Fellowship Celebration

Marta Petteni
2024 Van Evera Bailey Fellow

Marta is an Italian licensed Architect, freelancer designer, and the Co-Director & Program Manager at AfroVillage PDX. Building on her expertise at the intersection of design justice, research, and transportation, Marta will conduct research and produce a comprehensive How-to Guide to advance train repurposing as a scalable model for social justice and sustainable development throughout the region.

“This proposal is grounded in the reality that TriMet will retire 26 MAX Trains in 2024, and more than 100 in the next decade. While trains offer an incredible placemaking opportunity and communicate publicness in a unique way, there is currently no local precedent or guidelines for implementing train repurposing as a model, with 24 trains heading to the landfill just this year.”

In 2020, the AfroVillage team won the People’s Choice Award at TriMet’s MAX Reuse Design Challenge. The design envisioned converting three retiring trains into the “AfroFuturism Oasis” – a sanctuary space for Black and Brown communities to rest, collaborate, and access critical services. With a site in Portland’s historic Black community, the team is now partnering with TriMet, PBOT, BPS, PSU, and many others to make this vision a reality.

The Fellowship will support Marta in investigating local and international case studies, while advancing and documenting the AfroFuturism Oasis project into a comprehensive How-to Guide. This will serve as a valuable roadmap for local stakeholders interested in repurposing trains for the common good, while advancing this model across the region to promote more just and sustainable futures.

Lisa Sato
2024 Pat Sanchez Women’s Fellow

Lisa is a Project Designer at Carleton Hart Architecture. With this fellowship, Lisa will develop her skills to become a better leader, mentor, supporter, and advocate for BIPOC professionals, especially women. She will use the fellowship funds to attend two conferences – NOMA and AIA Women’s Leadership Summit – as well as enroll in a course on leadership and public speaking.  Ultimately, her goal is to leverage what she’s learned to help empower BIPOC women in our industry.

Sarah Vaz
2024 Pat Sanchez Honorarium Recipient

Sarah is a Senior Associate at Holst Architecture. She intends to use fellowship funds to attend ILFI’s Living Futures Conference 2024 and become an ILFI member. This will allow her to explore the human-centered approach to sustainability that is at the core of the Living Building Challenge, and to better correlate sustainability practices with principles of harm reduction and wellbeing that are key to trauma-informed design.

Kayin Talton Davis and Cleo Davis
2023 Van Evera Bailey Fellows

Kayin and Cleo are a team of educators, social construct artists and cultural architects, centering their work on Black culture, community, and the built environment. Building on their years of work with Albina Vision Trust, they used the fellowship while partnering with Robert Clarke, Kimberly Moreland and Molly Esteve, a group of designers and community advocates, to research and produce a Monument Plan for historic Black Portland’s Albina community.

“At the root of the Albina Monument Plan, we see design as a tool for education and movement towards a better future… We seek to understand how monuments will sustain Black belonging and create a network of living histories for Albina that continue to build wealth, cultivate joy, and steward our cultural and ecological ecosystems.”

Jonathan Bolch
2023 Van Evera Bailey Fellow

Jonathan is a licensed architect, Design Principal at Woofter Bolch Architecture and Adjunct Faculty at Portland State University School of Architecture. Building on his ongoing interest and expertise in small-scale affordable infill housing, Bolch researched and documented a vision for alleyway housing on the 76 miles of alleyways found throughout the city of Portland.

“…these largely forgotten spaces can provide a tremendous opportunity for sensitive and impactful development that can help address both the affordable housing crisis and the climate crisis. Their careful development also offers the opportunity to create a network of new urban experiences that can co-exist with and complement the character of existing streetscapes.”

Diana Moosman
2023 Pat Sanchez Women’s Fellow

Diana was awarded the inaugural Pat Sanchez Women’s Fellowship to deepen her knowledge of trauma informed design.

During her 12 years at MWA, Diana’s focus was on affordable housing, working with a variety of non-profit and for-profit developers to create housing for residents living within 30%-60% of the median family income. This is mission-driven work, and she is passionate about bringing good design to affordable housing and finds deep satisfaction in creating places that foster community. Diana utilized the fellowship for training in Trauma Informed Design offered by Shopworks Architecture from Denver, Colorado.