RACC and artist Jorge Pardo have begun installing a new Streetcar Art Shelter just outside Leftbank’s front door. This eccentrically shaped sculpture will provide a shelter with “rainy on the outside, sunny on the inside” experience for waiting streetcar passengers.

Fabricated of steel, wood and fiberglass, the new shelter measures 35’ long by 18’ wide by 16’ tall. The multi-faceted structure will include over 300 individual panels in shades of gray and brown on the exterior, with warm hues of orange and yellow on the inside, sheltering passengers north of the Rose Quarter in a highly visible and fantastically colorful way.

Los Angeles based Pardo was the recipient of a 2010 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship who exhibits his work globally. This is his first municipal project in the United States. It is funded by the percent-for-art set-aside for the Portland Streetcar expansion project, and will take about a month to fully install.

Read more…

Just as broccoli, sweet pea and radish sprouts peek out of the tilled garden beds through the Portland area, six Portland Farmers Market locations are sprouting up around the city.

May marks three market openings:

• Portland Farmers Market at Shemanski Park in the South Park Blocks between SW Salmon & Main from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesday, May 1
• Buckman Portland Farmers Market at SE Salmon & 20th from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 2
• King Portland Farmers Market at NE 7th & Wygant from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 5

June will welcome farmers back to:

• Northwest Portland Farmers Market at NW 19th & Everett from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 6
• Kenton Portland Farmers Market at N. McClellan & Denver from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday, June 7
• Portland Farmers Market at Pioneer Courthouse Square at SW 6th & Morrison from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Monday, June 17

“Mark your calendar, grab your market basket, and come on over to one of the many markets opening up in these next few weeks,” says Trudy Toliver, Executive Director of Portland Farmers Market. “Every purchase you make at a farmers market not only feeds your family the freshest and healthiest produce and proteins available, your purchase also helps to feed our local farmers and ranchers and their families.”

In its 22 years, Portland Farmers Market has sustained the region’s food and farming community by helping to launch more than 50 small businesses and providing a lively and profitable sales outlet for small family farms, many of which count on farm-direct sales as their main source of income.

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Cool Spaces: Consulting firm gets comfy at the Leftbank

Rede Group, a five-person consulting firm, operates from a 2,400-square-foot office at the Leftbank building, 240 N.Broadway St., in Portland’s Rose Quarter district.

Rede Group is a planning, research and engagement consultant that works with a variety of public and private organizations to embrace change.

Robb Hutson, princial and president, shared the firm’s Cool Spaces story with the Business Journal to show how even small work groups can create a unique work places.

Check out the photos of their new space.

Join Portland Farmers Market at the musica stage, where they will be announcing the winner of their third annual Reusable Bag Design Contest. The winning student will receive a $1,000 scholarship and their design will be printed on thousands of bags that will be handed out at the market this season.

PSU Market, Saturday, April 20 at 9:30am

Learn more.

We’re excited too! We’ll see you at the PSU Market on Saturdays, where we can all see our favorite farmers and fill our baskets with fresh produce, pastured meats, farm eggs, artisan cheeses, breads, local wines and so much more!

Saturdays, March 16 through December 21
8:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. (Mar. through Oct.)
9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. (Nov. & Dec.)

Location: SW Park Ave & SW Montgomery St., Portland, OR 97201

Looking for more info from Portland Farmers Market? Click here.

Filmed over two days, Tanner Goods cut together a handful of time-lapse shots featuring their crew working a typical eight hour workday at their Leftbank Workshop. For those who haven’t visited their space before, their production is broken into four categories and varies in size depending on how many styles fall within that category [as well as how many units they need to produce each season]. This is a quick glimpse into what a typical day looks like for them.

Welcome to our Workshop from Tanner Goods on Vimeo.

Leftbank’s basement smells like leather. It has ever since Tanner Goods moved in. I love it. I look for reasons to go downstairs. Sometimes I invent reasons. But Tanner Goods doesn’t just lend their light industrial cool (and that leather smell) to the place – though they certainly do that. They also produce fine products. Another Leftbanker sent this my way recently.

In their second collaboration with Danner (another of my hometown favorite companies), Tanner introduces a rugged-cool boot with Vibram soles made right here in stumptown. Nice.

Have you seen them? The 7 small works of art and avian architecture gracing leftbank’s lobby right now? I can’t walk by without hearing that They Might Be Giants song. You know the one? “Make a little birdhouse in your soul…”

Why are there (supercool) birdhouses hanging in the lobby? It’s a project that WeMake manifested for PDX Design Week. What’s the WeMake connection with Leftbank? Yvonne Perez, AKA Creativegirl. Yvonne and her WeMake crew handed out birdhouse kits to local artists. Not just any birdhouse kits, but kits that added up to little midcentury modern homes - and kits that themselves served mostly as a jumping off point for the artists. The artists then took the birdhouses in every direction. There are some pictured on Creativegirl’s blog, some here, and 7 hanging in the lobby. Besides Yvonne, other Leftbankers including Sockeye and Fashionbuddha joined in on this. Both those 3rd floor tenants built houses.

The birdhouses are all over town at the moment, and they’ll come together again for an auction at Union Pine on October 12th. The auction supports arts and music education in the public schools of Portland and Multnomah County through All Hands Raised and First Octave.

Thank you, WeMake! Thank you, Yvonne! This is why I love Leftbank.

If you remember miles of orange barrels and Leftbank at the epicenter of traffic standstills that felt like they went on for months at a time, chances are you’re an original Leftbanker. Whether you soldiered through it or came to the neighborhood after tracks were laid, you’re about to have the Portland Streetcar at your doorstep! There’s a big party on Saturday for the launch, and everyone’s invited. Read about it here. Festivities begin at 10:00 at OMSI, and rides are free all day. Hop on board and see Leftbank from another perspective.

Focus the Nation just launched their first ever Kickstarter campaign and were chosen as the Kickstarter staff pick of the week!  They worked with Wil Magness (who freelances with neighbors, Sockeye) to make this awesome video.  Way to go, all of you!

Click to watch:

The WATT?