Join us for this free presentation in our Olmsted 2022 Good Parks Speaker Series. Register below to attend in-person at Columbia Cottage in Columbia Park, or online via Zoom. You can also join our livestream if you follow us on Facebook.
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In this lecture, Ms. Wheeler-Weber will provide an overview of the historical context of Columbia Pool and its closure. University of Portland, Professor Itzel will describe the rich social context of community interactions at the Columbia Pool, showing how a diverse group of individuals regarded the space and created meaning there, leading to its significance as a site that supported social and cultural wellbeing as well as physical health.
The dialogue will touch on relations of struggle embodied in everyday practice before and after the pool’s closure. And at a time when the City of Portland has proposed a new North Portland aquatics center that will take 5-7 years to build, the audience will be invited to imagine what may be gained and lost in the future of North Portland aquatics.
The dialogue will touch on relations of struggle embodied in everyday practice before and after the pool’s closure. And at a time when the City of Portland has proposed a new North Portland aquatics center that will take 5-7 years to build, the audience will be invited to imagine what may be gained and lost in the future of North Portland aquatics.
About the speakers
Beatriz Itzel Cruz Megchun is assistant professor of design and innovation at the University of Portland's Pamplin School of Business. She obtained her Ph.D. with the thesis "The Strategic Role of Design Management" to enhance the performance of small Mexican technology-based enterprises in new technological industries at Staffordshire University. Itzel received her M.Sc. in design management from the University of Salford, United Kingdom, and her B.A. in industrial design at the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana campus, Xochimilco, Mexico. Itzel has over ten years of experience working in the creative, manufacturing and new technology industries in Europe and Mexico. She has collaborated over twenty years with different NGOs and governments in the gestation and implementation of social projects in the cultural area. During the past six years, she has examined the role of design as an agent of change at the social level. She recently taught a Design Thinking Class, “Columbia Pool: Imagining Thriving Communities,” to University of Portland students.
Mary-Margaret Wheeler-Weber is Chair of the Portsmouth Neighborhood Association and has been a leader in the community advocacy for “uninterrupted year-round access to North Portland indoor aquatics” since the pool’s closure was first announced in 2019. Educated as a historian, Ms. Wheeler-Weber achieved Ph.D candidacy at the University of Michigan and practiced community-driven, place-based public history in the Pacific Northwest at the Center for Columbia River History, Educational Service District 112, and the Washington State Historical Society. She produced collaborative conferences and programs on topics including the inundation of Celilo Falls, the legacy of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and the multi-layered history of the place that is now Fort Vancouver.
Learn more about our Olmsted 2022 Good Parks Speaker Series.
Mary-Margaret Wheeler-Weber is Chair of the Portsmouth Neighborhood Association and has been a leader in the community advocacy for “uninterrupted year-round access to North Portland indoor aquatics” since the pool’s closure was first announced in 2019. Educated as a historian, Ms. Wheeler-Weber achieved Ph.D candidacy at the University of Michigan and practiced community-driven, place-based public history in the Pacific Northwest at the Center for Columbia River History, Educational Service District 112, and the Washington State Historical Society. She produced collaborative conferences and programs on topics including the inundation of Celilo Falls, the legacy of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and the multi-layered history of the place that is now Fort Vancouver.
Learn more about our Olmsted 2022 Good Parks Speaker Series.