PNCA President Tom Manley and architect Brad Cloepfil discuss “Art Schooled Urbanism: PNCA and the Rebirth of the North Park Blocks” as part of Portland Monthly’s Bright Lights conversations series hosted by editor in chief Randy Gragg. January 14, 2013.

Portland Monthly magazine sponsors a conversation with PNCA President Tom Manley and architect Brad Cloepfil on Monday, January 14 at 6 pm. “Art Schooled Urbanism: PNCA and the Rebirth of the North Park Blocks” is part of the magazine’s Bright Lights conversations series hosted by editor in chief Randy Gragg. The event is at Jimmy Mak’s, 221 NW 10th Avenue.

As Portland Monthly notes, “For decades, Portland’s verdant Park Blocks have ended their northern reach at a fenced parking lot with all the life of a dead-end alley. But come September, a transformation will begin as one of the city’s most august and imposing edifices—the 511 Building—becomes home base to its fastest-growing creative institution: the Pacific Northwest College of Art.”

The event promises, “a tour of the vision for the college and the rebirth of the North Park Blocks with the project’s leaders, PNCA president Tom Manley and renowned architect Brad Cloepfil. The duo argue the new building—to be dubbed the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design—will be a booster rocket, not just for the college, but for the neighborhood and the city, adding a critical link to the so-called “Creative Corridor” stretching from the Ace Hotel and Wieden & Kennedy to the University of Oregon’s White Stag Building, and standing at the doorstep of the future redevelopment of the nine-block US Post Office site.”