It's not too late - individual tickets and sponsorships are still available for our signature celebration of the year!

Every fall, the Oregon architectural and building community comes together to celebrate the work and legacy of some of our most impactful contributors. As the Portland Metropolitan region celebrates the completion of the last three library projects in the 2020 library bond, it is time to tip our hats to our 2026 Honored Citizen, Vailey Oehlke, the leader whose vision and tenacity ensured that our libraries were shaped by innovative thinking, inclusive processes, and community-centric and sustainable design.

Vailey Oehlke was the transformative Executive Director of Multnomah County Library (MCL) from 2009-2024. As the oldest public library on the west coast, Central Library and eighteen other neighborhood libraries are the second busiest library system among its peers in the country. In 2024, visits to all the libraries exceeded two million patrons. For fifteen years, Vailey was totally committed to ensuring Multnomah County Library remained valued, relevant, and responsive to the community.

Perhaps her greatest legacy stems from her vision for the successful $387 million capital bond campaign of 2020 to rebalance, expand, and modernize the entire library system to better serve the county’s growing and diverse population. It is the most comprehensive rethinking of the library system in its 162-year history. Her goal of an innovative and hyper-inclusive public outreach process that gave voice to historically marginalized communities was foundational to the bond’s success. Between all the library projects, there were hundreds of in-person and online opportunities to participate – from programming spaces to voting on finish materials and color schemes.

Join us for this year's celebration of Vailey and the extensive accomplishments of the design and building firms that realized her vision. Honored Citizen is taking place on Thursday, October 8 at the Hyatt Regency Portland at the Oregon Convention Center. Event sponsorships, table sponsorships, and individual tickets are available. Individuals may also purchase tickets to the opening reception only for the biggest AEC networking event of the year!

Thursday, October 8

5:00-9:00pm

Hyatt Regency Portland

at the Oregon Convention Center