Put A Bird in it is an annual event hosted by WeMake that is a part of Design Week Portland. Over fifty local artists, designers and craftspeople took to their wood shops to create a massive collection of creative bird houses that culminated in a public auction to raise funding for local good.
This year, our good pal Nicole Bittner and I collaborated to design and build a bird hotel and casino of sorts. Band and Bittner are no strangers to collaboration, and along with all of the other bird dwellings, ours was showcased in all of its glory at Sandbox Studio at the WeMake Celebrates event.
The design is inspired by The Mint, a classic hotel and casino from Las Vegas long past. According to Wikipedia, The Mint was “made famous (or infamous) as the first night’s stay in Hunter S. Thompson and Oscar Acosta’s legendary 1971 weekend trip to Las Vegas, immortalized in Thompson’s novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. ”
The actual Mint closed in 1988, but if you know anything about Band and Bittner, you’ll know retro-Vegas stuff is a common theme. Anyways, here’s a few shots of the build!
The actual Mint closed in 1988, but if you know anything about Band and Bittner, you’ll know retro-Vegas stuff is a common theme. Anyways, here’s a few shots of the build!
For the initial process, we worked with ADX to have the exterior cut on their CNC router, and the letters on their laser.
The rest we finished with some hand-painting and custom lighting.
The completed, light-up, super pink hotel was auctioned at the event, and sold to some lucky bird lover. Proceeds from the sales of the birdhouses were donated to All Hands Raised, a local partnership that gathers Multnomah County’s diverse efforts and harnesses them to support kids before, during and after school.
We were super proud to see our little birdhouse showcased with so much other great Portland talent, especially all of our friends who contributed houses as well.
This final photo was shot by Ethan Allen Smith.
