In December 2024, Literary Arts welcomed the public into our new permanent headquarters at 716 SE Grand Avenue. As part of creating a welcoming and inclusive space for our community, there were many ways we worked to realize equity throughout the entire process of The Campaign for Literary Arts and in the design and construction of our new space.
These efforts are rooted in the larger efforts throughout the organization and our Equity Framework (found within in our strategic plan here). Since 2014, Literary Arts has been measuring equity over 17 different data points across our programs, and have additional measures in the areas of hiring, as well as the composition of staff and board of trustees. Over time, we have shown durable progress in most areas of our work, but of course there’s a great deal to be done, and there are aspects of our work that need deeper examination. You can read about our commitment to equity and how we think about it in our mission here. Through the creation of a new home, we sought to express our values around equity and justice in a physical space.
ECONOMIC JUSTICE
At the outset of the campaign, our Board of Trustees committed at least 13.3% of all campaign spending on BIPOC owned business as a matter of wealth and community building. This percentage was pegged to Oregon census data. We exceeded this goal reaching 50% of the cost of the project going to minority owned firms (35% BIPOC and 15% MWESB (minority, women-owned, and emerging small businesses), and have enjoyed strong partnerships with APEX Realty, O’Neill Construction, PaperTrees Creative and other companies. When other businesses were engaged, they were asked, and often agreed to, work pro-bono on the project. This includes the incredible and indispensable contributions of Bora Architecture & Interiors and Edlen & Company who are strong allies in this work.
We also chose to work with our donors towards a different approach to recognizing philanthropy. As a result, we have committed to a process by which most spaces inside the building will be named after writers and 50% of those names will be named after those writers who would likely identify from communities under the BIPOC umbrella.
DESIGN JUSTICE
Public engagement was also an area where we sought to make sure we intentionally engaged with the breadth of our community. To this end, a group of Community Design Advocates (CDA’s) was formed—Twenty BIPOC leaders were paid a stipend to advise us on our work, from early visioning of the space to the furniture selected. The group included writers, educators, community leaders, and business owners. This work was led in part by a firm called Colloqate, Bora Architecture and Interiors, and board member Maurice King.
Bora, too, leaned into their learning and applied the principles of design justice to the building, creating a space inside an historic building that deployed a relatively new set of architectural grammar that speak to a wide group of people the language of welcome and safety, including color, variety of space, and clear wayfinding. Over the course of eight meetings with the CDA’s, we learned the importance of dedicated space for children and writers—two areas added to the ground floor and mezzanine, respectively.
Our work with Bora and through our public engagement with Colloqate led us to a deeper understanding of how to keep our community and staff safe in our new space while remaining a welcoming environment. This has led to an intentional design that supports these values. It also led to hiring the security firm Succor Global, which is BIPOC and veteran owned and shares our values. Our security folks are unarmed, trained in de-escalation, and their team is highly diverse. In addition we have hired Relay Resources for our janitorial services, a company dedicated to creating meaningful work for people with disabilities.
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Our equity values also meant we wanted to pay attention to environmental justice. This looks like restoring an historic building rather than new construction, which uses far less carbon. We also removed all fossil fuels from the mechanical systems of the existing building, investing in an all-electric system. Soon, we will be adding solar panels to the roof, with generous support from PGE Foundation, which will provide a significant amount of the necessary power for day-to-day operations.
This intentional approach to equity throughout the campaign and construction has been rewarding, affirming, and instructive, and will change how we conduct our day-to-day business, including choosing what is on the bookshelves, to what food a drink we serve, and where it is sourced.
