Appoint members to the Design Commission

Appoint members to the Design Commission Label: Report TO THE COUNCIL: As Mayor, I request Council confirmation of the following appointments to the Design Commission. The Design Commission provides leadership and expertise on urban design and architecture and advances the purpose of the Design overlay zone. The Design overlay zone ensures that Portland is both a city designed for people and a city in harmony with nature. The Design overlay zone supports the city's evolution within current and emerging centers of civic life. The overlay promotes design excellence in the built environment through the application of additional design standards and design guidelines. The Portland Design Commission hears Land Use applications for proposals within design districts (Type III applications and Type II appeal applications). I recommend two candidates for appointment. Appointment Membership Category Term Term Duration Hanifah Abioto City Arts 1st 5/1/26 – 4/30/30 Tommy Solomon Landscape Architect 1st 12/1/26 – 11/30/30 Hanifah Abioto:The City Arts position is a dual-serving volunteer committee appointment – the recommendation was provided by the Office of Arts & Culture (OA&C) Public Arts Administrator Eric Frederickson, where the candidate will serve on the Design Commission and the OA&C Public Art Advisory Committee (currently in the process of being created). Hanifah Abioto is co-owner of an art and design firm with her family, Studio Abioto, that focuses on Black diasporic art, history, and lifestyle. Studio Abioto has recently shifted towards art curation, public and private, following some recent contracts with publicly funded buildings. Hanifah works as a Grants & Communications Coordinator at Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods, the Portland District 2 Coalition Office. Hanifah works primarily with Civic Life and Portland City Councilors on occasion. Additionally, as a part of Studio Abioto and in conjunction with a couple of other artists, Hanifah has held a contract with Parks and Rec/RACC to produce the Art Plan for the North Portland Aquatic Center. Statement from Hanifah Abioto: Moving to Portland in 2010, I have witnessed profound change in a city shaped by the constant intersection of nature and development. Living in a place that has transformed so deeply has made me attentive to how design shapes wellbeing and quietly communicates what is possible, welcomed, or overlooked in our city - often long before anyone can consciously name it, and sometimes long after harm has already occurred. As an artist who returns to sound, writing, and printmaking as primary architects of my work, I am trained to notice scale, material, rhythm, and absence, and how these elements shape how people experience themselves in space and place. This way of seeing is why I am both equipped and invested in contributing to Portland through the Design Commission, where there is an opportunity to uplift lived, collective, and diverse experience through public art and design. Alongside my artistic practice, my work administering grants to community organizations and engaging closely with Portland neighbors has given me a clear view of how design decisions translate into lived outcomes and perceptions of belonging. Sometimes this view is not clean, but it is clear nevertheless. I have seen how public investment can feel thoughtful or extractive, how process affects trust, and how clarity and care at the design level shape long-term public benefit. My background in public art planning and curation allows me to work comfortably within adopted design guidelines while bringing a contextual, perceptive lens to design review, in collaboration with fellow commissioners and in care for Portlanders' experiences now and into the future. Tommy Solomon: This Landscape Architect position is an early appointment for the future vacancy of the current Landscape Architect position which ends November 2026. By "pre-appointing" this positions alongside the City Arts Cand