Free Days

The fourth Friday of every month is the free day for the Portland Art Museum. We hadn't been since we moved here, but I remember it well from our visits when we lived in Seattle. Ann Beha Architects out of Boston designed the renovation of the expansion, an existing masonic temple. I saw her lecture in 2005, around the time this was going up. I like their approach to restoration work, which combines old and new with thoughtful interventions that make a clear distinction between the two:

 

The collection is also very contemporary with a great variety of sculptural work, which looks great in this building. Also notice that cute old truck on the left. There were some food carts that evening in the sculpture park (between the old building and the new expansion.) The orange one was a creperie cart. I thought it looked great, and even better on the striped pavement. 

 

There was also a free day at the Chinese Garden in Old town on Saturday. September is the 10th anniversary month and last weekend was the "Under the Autumn Moon Festival" in Chinatown. Some of my favorite features include the rock tiles, which change throughout the gardens, and the openings in the garden walls. We also spotted a resting humming bird, which always makes me happy, especially when we were successfully snap its picture!