For Portland architect William Hawkins III, preservation has been a career-long pursuit dating to a great uncle who met famed naturalist John Muir on a hike at Yosemite National Park.
That commitment to providing the public with remarkable spaces has been recognized by a UO program that named Hawkins the recipient of a prestigious award for preservation efforts.
Hawkins has received the 2013 George McMath Award, presented by the University of Oregon’s Historic Preservation Program and Venerable, Inc., for outstanding dedication to preservation.
The award honors the late George McMath, Oregon’s “Father of Preservation” and Hawkins’ business partner for three decades.
Hawkins has practiced architecture in Portland for 45 years, working from 1964-1994 with Allen, McMath & Hawkins and since 1994 in private practice. His work has focused on preservation and documentation of historic buildings and landscapes in Portland; he is also the author of “The Grand Era of Cast-Iron Architecture in Portland” and “Classic Houses of Portland, Oregon, 1850–1950.”
Hawkins’ devotion to Portland—from its natural amenities to its historically significant built environment—mirrors a family tradition of civic involvement that stretches back to his great uncle.
“My great uncle Lester Leander Hawkins was one of the people who brought J.C. Olmsted to Portland to supply Portland with its first parks plan,” Hawkins said. “Preservation became a big movement, with more and more people wanting to see the country do the right thing.”
His shift from traditional architectural practice to preservation was prompted by one moment, Hawkins says: “Meeting George” – as in George McMath. “At that time I was highly influenced by Louis Kahn, Paul Rudolph, and others,” Hawkins says. “That all changed in the ‘60s when I met George, which was a total delight. I volunteered to work on his book (“A Century of Portland Architecture”), and shortly after that I was asked to join the firm.”
“Bill Hawkins' work with George McMath during the 1970s and ‘80s in Portland set high standards among the architectural profession for serious documentation, preservation, restoration, and adaptive reuse of heritage resources when others were still following Modernist avenues of design and planning,” said Kingston Heath, director of the Historic Preservation Program at UO.
Hawkins’ civic involvement includes his advocacy for the revitalization of Portland’s Skidmore/Old Town National Historic Landmark district and participation in organizations such as the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission, the State Advisory Committee for Historic Preservation, the Portland Parks Board, and the Bosco-Milligan Foundation. He holds a master’s degree from the Yale University Graduate School of Architecture, completed undergraduate work at Reed College, and was a Fulbright scholar in Rome.
Because of his advocacy for Portland parks, Hawkins’ efforts in landscape preservation became known nationally and he was invited to serve on the National Association of Olmsted Parks.
This year’s awards ceremony is May 15 in Portland; tickets to the award luncheon are $50 and the reservation deadline is May 3.
- from UO School of Architecture and Allied Arts