The city of Philomath and the University of Oregon’s Sustainable City Year Program celebrated the start of a two-year partnership Friday during a kickoff event at Philomath High School.
Under the partnership, university courses will take on projects drawn from the city’s strategic plan. Topics include housing, downtown placemaking, street design, public engagement and business development.
More than 50 people attended the event. The crowd included city leaders, council members, Benton County commissioners, representatives of state and federal elected officials, community members and faculty and students from the University of Oregon and Oregon State University.
Mayor Christopher McMorran said the program gives the city a way to tackle projects it has not had the staff to pursue.
“We have several important community projects that have been on our strategic plan for years but we haven’t had availability of staff resources to take on,” McMorran said. “This program allows us to expand our capacity and make some real progress.”
McMorran tied the partnership to a theme from his State of the City address in January, saying that the arrangement is what the city needs to “unleash the potential energy in our community.”
The Sustainable City Year Program, based at UO’s Sustainable Cities Institute, launched in 2009. It pairs university classes with Oregon communities to work on issues the communities identify, and students gain hands-on professional experience in the process.
Marc Schlossberg, co-director of the Sustainable Cities Institute, served as emcee. Karen Hyatt, UO’s director of community relations, and Megan Banks, director of the Sustainable City Year Program, also spoke. Faculty members then presented posters for each class project.
“Students and community members meet each other, share ideas and then allow students to work their magic finding a sweet spot between bold, realistic, and customized to Philomath’s values and goals,” Schlossberg said.
Students were encouraged to talk with community members at the event to help shape their projects.
Five courses have been matched with Philomath projects so far:
- Middle housing: Architecture students in a design studio led by Christina Bollo will design higher-density housing types suited to Philomath neighborhoods. The goal is to address workforce and affordable housing needs.
- Downtown placemaking: UO architecture students and OSU wood science and engineering students, led by Nancy Cheng of UO and Mariapaola Riggio of OSU, will design and build a temporary structure in downtown Philomath. The structure will use “kit-of-parts” construction with materials such as plywood and mass plywood panels, allowing it to be taken apart, moved and reassembled.
- Community engagement: Public relations students led by Dean Mundy will help the city with outreach in four areas: tourism development, increasing transit ridership, emergency preparedness and the 12th Street road improvement project.
- Street design: Urban transportation students led by Anne Brown will look at modernizing underdeveloped streets, evaluating off-street parking behind existing businesses and recommending “right-sized” residential street standards that could lower infrastructure costs and support housing development. The work includes case studies of comparable cities.
- Business and visitor center: Two sections of a business communications and leadership course led by Amy Nuetzman will work with the city and local business development groups on ways to boost membership and participation. One potential outcome is a plan for a volunteer-staffed visitor center, possibly at the Philomath Museum, that would promote local businesses and provide visitor information.
Additional classes for winter and spring terms in 2027 are still being planned. Details on each project are available through a virtual open house on the city’s partnership webpage.