritage, community needs, and inclusive design. The event will also culminate in a community celebration at the new PSU Dog Park, demonstrating how shared open spaces can foster belonging.

The Exchange Breakouts & Action Share-Out: Move from visionary dreaming to hands-on action. Following collaborative breakout sessions focused on "North Star" opportunity areas—like the 18-Hour Neighborhood and "Non-Precious" Interventions—participants will engage in a "Shareout". These rapid-fire presentations will highlight top action items, exploring the realities of urban design, bureaucratic friction, and creative problem-solving.

The Roundtable Exchange: A facilitated, moderated dialogue featuring distinguished alumni and community practitioners. Panelists will share honest, "messy" real-world success stories, exploring the complexities and triumphs of implementing high-impact urban interventions on campus and beyond.

Networking Opportunities: Engage with alumni, community leaders, faculty, and students who are shaping the future of Portland State University. Arrive early for the poster session networking hour to swap stories, share ideas, and connect with fellow placemaking enthusiasts.

Research with Impact - Site-Specific Tours: From "What Could Be" to "How We Do It," discover how work happening across our campus is moving beyond theory and into practice. Join expert-led walking tours of key campus nodes to identify immediate physical improvements and long-term spatial strategies—advancing solutions that are creative, rigorous, and responsive to real community

Speakers

Matthew Claudel is the founder and CEO of Field States, an urban design and real estate strategy company focused on Adaptive Urbanism.

Lizzy Caston is the co-manager of the Last Thursday art event on NE Alberta. She also works with communities all over North America and specializes in innovative approaches to both urban and rural development and planning, economic resilience, and organizational transformation.

Ryan Al-Schamma is an Architectural Designer at GBD Architects, and Founder of the non-profit urban re-greening organization called Stay ON the Grass (SOTG).

David Raycroft co-founded Geek Week PDX to shine a spotlight on the weird, wonderful, and wildly unique businesses and communities that make Portland one of the most gloriously geeky cities on the planet.

And more...

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?
     

Event Schedule

Engagement & Vision
11:30 AM | Arrival & Poster Showcase
Gallery of PSU placemaking projects

12:00 PM | Opening
Welcome: Envision, Design. Create. Belong.

12:15 PM | Placemakers Roundtable
Candid dialogue featuring PSU & community leaders

Practical Application
1:00 PM | The Exchange - Breakouts
Facilitated, collaborative working sessions

2:30 PM | The Shareout
Rapid-fire synthesis from each of the
breakout groups

Field Study
3:00 PM | Placemaking Tours
Guided site visits to PSU’s existing & potential opportunity areas

4:00 PM | Celebrate with the Pups
Tours end at the new Dog Park for an Opening Celebration

picture of a person painting a graphic mural

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. 

PSU art student Nick Pelster worked with the Planning & Sustainability Office to create a partnership between “The Courts Skatepark” and PSU. The Courts was a pilot skatepark located on PSU property just south of Shattuck Hall. The lot was in need of activation; Nick and the skate community started activating the space and eventually a partnership was born. Nick, now a graduate student in the Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning, is currently working on a new site on campus for The Courts 2.0. 

Contact Us

If you are interested in partnering, supporting, or promoting Placemaking at PSU please contact the Planning & Sustainability Office!
 

Send us an email:  placemaking@pdx.edu

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