Brian Libby
Verified
As seen in:
MSN,
The New York Times,
Yahoo Life,
Bloomberg CityLab,
The Wall Street Journal,
Bandcamp Daily,
The Atlantic,
Flipboard,
Salon,
The Seattle Times
and
Covers:
Architecture, interior design, film, visual art
Freelance architecture & arts journalist (Dwell, Metropolis, Oregon ArtsWatch, Portland Tribune, NY Times), photographer-filmmaker, NYU grad, Oregon Ducks fan
Articles by Brian Libby
Marne Lucas: Where art and end-of-life care meet
A self-portrait by artist and end-of-life doula Marne Lucas. Photo courtesy of Marne Lucas. Over the past 30 years, Marne Lucas has built a compelling multidisciplinary career spanning photography, video, and sculpture. But her practice has only become more distinctive by expanding to encompass end-of-life care, creative legacy, and community service.
‘Unseen Portland Architecture’: imagination and transformation
Daniel E. Condon’s design for the Spiral Elevator that didn’t get built for Portland’s 1905 Lewis & Clark Exposition. Image: Oregon Historical Society There is an alternate reality in which Portland built its own answer to the Eiffel Tower. Just as the 1889 Paris Exposition brought Gustav Eiffel’s iconic wrought-iron structure and civic symbol, so too did Portland’s 1905 Lewis & Clark Centennial Exposition inspire Daniel E. Condon’s design for what was known as the Spiral Elevator.
Construction Diary: How a Music Producer Remixed His Childhood Home in Michigan
Detroit's End Studio renovated a midcentury ranch house in West Bloomfield, Michigan, raising the ceiling, knocking down walls, and adding storage for books and records. The house, originally built in the 1950s, was redesigned to incorporate a new vaulted ceiling in the living room while maintaining its classic brick facade and wood interior floors.
Brian Libby
On Tuesday, Sept. 22, at 11.30 a.m., Joseph Gallivan interviews Portland writer Brian Libby as they walk around downtown Portland looking at the architecture. His new book, “In Search of Portland: Exploring a Transforming City,” is a mixture of architectural guide book, cultural history and personal memoir. He stresses the importance of the people who use buildings and how architecture feels inside, as much as how it looks from the outside.
Brian Libby
Brian Libby on is new book, “In Search of Portland: Exploring a Transforming City,” On Tuesday, Sept. 22, at 11.30 a.m., Joseph Gallivan interviews Portland writer Brian Libby as they walk around downtown Portland looking at the architecture. His new book, “In Search of Portland: Exploring a Transforming City,” is a mixture of architectural guide book, cultural history and personal memoir.
In memoriam: Filmmaker Brian Lindstrom
Portland filmmaker Brian Lindstrom. Photo: Submarine Entertainment One of Oregon’s most acclaimed and respected filmmakers, documentarian Brian Lindstrom, died on Friday, May 15, at the age of 65 after a brief battle with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, a rare, progressive neurological disorder. Lindstrom’s wife, author Cheryl Strayed, announced his passing Friday morning.
Urban strategist Matthew Claudel on how Portland adapts
Matthew Claudel, considering what might be next for Portland. Sam Gehrke Photography You might say that urban design and real estate strategist Matthew Claudel picked the worst time to move to Portland … or the best. In 2020, amidst the pandemic, protests and wildfires — as decades of economic growth and escalating cultural prominence descended into our multiyear malaise — Claudel relocated here from the Boston area.
Return of the Thompson Elk, Portland’s Talisman
The Thompson Elk, back at last in its downtown Portland home and wreathed in roses. Photo: Brian Libby Is it just me, or has the mood begun to lift in downtown Portland? On an otherwise ordinary Tuesday as I arrived at the Thompson Elk fountain and statue, back in place after a five-year absence, the skies were gray but the spring tree blossoms of Chapman Square and Lownsdale Square swayed gently and colorfully. By this time, there had already been two celebrations in the past five days.
Construction Diary: How Japanese Minka Homes Inspired a Designer’s Coastal Cabin in Maine
Powered by Yahoo Scout. Yahoo is using AI to generate key points from this article. This means the info may not always match what’s in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Key takeaways Powered by Yahoo Scout. Yahoo is using AI to generate key points from this article. This means the info may not always match what’s in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.
Architecture: The Moda Center’s absence of design
An architectural rendering of a possible new look for the Moda Center, which has proposed a $600 million upgrade. Image: Our New Moda Center. For a venue that state and local governments have been asked to spend hundreds of millions of dollars upgrading, we know very little about the Moda Center’s proposed renovation.
A conversation with Tad Savinar: Making his marks
Tad Savinar, Stage, 2025, digital print, 20” x 26” Tad Savinar’s artworks are designed to capture the mood of our socio-political zeitgeist, encouraging dialogue, reflection and (perhaps particularly in recent years) commiseration. A print comes to mind from his 2020 show at the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation. It featured a single word, AMERICA, floating in a photograph of a clouded sky.
Multnomah County Retrofits Its Libraries for the People
Albina Library is one of 18 branches being remodeled, built, or rebuilt across the city thanks to a $387 million bond Multnomah County voters approved in 2020. Viewed from NE Knott Street on a fall afternoon, the recently remodeled and expanded Albina Library looked much like it did upon opening in 1912: a Spanish Renaissance–style beauty with a terra-cotta roof and arched windows. Except, remarkable for 2025, it was full of people.
Clarity of purpose: A conversation with architect Ben Waechter
Waechter Architecture’s clean-lined 2024 tasting room for Corollary Wines near Amity, Oregon, won the top-tier Honor Award from the Oregon chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Photo: Pablo Enriquez Is Ben Waechter the heir to Brad Cloepfil as the top local architect of his generation? Maybe a few others in town might rival Waechter for that distinction.
Budget Breakdown: They Built a Lakeside Canadian Cabin With a Twist for $412K
Powered by Yahoo Scout. Yahoo is using AI to generate key points from this article. This means the info may not always match what’s in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Key takeaways Powered by Yahoo Scout. Yahoo is using AI to generate key points from this article. This means the info may not always match what’s in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.
Designing (and redesigning) the Rothko Pavilion: A conversation with Hennebery Eddy Architects’ Andrew Smith
View of the sculpture Sun, by Ugo Rondinone, in the Mark Rothko Pavilion’s Tim and Mary Boyle West Plaza of the Portland Art Museum. Photo by Jeremy Bittermann, 2025. At the Portland Art Museum’s grand reopening on November 20, a free-admission day giving the public its first look at the Rothko Pavilion and all 100,000 square feet of new and upgraded gallery spaces, a line of people waiting to get in stretched around the block.
At This Portland Hotel, Wellness Is the Ultimate Sustainability
Designed by LEVER Architecture for developer-builder Solterra, the Cascada Hotel and Spa embraces low-carbon, health-centric luxury. By: Brian Libby Portland, Oregon’s Alberta Arts District includes many galleries, restaurants, and shops. Still, until recently, the neighborhood—about four miles northeast of downtown—had no hotels, let alone one like Cascada, with its biophilic-centric interiors and an emphasis on health in seemingly every detail.
The New Portland Art Museum’s Rothko Pavilion Favors Connection
The glass-ensconcedexpansion acts as a transparent crossroads between the museum’s two historic buildings while preserving a pedestrian pathway. By: Brian Libby Photography: Jeremy Bittermann Suppose art museums in the post-Guggenheim-Bilbao era have been celebrated for starchitect-designed flamboyant forms. In that case, the Portland Art Museum’s $111 million expansion, known as the Rothko Pavilion, takes a different tack. It’s about deference, function, and flow.
Touring the Rothko Pavilion with Brian Ferriso
I stepped out of my Volkswagen and there he was. It was a rainy Wednesday afternoon at 10th and Main outside the Portland Art Museum, a few weeks before its new Rothko Pavilion was set to officially open. And it was 20 minutes before I was scheduled to meet Brian Ferriso, the museum’s director, for a tour. Before I had even shut the car door, Ferriso was standing there in a long raincoat, smiling with his hand out for a shake. He had been returning to the museum after lunch and happened to see me.
A love triangle, a wildfire and a miracle: Q&A with novelist-screenwriter Jon Raymond
There’s seemingly no mistaking what Jon Raymond’s new novel, God and Sex, is all about. It’s there in the almost laughably direct title, right? Yes and no. For those expecting some sprawling doorstop of a Great American Novel grappling with and revealing life’s biggest mysteries and temptations, understand that God and Sex arguably isn’t principally concerned with God or sex. Or at least not solely.
Prismid Sanctuary: esperanza spalding creates a destination by cultivating community
For more than a decade, internationally renowned musician and Portland native esperanza spalding has dreamed of building Prismid Sanctuary: an artist community and regenerative space dedicated to nurturing Indigenous, Black and all artistically-minded persons of color. “This has been a life agenda item for a long time,” spalding says.
COLUMN | Portland Architecture: Gladstone Library is a little jewel with a big impact - The Portland Tribune
Share: Share-able URL Share-able URL Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Sip summer with crisp lagers, hazy IPAs, and fruity wheat beers at The Hoppy Brewer in Gresham.
COLUMN | Portland Architecture: Gladstone Library is a little jewel with a big impact - Oregon City News Online
Published 12:32 pm Tuesday, June 24, 2025 In a wave of library construction across the metro area, this modest suburban branch draws patrons with flexibility, natural light and charm We are living in a time of unprecedented library construction. Across the Portland metro area, new library branches are being built, and existing ones are being expanded. Even as the federal government slashes non-military spending, local jurisdictions are embracing libraries as multifaceted community centers.
Before & After: A Flooded Basement Kicked Off a Family’s Whole-Home Renovation in Montana
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.Generate Key Takeaways A new soft-blue kitchen that’s now open to the dining area sets the tone for the updated Bozeman midcentury. Sometimes a crisis becomes an opportunity.
Before & After: There’s a Hidden Meadow at the Heart of This Wabi-Sabi D.C. Home
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.Generate Key Takeaways After spending several years in Tokyo, a family revamps an American Foursquare with a fresh floor plan, a glassy extension, and an appreciation of Japanese design.
Portland Architecture: Author Max Podemski explores housing options in Portland and beyond
The Philadelphia row house. The Boston triple-decker. The New York tenement. The Portland bungalow. As chronicled in Max Podemski’s new book, “A Paradise of Small Houses” (Beacon Press), almost every American big city has a signature urban housing type, and together they offer a spectrum of architectural styles and population densities. To solve today’s housing shortages, we’ll probably need to order from the entire menu. kAmu@C !@56>D<:[ 2? FC32? A=2??6C 7@C E96 4:EJ @7 {@D p?86=6D H9@ H2D 3@C?
Portland Architecture: Downtown would benefit from more car-free streets
Downtown Portland has come a long way from the darkest days of 2020 and 2021, although it still has some distance to go. There are still too many vacant offices and not enough housing, which will take time to change. In the meantime, we can embrace bold urban design ideas, namely, devoting more public streetscapes to people. It wouldn’t be the first time.
Portland Architecture: Downtown would benefit from more car-free streets Original
Downtown Portland has come a long way from the darkest days of 2020 and 2021, although it still has some distance to go. There are still too many vacant offices and not enough housing, which will take time to change. In the meantime, we can embrace bold urban design ideas, namely, devoting more public streetscapes to people. It wouldn’t be the first time.
Almost Every Furnishing in This Multigenerational Flat Was Designed From Scratch
In India, architect Abhishek Patel works with local manufacturers to create marble, brass, and plywood furniture perfectly tailored to his family’s needs—at a lower cost than high-end retail. Although the Indian city of Rajkot is located in the west-coast state of Gujarat, it’s far enough inland that its climate is hot, with daytime highs averaging over 90 degrees for eight months a year, and over 100 from April through June.
Portland’s Midland Library, renovated by Colloqate and Bora, abounds with artwork and gathering spaces
Visitors encounter community spaces enlivened with colorful artwork from murals to a covered events plaza before even entering Portland, Oregon’s renovated and expanded Midland Library by Colloqate and Bora Architecture & Interiors. Near the entrance are a series of orange and pink hexagonal sculptures resembling children’s building blocks, by the artist team HYBYCOZO. A new entry canopy provides a covered space for farmers’ markets, fairs, and other events.
LEGO, vampires, cruise ships & Quonset huts: Q&A with Skylab Architecture’s Jeff Kovel
Portland’s Skylab Architecture has perhaps the most distinctive fingerprint of any local firm, its diverse projects united by eye-catching angles, futuristic style and an embrace of landscape. Founded by architect Jeff Kovel in 1999, Skylab initially designed hot-spot restaurants and clubs, including 2004’s retro-chic Doug Fir in the Central Eastside, then 2009’s Departure Lounge, a contemporary penthouse added to downtown’s historic Meier & Frank building.
COLUMN | Portland Architecture: Portland developer builds light-filled spaces that work
Perhaps appropriately for a building in North Portland’s Overlook neighborhood, on a clear day, you can see Mt. Hood, Mt. Saint Helens, and the West Hills from the Campbell Garden Homes’ top-floor decks. However, what you won’t see is your next-door neighbor. Evident Architecture Office’s design for developer Ryan Zygar carves space for the decks of these four-story condominiums from their otherwise-pitched roofs, which also extend like awnings to create partially covered outdoor spaces.
COLUMN | Portland Architecture: Portland architect's condos are light-filled spaces that work
Perhaps appropriately for a building in North Portland’s Overlook neighborhood, on a clear day, you can see Mt. Hood, Mt. Saint Helens, and the West Hills from the Campbell Garden Homes’ top-floor decks. However, what you won’t see is your next-door neighbor. Evident Architecture Office’s design for developer Ryan Zygar carves space for the decks of these four-story condominiums from their otherwise-pitched roofs, which also extend like awnings to create partially covered outdoor spaces.
Susan Seubert’s ‘Fragile Beauty’: Icebergs and the passage of time
On a recent afternoon at PDX Contemporary Art, Susan Seubert’s photographs were glowing. We had met at the gallery at 1 p.m. to see Fragile Beauty, featuring photographs of icebergs presented in two ways. In one room, large-format color pigment prints celebrate these natural wonders in the context of their environments.
Imported from Denmark: co-housing as community building
“I don’t know how to pronounce that, to be honest,” Portland State University School of Architecture Assistant Professor Anna Weichsel says with a laugh as we begin discussing the traveling Danish housing exhibition Boliglaboratorium.
How Biophilic Design Is Transforming the Airport Experience
Portland International Airport’s newly redesigned terminal brings nature inside, using timber, trees, and natural light to create a stress-free journey for travelers. Although Portland International Airport’s (PDX) new terminal is defined by its vast mass timber roof, ZGF’s design also focused on human-scale experience, with an emphasis on biophilia.
COLUMN | Portland Architecture: Two decades in, Works Architecture’s name is apt
During its 20-year history, architect Carrie Strickland’s firm has gone by three different names, but the impact has been the same. Bold contemporary buildings and evocative renovations are underscored by a humble problem-solving attitude. Strickland, an avid surfer, continues to ride the wave. No wonder one of the firm’s latest designs will soon anchor a particularly ambitious post-pandemic redevelopment: a 4,250-seat live music venue at the soon-to-be-transformed Lloyd Center. kAmq68:??:?8 :?
Modeling Portland’s past and future
“I hope you can feel it, because I can,” Mayor Keith Wilson told a sold-out crowd at the Portland Art Museum’s Fields Ballroom on February 2. “Everywhere I walk in Portland, I feel that this Renaissance is now within our reach. Today is a great opportunity for us to see what tomorrow is going to look like.” Politicians are obviously not immune to hyperbole or, particularly post-2016, deliberate falsehood.
Budget Breakdown: $49K of Curvy Cabinetry Solved This NYC Couple’s Storage Conundrum
Architect Fareez Giga deploys a suite of custom built-ins to upgrade a 715-square-foot flat for a bibliophile and a passionate cook. Architect Fareez Giga deploys a suite of custom built-ins to upgrade a 715-square-foot flat for a bibliophile and a passionate cook. Janey Tracey and Peter Efstratiades quickly fell in love with the neighborhood of Astoria in Queens, New York, after moving into a rental apartment there seven years ago.
EMIT’s Headquarters Turns a Kmart into a Landmark
In Wyoming, CLB Architects transforms a former big box into a high-tech hub with a distinctive weathered-steel scrim. An empty big-box retail buildingbeside an interstate highway on the outskirts of Sheridan, Wyoming, might not have seemed an obvious place to transform a manufacturing company’s identity and attract a new generation of tech-savvy employees. But EMIT Technologies CEO Casey Osborn knew this former Kmart could become EMIT’s headquarters.
The music is the message: A conversation with KMHD’s Matt Fleeger
It’s a sunny late morning at Portland jazz radio station KMHD’s studios, inside the Oregon Public Broadcasting headquarters on Southwest Macadam Avenue. Before our conversation begins, program director Matt Fleeger, who recently celebrated 15 years on the job, is eager to show off KMHD’s renovated broadcast studios and introduce its roster of daytime on-air hosts.
COLUMN | Portland Architecture: An early-1900s building comes alive as an arts hot-spot
The new home of Literary Arts is both a sign of the times and a hopeful way forward: a people-pleasing new chapter. This nonprofit organization, which operated from a small office in downtown’s historic Pittock Block, has produced the Portland Book Festival for many years and offered year-round writing classes and workshops. But during the pandemic, despite losing half its revenue overnight, Literary Arts decided to expand.
COLUMN | Portland Architecture: An early-1900s building comes alive as an arts hot-spot Original
The new home of Literary Arts is both a sign of the times and a hopeful way forward: a people-pleasing new chapter. This nonprofit organization, which operated from a small office in downtown’s historic Pittock Block, has produced the Portland Book Festival for many years and offered year-round writing classes and workshops. But during the pandemic, despite losing half its revenue overnight, Literary Arts decided to expand.
My afternoon with David Lynch
The last thing I wanted to do was get on a plane. In October 2001, just a few weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, my fear was nearly overpowering. Before the flight from Portland to Los Angeles, I earnestly wrote to a friend and his wife, “In case I don’t make it back, I love you guys.” However, I knew the chance to interview my hero, iconic filmmaker David Lynch, was too great to pass up. And I was right. Mourning Lynch’s death at age 78 on Jan.
COLUMN | Portland Architecture: Rick Potestio’s beautiful mind
For most of us, a 40-year career as an award-winning architect would be fulfilling enough. But for Rick Potestio, it’s just one color in the paint box: one of many winding paths to explore.
COLUMN | Portland Architecture: Rick Potestio’s beautiful mind
For most of us, a 40-year career as an award-winning architect would be fulfilling enough. But for Rick Potestio, it’s just one color in the paint box: one of many winding paths to explore. At the Dynamic Density event, Potestio and Konkol led a fun yet educational participatory group exercise involving neighborhood maps and Lego bricks. The exercise resembled the old Monopoly board game with its plastic houses and hotels. However, it wasn’t a game.
A Family (Quite Literally) Fills the Walls of Their Midcentury Home With Memories
Continue reading More for You
Before & After: A Family (Quite Literally) Fills the Walls of Their Midcentury Home With Memories
Generate Key Takeaways Los Angeles firm Chet Architecture crafts a deeply personal hillside home packed with primary colors—including a custom mural that now holds an even deeper meaning. Los Angeles firm Chet Architecture crafts a deeply personal hillside home packed with primary colors—including a custom mural that now holds an even deeper meaning.
(Double) Exposed to the Elements
You might say Mike Vos has returned from the cold. That could be interpreted two different ways, which is appropriate given his chosen medium: double-exposure photographs. The Portland artist is recovering from a nasty, persistent head cold, relegating Vos to bed rest following an early-October appearance at Powell’s Books with curator and artist Liza Faktor to discuss his new book, Somewhere in Another Place (Buckman Publishing).
John Montague’s ‘Willamette Greenway’ at Nine Gallery: the spirit of place
John Montague’s posthumous exhibit at Nine Gallery, Willamette Greenway 45.525951° N, 122.67341° W, is a subtly powerful testament to the artist’s powers of patient observation. Given that Montague died last year of a rare but rapidly advancing illness that saw dementia and incapacity set in within a mere six weeks, it’s also a moving reminder to stop, look around, and appreciate the spirit of place.
Show More
loading
Actions
Get in touch with Brian
Contact Brian, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack