Reimagining O’Bryant Square,
Welcoming Darcelle XV Plaza
Closed since 2018, O’Bryant Square is currently being demolished. During March 2023, the Portland Parks Foundation, the Harvard Loeb Fellowship, Portland State University’s (PSU) Center for Public Interest Design (CPID) and Portland Parks & Recreation gathered ideas, hopes, and worries from nearly 1,000 Portlanders on how a new public space at O'Bryant Square could serve Portland's communities.
Six webinars with local and national experts on urban public space.
400 Portlanders were surveyed.
Seven community stakeholder meetings focused on social service, retail, arts and culture, and safety and management.
Two public workshops in downtown Portland
Two workshops with 14-member Safety, Maintenance, & Management Group.
17 design teams created concepts, drawn from community feedback
Above: A sampling of the designs developed during our community engagement in March 2023.
This created immense momentum and gave PP&R and CPID a library of design ideas and community desires to work with in order to design what’s coming next.
In July 2023, the City officially renamed the park Darcelle XV Plaza, in honor of Portland’s hometown drag legend. As the City states, “Renaming O'Bryant Square to Darcelle XV Plaza sends a powerful message of acceptance and recognizes Walter Cole's unwavering advocacy for LGBTQ2SIA+ rights and his embodiment of strength and resilience.”
To spark further creative discourse, PPF partnered with another local drag star, Poison Waters, to hear just what people on the street were thinking about the newly renamed Darcelle XV Plaza. These interviews revealed that hopes are high for this new downtown park.
In early 2024, PP&R and CPID continued the engagement with new design efforts, with clear inspiration from the community conversations that PPF co-hosted in 2023. On February 4, the community is invited to an open house to learn more about the current plans and give feedback. Learn more here.
Demolition has begun on the park, and should be completed in early 2024, with interim activations and permanent construction to follow.
Learn more about the developments from PP&R here.
Design Concept Overhead View: The proposed design would include a big, flexible plaza space for all types of events and activities, a dog off-leash area, sail shades, and ornamentation and flair throughout the space to honor Darcelle XV and the LGBTQ2SIA+ community. (City of Portland, PP&R)
