Recent Successes

Kodak

Hundreds of people visited Portland's living room while Kodak demonstrated their Kodak Consumer products onsite. During one of the busiest shopping weekends downtown, Kodak took photos of people visiting the Square and distributed them for free via Kodak Color Photo Printers!

holiday artisan market

Shoppers and visitors alike stopped by the Holiday Artisan Market last month for six days of shopping and perusing. This was the fourth year in a row local artists and vendors filled the Square with local art, crafts, homemade jewelry and much more! Many of this year's vendors included those who participate in the Portland Saturday Market. This year's vendors offered blown glass, fleece hats and scarves, cinnamon roasted nuts and photographs mounted on plywood. For more information on this event, please visit the Portland Saturday Market website by clicking here.

chanukah menorah lighting

Once again, for eight consecutive nights, the Chabad of Oregon brought the lighting of the Menorah to the Square. This annual tradition celebrates the Jewish Community in Portland with dancing, music and education for downtown visitors of all ages to enjoy. This year the Chabad of Oregon also held a "Chanukah Jewish Celebration Night" at the Rose Garden on December 9th. For more information on the Chabad of Oregon, click here.

starbucks surprise and delight

True to its title, this holiday season Starbucks ‘surprised and delighted’ thousands of downtown shoppers with three full days of beverage sampling and giveaways at the Square. Starbucks’ Surprise and Delight team greeted downtowners the Day after Thanksgiving and on the last shopping weekend of the holiday season with free samples of their seasonal Gingerbread Lattes and Peppermint Mochas.

tuba christmas presented by smartpark - the biggest year yet!

Over 230 tubists filled the Square last month with the joy and sounds of big brass at the 17th Annual Tuba Christmas Concert at Pioneer Courthouse Square! With an early morning rehearsal at Lincoln High School and the guidance of Portland's own Conductor Dr. John Richards, the sound of the tubas helped celebrate the holiday season in downtown Portland.

Dr. John, former Principal Tubist of the Oregon Symphony, celebrated his 17th year conducting hundreds of tubists in this unique Christmas tradition. Also at this year's event Victor Morris, soloist/narrator for the Oregon Symphony, performed and led the crowd in a community sing-along! This was the biggest turn out yet for Tuba Christmas at the Square to date! Click here for photos from this year's concert!

Tuba Christmas and the entire winter season at Pioneer Courthouse Square Presented by SmartPark is brought to you with the generous support of the following sponsors: KeyBank, Macy's, Pioneer Place, Cricket, Stimson Lumber Co., TriMet, KGW Northwest NewsChannel 8, KINK.fm, the Portland Tribune, Starbucks, Campbell Crane, Lasko Printing, PBA/ PDSI Holiday Lighting Program and Sunbelt Rentals.

SQUARE NEWS

Health week at the Square!

Get a healthy start to 2008 by stopping by the Square during Health Week! This year's Health Week will provide health and vision screenings, along with information on healthy living and illness prevention from the following organizations: American Red Cross Bloodmobile, Pacific University College of Optometry Ivan, American Cancer Society, Adventist Medical Center Healthvan, National College of Natural Medicine, American Tinnitus Association, Oregon College of Oriental Medicine and Absolute Life Chiropractic. Information will be provided by each of the organizations, as well as demonstrations by specialists who will be on hand to answer questions. For a full schedule of this year's Health Week at the Square, please click here.

Starbucks at the square goes green

The team at Starbucks’ Pioneer Courthouse Square location has seized an opportunity to reduce waste and positively impact the environment. Last Fall Starbucks’ Shift Supervisor, Brandon Arment, began working with Portland Compost and Portland Sanitation & Recycling to compost all of the leftover food and biodegradable products generated from their store. These biodegradable products include paper towels, napkins, coffee grounds, paper cups and boxes. Composting provides many benefits for our environment; it is rich in nutrients that help plants grow, aids in erosion, helps retain water, suppresses plant disease and limits weed growth.

Store Manager, Jamie Whitaker states, “With this new recycling and composting program, we have reduced the Pioneer Square Starbucks’ waste load by approximately 80%. This program was easy to get started and maintain. One of Starbucks Coffee Company’s guiding principles is an on-going commitment to minimizing our environmental impact, and store partners at this location are proud to be making a difference.”

DOWNTOWN HOLIDAY lighting PROGRAM

This year's holiday season received a head-start when tree lights downtown were lit earlier than ever to celebrate the Macy's grand reopening on October 24th. The Portland Business Alliance manages the annual tree lighting program on behalf of property owners in the downtown Business Improvement District, who cover the full costs of the lights installation, maintenance and electricity costs. This year marks the fifth consecutive year that the downtown property owners have sponsored this lighting program, which helps to make downtown more festive and inviting during the holiday season. With more than 10,000 strands of lights sparkling on 708 trees, this program is one of the nation's largest holiday lighting programs. The lights will remain up through January 30th.

Community Performances at the square

The Square would like to extend a huge 'thank you' to all of those who contributed to making downtown festive this holiday season! More than a dozen school groups, choirs and arts organizations shared their musical talents for the passing-by shoppers and visitors to the Square. This holiday season was highlighted by the choirs from East/West Sylvan, Sunset High School, Laurelhurst Elementary, Buckman Elementary, the Salvation Army Christmas Brass Ensemble and many more! If you would like more information on these performances or if you are interested in your organization performing at the Square next December, please contact Stacey Harrington or call 503.223.1613.

The winter season at Pioneer Courthouse Square Presented by SmartPark is brought to you with the generous support of the following sponsors: KeyBank, Macy's, Pioneer Place, Cricket, Stimson Lumber Co., TriMet, KGW Northwest NewsChannel 8, KINK.fm, the Portland Tribune, Starbucks, Campbell Crane, Lasko Printing, PBA/ PDSI Holiday Lighting Program and Sunbelt Rentals.

TRUSTEE MEETING CALENDAR

Facilities Committee
Thursday, January 10th 8:30am
Pioneer Courthouse Square

Executive Committee
Thursday, January 24th 8:30am

Pioneer Courthouse Square

Board of Trustees Quarterly meeting
Tuesday, January 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; Sharon Kitzhaber, Kitzhaber Communications; Kevin Kohnstamm, The Party Pros; Peter A. Krainock, American Water Works International; 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.; Allyson Reed, Gray & Associates; Wanda Rosenbarger, Lloyd Center; Commissioner Dan Saltzman, City of Portland; Chief Rosanne Sizer, Portland Police Bureau; Gordon Sondland, The Aspen Companies; Patrick F. Stickel, The Oregonian; Vanessa Sturgeon, TMT Development; John Svilarich, Volkswagen of America Inc.; Kerry Tymchuk, Senator Gordon Smith's Office; 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; David Zier, Melvin Mark Companies