The magazine 1859 features the University of Oregon’s SCYP program in the magazine’s July|August 2015 issue. Writer Felisa Rogers explains how SCYP got its start and notes its many successes in its six-year tenure. “What sets SCYP apart is the scope and cohesiveness of the project,” she writes in the six-page feature story. SCYP—which partners UO students with an Oregon municipality needing assistance reaching sustainability project goals—not only helps both cities and students move projects forward, but it also has boosted city employees’ enthusiasm for their jobs, Rogers notes.

Liz Zarro, a 2015 Product Design Program BFA graduate, wants to develop "products that are more than just products" and use design to improve people's lives. She designed an exoskeletal back support, called Origin, for Portland's wheelchair basketball team. The product reduces athletes' dependence on their hands for core stability and body repositioning. For her honors thesis project, Zarro designed a biomimetric shelving unit that she has titled Pinicola Shelves.

In fall 2008, the University of Oregon completed its move into the White Stag Block (WSB), a refurbished facility that merges parts of three historic buildings in downtown Portland. The move culminated efforts—compressed into just two years—to adapt three vacant historic buildings into the interconnected high-tech complex that today comprises the School of Architecture and Allied Arts’ most urban presence. The building project is owned, managed, and leased by Venerable Group, Inc.

The University of Oregon’s Product Design Program has teamed up with furniture company Groovystuff, of Dallas, Texas, on an education-to-industry cross-cooperative partnership in “The Groovystuff by Design: Connecting Education with Industry Challenge.” Groovystuff is cosponsoring thirteen UO students for the challenge, which takes place at the High Point Market at the Suites at Market Square in High Point, North Carolina, from April 18-23.

A project combining input from architecture professionals and students, Oregon Coast community members, and state emergency management experts is helping design signage improvements and alternative strategies for wayfinding in the event of a tsunami on the Oregon Coast.

Two Product Design Program bachelor of fine art candidates were honored recently for their work by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), earning invitations to the Western District Conference April 10-11 in San Jose, California.

Department of Architecture Professor Hajo Neis, director of the Department of Architecture at UO in Portland and director of the Portland Urban Architecture Research Laboratory (PUARL), has announced a collaboration between PUARL and Pursuit of Pattern Languages and Societal Change (PURPLSOC) to present the international 2015 conference on pattern language, at Danube University in Austria in July.