Back to Square One will begin February 6-March 1 with a series of Happy Hour Zoom conversations with national and local leaders exploring the most creative ways to meet the challenges and opportunities of O’Bryant and contemporary public space.

Todd Ferry, senior research associate, Center for Public Interest Design (CPID), PSU has led public space activation projects for Trimet, PBOT, Sacramento Transit Authority, among others. Most recently, CPID led the community design of Arleta Square in Lents. 

Lora Patiño Lillard, recently joined PP&R as a Capital Project Manager, after 16 years as a planner and urban designer for the Bureau of Planning & Sustainability where she worked numerous projects, among them the Green Loop.  

Randy Gragg, longtime journalist and PPF’s executive director, has played leading roles in advocacy for downtown plazas for the last 30 years.

Nick Falbo, senior transportation planner, PBOT, works on district and corridor plans to re-envision streets and communities.

Nolan Leinhart, principal and director of planning and urban design, ZGF, served as lead urban designer for the Broadway Corridor Master Plan.

Roger Cummings, Loeb Fellow ’09, cofounded Juxtaposition Arts 25 years ago. It employs young urban artists in hands-on education initiatives that create pathways to self-sufficiency while actualizing creative power.

Sean Suib cofounded and has led New Avenues for Youth for 25 years. A neighbor of O’Bryant Square, New Avenues is dedicated to the prevention and intervention of youth homelessness. Working with young people (ages 9-24), it focuses on the individual—their experiences, identities, needs, and goals—to make positive change in their lives.

Brandt Maina (he/they) is a Portland-based queer abstRact artist and absuRdist writer from Nairobi, Kenya. With a background in the arts, and fresh memories of being homeless in downtown Portland, Brandt "seeks to unify audiences by outlining how, despite our cultural origin and medium, the arts uniquely communicate and express the exact same human experiences at the core of our humanity . . . to be seen, known, heard, understood, cared for, and Loved.”

Susan Chin, Loeb Fellow, 2000, is an accomplished architect, urbanist and civic leader, recently served as executive director of Design Trust for Public Space, a nationally recognized incubator that catalyzes New York City’s landscape with public agencies, community collaborators and design professionals since 1995.

Deandre Kenyanjui, engagement coordinator/peer counselor, Multnomah County, played a pivotal role in developing the “peer-centered” approach of the new Behavioral Health Resource Center.

Janie Gullickson, executive director, Mental Health & Addiction Association of Oregon, is in long-term recovery and has not used alcohol or other drugs in over 14 years. She endured addiction, serious mental health issues, homelessness, and incarceration. She first began her work as a Peer Support Specialist/Recovery Mentor in 2011. She joined Mental Health & Addiction Association of Oregon as a project assistant in 2014 and, three years later, became its Executive Director. MHAAO has grown from an organization of 4 staff to over 80 serving Oregon and beyond! She also earned her Master of Public Administration: Health Administration (MPA: HA) degree from Portland State University in June of 2017. MAHALO operates the day center at the Multnomah County Behavioral Health Resource Center.

Christopher Calott, Loeb Fellow 2012, Chair of Real Estate Development, UC Berkeley, is an award-winning architect, urban designer, academic and real estate developer. He currently engages real estate developers and municipal agencies working on large redevelopment projects in the Bay Area seeking more socially equitable outcomes.

Eric Zimmerman, central city senior advisor, is the Office of the Mayor’s point guard on trouble-shooting and reactivating downtown, Portland. He has previously served in deputy and assistant city manager roles in Medford and Tigard.

For 18 years underU4men's flagship store has been located in downtown’s West End across from O’Bryant Square. Owner Steven Lien's long history in the neighborhood started with his first retail store in the mid 80’s, a ski shop, located just a few blocks away on SW 12th. As a community advocate, he is the Executive Director of Travel Gay Portland and Chair of Friends of O’Bryant Square.

Jennifer Siegal, Loeb Fellow, 2003, Office of Mobile Design, LA, focuses on “portable, demountable, and relocatable structures,” from homes to schools to stores. She also explores prefabrication, taking advantage of industrial processes to create a more efficient and nimblearchitecture.

Art Pearce, planning and projects director, PBOT, Portland, guides transportation ideas through the long-range planning and policy, project development, and construction stages. His group has overseen the repurposing of streets to plazas throughout the city.

Keith Jones is the Executive Director of Friends of Green Loop, a non-profit devoted to bringing the planned central city, 7-mile bike/pedestrian connection to life. The Friends also operates The Cart Blocks, the food cart pod at Ankeny Tk- Prior to Friends of Green Loop, Keith was an entrepreneur that specialized in the fields of marketing, economic development and travel & tourism. 

Damon Rich, Loeb Fellow, 2007, Partner at Hector, urban planning and civic arts, develops vivid and witty strategies to design and build places that are more democratic and accountable to their residents He is the former planning director of Newark, NJ, the founder of Center for Urban Pedagogy, and a 2017 MacArthur Fellow.

Karim Hassanein, director of storytelling and communication for Colloqate Design, a multidisciplinary nonprofit Design Justice practice focused on expanding community access to, and building power through, the design of social, civic, and cultural spaces.

Kelsey Snook creates interactive environments while thinking about what it takes to make people lean in, connect and participate. Locally, she has developed projects for Umpqua, OMSI, Portland Art Museum and Design Week. Among her international projects are, the 75th Anniversary Celebration for Walker Art Center, the opening ceremony for the Queen of England at London’s Royal Festival Hall, and a "musical mural" for the Mutek Extra Muros Music Festival in Montreal.