This content was published: October 8, 2010. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
Southeast Center Master Planning Work
Photos and story by Gina Whitehill-Baziuk
The Next Round of Open Houses for the Southeast Center Master Planning Work will be Dec. 1st & 2nd.
Months of campus discovery, assessment and review have led PCC Southeast Center community to a draft Master Plan.
Southeast Center Mt. Tabor Plaza
Find out more about bond-funded improvements slated for the Southeast Center and opportunities to weigh-in on the early Master Plan Concept. Check out the Summary of Work to Date.
We are wrapping up ten months of campus community discovery and early Master Planning work and will soon move into more detailed campus schematic design. While we have a general idea of big picture concepts such as where buildings are located and how much square footage we will be building on site, we would love to hear from you……
A series of campus Open Houses are scheduled to get feedback and ideas on where we are and how we will move forward.
Please join us in the Mt Tabor Great Hall:
- Wednesday, December 1, Noon- 3:00 pm
- Wednesday, December 1, 5:00 – 7:00 pm
- Thursday, December 2, 11:30 am- 1:30 pm
All Campus Open Houses will provide an opportunity for you to meet with our architects who’ll share the latest information about the Southeast Bond Project and get input from internal and external stakeholders
Here are some sample images from the Summary of Work to Date PDF attached to this article:
Hey, these 3D renderings are great! It will be great to have some buildings on 82nd avenue so that it’s not all parking lot!
Keep up the great work guys!
The additions and new buildings look acceptable, but what where are the college’s plans for replacement parking? Is there going to be a plan to build a supplemental parking structure or external lot? There will begin to be outraged local students when the student body who lives in that area of Portland realize they can no longer drive to school. Also, they will be unable to park at SE and commute. How is the district going to deal with this problem?
This may seem like a small design flaw, but in taking up parking and building more capacity, the college will be increasing the number of students without adequately replacing the commuter infrastructure. This will leave a lot of students stranded, or unable to attend classes at this campus. Sylvania is already packed to the absolute maximum and still increasing students? Will the city be constructing local park and rides where students can park and take the bus two or three blocks? I think not.
This is a major problem for students like myself that I have not seen in any of these plans as being addressed. Replacing the current pavement with shrubby is nice, but at what costs? To student access? If there was an underground parking structure under this new building facility, such as at the University of Washington, then I could understand, but at present, I, along with my fellow students, do not see any appreciable effort being made into the transportation problem. New classrooms are important, but simply trying to replace over 70% of the existing parking with more classroom capacity, which will increase the number of drivers and students per capita, while shifting students over to existing (and already taxed city parking structures) is going to create one hell of a mess.
I hope the design team realizes the disaster this very likely could cause US, the students of Portland Community College, or the local parking fiasco that will result when we start blocking up local and existing streets around the local SE community to park as has happened in NE, which is continually resulting in angry and disgruntled locals.
Thanks for commenting Luke. Please try to attend one of the next round of Open Houses at the Southeast Center – Dec 1, noon to 3 pm and 5-7 pm and on Dec 2, 11:30 am – 1:30 pm.
Christopher and Mark thank you for commenting. You make some good points. The College is more than aware that Parking is a significant issue. This summer PCC introduced a number of measures to help respond to the great increase in enrollment that the college is experiencing. At Rock Creek a free shuttle service provided by The Columbia County Rider, was introduced to and from the Willow Creek Park and Ride. Currently, this shuttle is running with relatively few passengers while the TriMet leaves the Park and Ride overflowing. Help spread the word to your fellow students that the new service is available, FREE to and from the Rock Creek Campus without stops. Future service will be evaluated based on fall term participation. At The Sylvania Campus, overflow parking in the Mt. Park Church using a bus rather than a limited capacity van was introduced. At the Cascade Campus a new free parking location has been introduced. Students primarily enrolled at Cascade or SEC can park at PCC Metro for free and ride the new shuttle to either campus. There is also a Cascade light rail connection.
Students & staff riding the light rail to Cascade can transfer to Tri Met bus 72. Bus 72 leaves every 7 to 12 minutes (day) and stops at Cascades’ front door. The College has increased the number of subsidized student TriMet Select passes from 1,200 to 1,400 for fall 2010. Each pass saves students $94 per term. The College has also added a 5th shuttle route with service to Cascade, Rock Creek and Southeast.
Other measures to help reduce the need to travel and park at the campuses particularly during the busiest times of the year have also been put into place. Now, online textbook and parking permit ordering is available. Please visit the College’s Transportation website for additional information http://www.pcc.edu/parking/.
All of this does not address your specific comment regarding new buildings displacing parking. Every effort will be made to replace displaced parking. The college is working with its local governmental jurisdictions to ensure that we doing everything we can to provide the maximum allowed parking. But parking spaces and parking structures are expensive and not a good use of the land. It is incumbent upon all of us to do whatever we can to use alternative transportation modes, to bike, walk, carpool, use mass transit, trip chain, utilize on-line course options and try other measures to reduce our carbon foot print. The College is committed to doing everything it can to explore the facilitation of these alternatives. As we move forward with implementing the bond measure I hope you will participate in the many opportunities to meet with the architects, project managers, transportation consultants and others, to help work through solutions and preferred options. Your concerns are valid and we could use your good energy as we attempt to balance all of the many needs. The NEW Bond Website will list these opportunities in the GET Involved section. Thanks again for your comments.
This web site is mostly a walk-through for all the information you wanted about this and didn’t know who to ask. Glimpse here, and you’ll definitely uncover it.
Where (when?) can we see similar renderings for changes that are being considered for the SYLVANIA campus??
Good afternoon. Thank you for your inquiry and for checking in on the PCC Bond Web Site. Though we are continually posting bond updates, public involvement opportunities and information from our design teams, you, as a member of the PCC family, can access “spaces” at https://spaces.pcc.edu/display/bond/Bond+Program for many additional documents, renderings, notes from meetings etc. You will need to log in using your PCC log in information. Hope this helps.