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Just in time for summer strolls, a car-free pedestrian plaza is coming to Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard and 37th Avenue.
According to the Sunnyside Neighborhood Association, the seasonal public plaza will feature seating and picnic tables, public art and a street mural and a solar kiosk for phone charging. The area is set to open this May or June and stay there through October.
The plaza will be on the north side of the intersection, near businesses such as Buffalo Exchange, Gold Door, Straight From New York Pizza, Tov Coffee and No Name Pho. The historic McMenamins Bagdad Theater & Pub is across the street and Powell’s Books is one block over.
In addition to having a place to charge phones, people-watch and eat a slice of pizza under ambient lighting, a perk of the plaza will be that people can hold community events there without requiring permits for street closures, according to the neighborhood association’s announcement on social media. The central kiosk will also offer maps and historic and cultural information.
“The kiosk strategy is a form of urban acupuncture for revitalizing communities,” says Heather Flint Chatto, founder of PDX Main Streets’ kiosk project and executive director at the Architectural Heritage Center.
This particular stretch of Hawthorne is not quite back to its pre-pandemic vitality: Toadstool Cupcakes left years ago and the vacancy left by Bank of America in 2023 led to heaps of trash and graffiti.
The plaza is a project of the Sunnyside and Hawthorne neighborhood associations, PDX Main Streets and the Portland Bureau of Transportation. Originally developed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, PBOT has continued to support nearly 20 public street plazas in town.
The Hawthorne location was chosen in August 2024 because it has the right mix of active restaurants and businesses, frequent foot and bike traffic and easy access to a bus line. The project is funded by a $46,000 grant from Venture Portland to the Hawthorne Boulevard Business Association.
