2025 Pacific Northwest Field School

Elk Rock Garden exterior.

2025 Pacific Northwest Field School:  Elk Rock Garden, Portland, OR

The Pacific Northwest Field School (PNWFS) has taught hands-on preservation skills at historic sites across Oregon, Washington, and Idaho for nearly three decades! In 2025, the Field School was held at Elk Rock Garden, a 10-acre historic estate and garden overlooking the Willamette River in Portland’s Dunthorpe Neighborhood, in collaboration with the Elk Rock Garden Foundation. 

The expansive cultivated landscape surrounds a 1916 manor house designed by Ellis Fuller Lawrence, the founding dean of the University of Oregon's School of Architecture, and his business partner William Holford. The grounds, originally designed by Peter Kerr, with later design input from John Charles Olmsted and Emanuel Tillman Mische, feature stone retaining walls and staircases, brick and gravel paths, native and ornamental plantings, and panoramic views of Mt. Hood. The site offers an immersive historic building and landscape preservation experience rooted in hands-on project work, preservation philosophy, and best practices.

Exterior garden view.

The Elk Rock Garden Foundation was established in 1994 to protect, preserve, and perpetuate the garden for public use. The garden’s historic manor house is now being used as an office and meeting space for mission-aligned nonprofit organizations including the Elk Rock Garden Foundation and the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon. 

Potential hands-on projects at Elk Rock Garden include stone masonry stair and wall repair, restoring The Cascades (the garden’s central water feature), cultural landscape analysis and restoration; garden and tree work; wood window and leaded-glass repair. Final projects were determined during the program. Workshops include wood pathology and identification, cultural landscape analysis, condition assessment, and photodocumentation, depending on the session. 

Field School is an inclusive learning opportunity open to all. You do not need to be a student, have preservation experience, or be affiliated with the University of Oregon to apply. Past participants include students (from the University of Oregon as well as outside universities, colleges, institutions, etc.), practicing professionals, facility personnel, and enthusiasts. All ages, skill levels, and backgrounds contribute to each session’s unique program. 

Join us for an exciting week of preservation training and education!

Sessions

All unique sessions include hands-on preservation work, a workshop, a local field trip, and daily lectures. Lecture topics will include site history, cultural resources management, subject matter deep dives, and adaptive reuse of historic buildings and landscapes. Local field trips will tour historic resources in Portland, Oregon, and will include discussion among preservation professionals and stakeholders. Participants may apply for all three sessions. Session enrollment is limited to 15 participants.

Photograph of the Elk Rock from exterior.

Session 1 - Materials Intensive: Wood

August 31- September 5
  • Al Williams and David Schlicker will lead the project work. Tentative projects include window reconstruction, woven oak radiator cover reconstruction (gig making), and window and leaded-glass repair.
  • Elk Rock Garden Foundation Lead Gardener Nico Swartz will lead the restoration of the Cascades historic water feature.
  • The late-week workshop will be led by Suzana Radivojevic, PhD, and will focus on wood pathology, assessment, and identification. 

 

Session 2 - Materials Intensive: Masonry

September 7 – 12
  • Alan Ash and Al Williams will lead project work. Tentative projects include stone stair and path repairs, and window repair.
  • Elk Rock Garden Foundation Lead Gardener Nico Swartz will lead the restoration of the Cascades historic water feature.
  • Becky Wong will lead a harling condition assessment workshop.
  • Tim Rea will join to demonstrate and instruct on harling composition and application.

 

Session 3 - Preservation Primer

September 14 – 19
  • Al Williams, Vida Germano, and Laurie Matthews will lead all project work. Tentative projects include window repair, cultural landscape analysis, and landscape maintenance best practices.
  • Stephanie Donovan-Brown of the Elk Rock Garden Foundation will lead the restoration of the Cascades historic water feature.
  • Harley Cowan will lead the late-week photo-documentation workshop.

 

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Photos from the 2025 Pacific Northwest Preservation Field School

Students and preservationists work on windows outdoors in Portland surrounded by beautiful gardens and trees. Preservationist works on a stained glass panel inside a historic room/house. Preservationists work on a column outside the historic garden house. Shows a tall, white column strapped horizontally so a preservationist can work on the interior of the column. Preservationist works on a unidentifiable, intricate wood carved item. Students and Preservationists pose in front of a scenic scene of Oregon trees and mountains and hills. Preservationist and student work on wood door outside in Elk Rock gardens. Photograph of an individual gesturing to points of interest on a carved, wooden map in Elk Rock Gardens while a student looks on.