Mark Lakeman will speak in an upcoming edition of CPID Talks on Friday, May 5th. Mark is a national leader in the development of sustainable public places. In the last decade he has directed, facilitated, or inspired designs for more than three hundred new community-generated public places in Portland, Oregon alone. He is a Principal and Designer at Communitecture Inc., a full service design firm that aims to create beautiful and sustainable places that bring people together in community. Through his leadership in Communitecture and it’s various affiliates such as the The City Repair Project (501(c)3), The Village Building Convergence, and the Planet Repair Institute, he has also been instrumental in the development of dozens of participatory organizations and urban permaculture design projects across the United States and Canada. Mark works with governmental leaders, community organizations, and educational institutions in many diverse communities. He is also a partner with the CPID on efforts to address homelessness in Portland through the POD Initiative.  

Mark’s life-long dedication to building community through design began at his roots.  Both of his parents are activist architects and planners, and from the start they infused him with a sense of creative civic possibility. From his father’s work to create Portland’s Pioneer Square, to his mother’s investigations of the public spaces in Medieval and Neolithic villages, they both taught him to see constructive possibilities that can emerge when place is a reflection of the people who live there. Design can destroy the world, or it can save it, help us savor it, and make the human world worthy of our people.  

The CPID Talks are aimed at fostering a dialogue about interesting work being done that is relevant to the public interest design field by inviting speakers from a wide variety of disciplines to share their work and thoughts in an informal setting. These talks are open to the public and held in the CPID office in the School of Architecture at PSU (Shattuck Hall 217).