PSU Architecture students design and build brand-new musical stage for 2024 Pickathon festival

Cherry Hill stage under construction by PSU Architecture students.

Portland State University Architecture students have returned to Pendarvis Farm to design and build a new, original minimal-waste performance stage at the annual Pickathon music festival, which runs from August 1 to 4, 2024 in Happy Valley, OR.

The 2024 Cherry Hill stage is created using more than 1,000 "sticks" of dimensional lumber, which have been assembled into 80 gates, or thresholds, that form a meandering pathway partially encircling the stage. At their tallest, the gates will rise 27 feet into the air, each with a diagonal armature gesturing toward the audience at varying angles. At night, hundreds of LED light strips and angled lights embedded in the arches will create a magical, sparkling effect.

"The gates invite audience members to enter an open tunnel, and be drawn along a walkway that traverses the landscape, stepping down the slope toward and behind the stage," said Travis Bell, associate professor in the School of Architecture. "We wanted the paths to not only encircle the stage but also inscribe a visual boundary around the entire area, really defining the Cherry Hill venue for audiences."

This year's stage continues the school's "diversion design-build" tradition of repurposing materials from other uses to create an innovative, sustainable, minimal-waste performance environment at the Pickathon festival. After the festival, the stage will be dismantled and the wood will be given to several local high school woodshops and carpentry programs.

"Hopefully, the stage will feel a little like a hug for audience members watching the performers," said Curtis Trueblood, a Master of Architecture student and member of the design-build team. "We've set up the pathway such that it wraps around the trees, augmenting where people would normally walk, and then becomes much grander behind the stage."

"During the day, it will look lovely, providing a little bit of dappled shade," Trueblood added. "At night, when it's all lit up, it's a little like a glittering snake, connecting it all. The gates will be set up a bit like an accordion, and people will be able to walk through the entirety of this beautiful trellis-like triangular geometric space, or just pass through part of it, entering and exiting as they need to."

The students were influenced by architect Kengo Kuma, Trueblood said. "His ability to use very simple wood repetitively to make a beautiful, grand sculpture is amazing."

For Master of Architecture student Bedour Al-Manea, the project is an opportunity to put professional skills into practice. "In studio classes, we work individually and don't get to collaborate as much, but here, we're actually collaborating and we have to work as one. Communication, working as a team, these are all skills that will help our professional careers."

In 2023, PSU Architecture students steam-bent hundreds of dimensional lumber pieces to form graceful trees that rose above the Cherry Hill stage, which will soon become an outdoor gathering space at the Oak Savanna on PSU's campus. Previous stages created by PSU Architecture students were made using 160 wooden apple bins borrowed from an apple grower for the purpose of the festival (2022), wooden shipping pallets (2014), giant cardboard tubes (2015), dimensional lumber (2016 and 2018) and wooden trusses (later used to build sleeping pods for homeless veterans at the Clackamas County Veterans Village, 2017).

Past PSU Architecture-designed Pickathon stages have been featured by the Oregonian, Oregon Public Broadcasting, ArchDaily, Architects Newspaper, Archinect, Bloomberg CityLab, and other outlets, and have won multiple awards from the American Institute of Architects and Gray Magazine.

One of nine stages and 12 "neighborhoods" at the festival, the Cherry Hill stage will feature performances by 18 musical acts, including singer and bassist Adi Oasis, indie pop artist Searows, local musical royalty Lo Steele (daughter of Portland's "first lady of the blues" LaRhonda Steele), and experimental pop duo Water from Your Eyes.

Learn more about Pickathon.