To support us, Make a Donation - we rely on private donations for our operating costs, things like paying salaries and stipends, office space, and even post-its.
The design of Portland’s Jupiter Hotel uses the complex experience of travel to nurture creativity and interaction. Travel blends personal exploration and openness to experience with anonymity, inviting wayfarers to view themselves and their environments in new ways, leading to what Rebecca Solnit described as “Nights alone in motels in remote western towns where I know no one and no one I know knows where I am, nights with the strange paintings and floral spreads and cable television that furnish a reprieve from my own biography. . . .”
The creators of the Jupiter Hotel recognized this, and crafted the hotel to invite introspection that would lead to creativity. A sense of minimalism marks individual rooms, removing the bland coziness found in most hotels and avoiding the mental clutter of institutional space. Each guest room–along with conference areas and public spaces–features blackboards for scribbling ideas, notes, and diagrams. The dreambox, an indoor venue for special events, uses mirrored ceilings to supplement the light from large windows, and provides a flexible open space for meetings and exhibits. Other community areas and performance spaces were designed to encourage interaction among guests, leading to what the hotel’s managers hope will be a creative synergy among visitors. Designer Kelsely Bunker states that ”we created the hotel to be that canvas,” an area for mapping ideas that leads to new levels of understanding.
. Historian Shae Davidson's research interests include public policy and the relationship between culture and civil society. His publications range from articles on industrial history to absurdist poetry.
