Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Cascade Campus opens doors to new era

Photos and story by James Hill

CASCADE CAMPUS – Portland Community College’s Cascade Campus launches a new era for students and the community with three new buildings opening this fall. The dedication and grand opening celebration for these facilities is slated for 3 to 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 20 at the new Public Services Education Building, located on the corner of North Killingsworth Street and North Mississippi Avenue. The public is invited.The three new buildings, Physical Education, Technology Education and Public Services Education, are part of the ambitious $60 million expansion project for PCC’s urban north Portland campus. The dedication ceremony begins at 3:30 p.m., highlighted by Fire Science students rappelling off PCC’s new fire training tower. The program will also feature remarks from State Sen. Margaret Carter; PCC Board of Directors Dana Anderson (chair) and Harold Williams (vice chair); PCC District President Preston Pulliams, and PCC-Cascade Campus student body president Samantha Lelo. Algie Gatewood, Cascade Campus president, will serve as emcee. There will be tours of the new buildings and demonstrations at each site following the dedication ceremony.The program will include jazz music by instructors of the campus’ Professional Music program, led by department chair, Allen Jones, and featuring renowned jazz vocalist and Professional Music instructor Mary Kadderly. The buildings are part of a November 2000 voter-approved $144 million bond measure. The new facilities at the Cascade Campus will create more class space, unite similar programs under one roof (not possible before the building campaign) and expand services for students. The campus eventually will have gained four new buildings and a new science building wing (completed in September 2003) and will be more than one-third larger than its current size, adding 3.57 acres of land and 120,000 square feet of state-of-the-art classrooms, labs and support space. With the Public Services Education Building now complete, the Cascade Campus has a new corridor several blocks west of the campus’ original architectural footprint, which brings it closer to I-5 and the Interstate Max Light Rail.The Public Services Education Building is a $3.2 million remodeling project of a former supermarket on North Killingsworth Street and North Mississippi Avenue, which expands the facility from 24,000 to nearly 30,000 square feet. The building houses public service programs: Emergency Medical Services, Paramedic, Criminal Justice, Paralegal, Emergency Dispatch Operator, and Fire Science. The center provides students with 12 new classrooms, including a functioning emergency dispatch lab, a crime scene/event scenario room, a fire training tower and an apparatus bay for fire engines and an ambulance.The two-story, $7.2 million Technology Education Building is 50,500 square feet and provides 23 classrooms and computer labs. The facility houses the PCC Skill Center; the Trades and Industry program; and the Computer Technology and Business Administration program. In addition, there are three conference rooms and a 106-seat Computer Resource Center.The $4.9 million Physical Education Building, 32,000-square-foot, two-story structure, sports three classrooms an aerobics/dance studio, a circuit weight room and a free weight room. There is also a new collegiate-size gymnasium, which will serve as home for the PCC Panthers men’s and women’s basketball teams, as well as intramural sports and the community education program.