A Win-Win Proposal

In a recent meeting of the City of Portland’s Arts + Economy Committee, PSU Foundation President Sarah Schwarz, on behalf of Portland State, offered testimony reacting to calls for a “win-win” solution that could create a larger vision incorporating both the Keller Auditorium and the larger Performing Arts + Culture Center site. The two locations are linked by the Halprin Sequence, an internationally renowned series of urban parks and fountains that are one of Portland’s hidden architectural gems. The parkways would be significantly activated with public amenities at either end.

• Schwarz outlined the following win-win solution:
  A Broadway-capable theater to be owned by the City of Portland that is built at the Performing Arts + Culture Center location to take advantage of the four-times-larger PSU site. This will give patrons and presenters all the space they need to ensure comfortable, modern usage now and into the future — so the biggest shows of tomorrow will come to Portland. More space is what the City of Portland was originally solving for when it issued an RFP to solicit alternatives to renovating Keller Auditorium.
  
  
• A mid-sized theater that meets the region’s identified need for a 1,500-1,800 seat venue to be located at the current Keller Auditorium site, preserving the long-time use of that location as a performing arts venue and honoring its proximity to the iconic Keller Fountain. This gives those who value the Keller Auditorium’s past a path that preserves its cultural and civic history
  
  
• A community and academic theater at PSU with 800-1,200 seats that is optimized for cultural access by smaller and more diverse community organizations as well as colleges and K-12 students. This change is a compromise offered by Portland State in an effort to best serve the entire arts ecosystem.

Staging the construction of these venues over a decade avoids closure of the Keller and the negative consequences feared by the neighborhood. The long horizon gives time for fund raising for the Keller, and makes use of planning already undertaken by renovation proponents.

What if we could come together around this potential plan that makes both practical and visionary sense — and could align under one banner the widest range of cultural advocates, civic leaders, neighborhood activists and potential funders?