Recent Successes

Portland Jazz Festival Pavilion

Portland 's annual Jazz Festival is a celebration of jazz music, Black History Month and the City of Portland. Throughout this year's Festival there were more than 143 separate events; including headlining ticketed concerts, free showcase performances highlighting regional talent, community performances and numerous educational opportunities. Part of this year's celebration included the PDX Jazz Pavilion at Pioneer Courthouse Square.  This year's Pavilion showcased Oregon's student jazz musicians with members of the Resident Ensemble of the Portland Jazz Festival who performed as guest soloists and acted as clinicians and instructors.  This unique interactive setting allowed jazz enthusiasts to get a glimpse of performances by Oregon's jazz headliners of the future.

Ice Carving

For the second year ice sculptor Christopher Huessy brought his creative style and workmanship to Pioneer Courthouse Square for a day filled with on-site carving demonstrations. Using his specially designed equipment Christopher utilized premium carving ice blocks and transformed each into shimmering works of art.  Christopher, owner of Oregon 's Professional Ice Carving, has earned gold medals at ice carving competitions throughout the United States, Canada and Japan.

Procession for the Future

The Backbone Campaign brought the Procession for the Future March and Rally to Pioneer Courthouse Square. The Procession for the Future is a touring parade, using high production value art and spectacle to deliver a compelling progressive vision for the country. This year's March included a life-size paper mache polar bear along with children wearing frog and bee costumes to represent climate stabilization and ecological well-being.  The March culminated at Portland State University and evolved into a theme park for activist training.

Portland Lindy Exchange

According to the official website for the Lindy Exchange, a lindy exchange is "when a city decides that it wants to open up its doors to Lindy Hoppers all over the world. Events are scheduled, performances are set, people offer to host visitors, and general merriment is had by all. It's an incredible opportunity for swing enthusiasts to visit new cities, dance with new people, build the Lindy Hop community, make new friends and get little or no sleep!" Therefore, this March the Portland Lindy Society welcomed visitors to Portland for a weekend full of free live bands, DJ's, dance lessons and more!  A Saturday afternoon of community swing dancing was hosted at the Square with additional weekend events held at the Tiffany Ballroom and the historic Crystal Ballroom.

national tibetan uprising

The Regional Tibetan Youth Congress returned to the Square to host this annual gathering.  This year's event commemorated the 49th anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising when thousands of Tibetans rose up against China's illegal invasion of Tibet.  Event participants met at the Square to peacefully demonstrate and show their respect for those who lost their lives in the struggle for Tibet 's independence.

SQUARE NEWS

Festival of Flowers 2008

American institute of architects' Committee on the Environment

Pioneer Courthouse is pleased to announce its partnership with the American Institute of Architects' Committee on the Environment for the 2008 Festival of Flowers Installation.  The Committee on the Environment (COTE) consists of 7,000 members who work to advance, disseminate and advocate—to the profession, the building industry, the academy, and the public—design practices that integrate built and natural systems and enhance both the design quality and environmental performance of the built environment. 

                                                    Festival of Flowers 2008 Schedule

                                                     Floral Display: June 6 – 18, 2008

                                                     Flower Sale : June 19 – 22, 2008

Festival of Flowers at Pioneer Courthouse Square is one of Portland 's most renowned public installations.  An estimated 350,000 people visit the two-week long celebration to herald the summer season with over 20,000 plants and flowers of vibrant color.

Banner Bags AVAILABLE NOW!

In partnership with Queen Bee Creations Pioneer Courthouse Square event banners are being repurposed into useful, unique market totes. The banner material utilized in these ‘one of a kind' market totes has hung outdoors weathering local conditions and have proven to be a very durable fabric, ideal for second use. The banner material in each tote will appear gently distressed over time and are waterproof, washable and strong.

Each limited edition market tote is only $38 and cannot be reproduced.  To select your 'one of a kind' bag click here or call 503.223.1613.  

KINK.fm Radio Partnership

Pioneer Courthouse Square is pleased to announce its renewed partnership with KINK.fm.  KINK is a local radio station that is actively involved with the Portland Community supporting a wide range of marquee events.  Through 2010 KINK will support the promotion of Pioneer Courthouse Square's sponsored events which include Festival of Flowers, Noon Tunes presented by Volkswagen, Flicks on the Bricks presented by Smart Park, the Stimson Lumber Tree Arrival, Tree Lighting Ceremony and Tuba Christmas.  KINK has been an integral media partner of the Square for more than a decade supporting the development and sustainability of year-round programming in the heart of downtown.

For this summer's Noon Tunes Presented by Volkswagen at Pioneer Courthouse Square KINK asked listeners to visit www.kink.fm throughout the month of February to nominate their favorite Portland bands and songs.  From those nominations KINK selected the top twenty nominees to include on the upcoming "Kink.FM – Plug in Portland – Local Music CD Sampler".   The music of the twenty nominated bands will be featured all summer long on KINK Local Music Spotlight and will be booked to perform at Pioneer Square's Noon Tunes presented by Volkswagen summer concert series and Portland Spirit's Friday Escape Cruises.

The artwork for the cover of the Plug in Portland CD will be created by a KINK listener through an upcoming online voting process.  The Plug in Portland CD will be available throughout the summer at each Noon Tunes presented by Volkswagen summer concert and at participating Burgerville locations.  For more information click here.

Pioneer Courthouse Square Annual Maintenance
Pioneer Courthouse Square began its annual deep clean in February!  The Square's brick floor was pressure washed, its benches oiled, columns scoured, the fountain scrubbed and bricks were repaired.  Ongoing work will continue to refresh planters and landscaping, prepare for the installation of new trash cans and refurbishment of Portland's beloved Weather Machine.  We would like to thank all of our downtown partners that made these focused efforts possible: Portland Park Bureau, Portland Patrol Services Inc., CleanScapes, Portland Police Bureau and TriMet. Additional maintenance will continue in partnership with the Park Bureau throughout the Spring as we prepare for the Square's busy event season.

TRUSTEE MEETING CALENDAR

Facilities Committee
Thursday, March 13th 8:30am
Pioneer Courthouse Square

Executive Committee
Thursday, March 27th 8:30am

Pioneer Courthouse Square

Board of Trustees Quarterly meeting
Tuesday, April 29th 11:30am
Hilton Portland & Executive Tower

Harriet Beal Cormack; Helen Blair Day, ACME Business Consulting; Julia Brim-Edwards, Nike, Inc.; Dr. Kim Burchiel, Oregon Health and Science University; Thomas Corry, Bank of America; Wayne Drinkward, Hoffman Construction; Matthew J. Felton, Felton Properties, Inc.; Paul Frisch, U.S. Bancorp Equipment Finance, Inc.; Paul Fry, KGW Northwest NewsChannel 8; Joyce Furman; Brad Hutton, Hilton Hotels Corporation; J.E. Isaac, Portland Trail Blazers; Philip A. Kalberer, The Kalberer Company; Kirsten Kays, Nordstrom; Sharon Kitzhaber, Kitzhaber Communications; Kevin Kohnstamm, The Party Pros; Peter A. Krainock, American Water Works International; Thomas Lauderdale, Pink Martini; J.Douglas Macy, Walker Macy; Steven S. Maxwell, KeyBank; R. Scott Montgomery, Sequoia Development Co.; Chet Orloff, Oregon History Works; Tim Parks, Ball Janik LLP; William Peressini, Stimson Lumber Co.; Wanda Rosenbarger, Lloyd Center; Commissioner Dan Saltzman, City of Portland; Tad Savinar, Tad Savinar Studio; Chief Rosanne Sizer, Portland Police Bureau; Patrick F. Stickel, The Oregonian; Vanessa Sturgeon, TMT Development; John Svilarich, Volkswagen of America Inc.; John von Schlegell, Endeavour Capital; Mary Wilcox, Capital Realty Corp.; Mark Zertanna, Macy's Northwest

HONORARY
Stanley Geffen, Geffen Mesher & Co.; Greg Goodman, City Center Parking; Steve Janik, Ball Janik LLP; Melvin Mark, Jr., Melvin Mark Companies (Founding President); Tom Moyer, TMT Development Co.; Doug Obletz, Shiels Obletz Johnsen, Inc.; John Russell, Russell Development; The Rev. Stephen Schneider, Grace Memorial Episcopal Church; Gordon Sondland, The Aspen Companies; Kerry Tymchuk, Senator Gordon Smith's Office; David Zier, Melvin Mark Companies