Byline: Lee Scopel

A long-awaited Native American Student and Community Center at Portland State University is finally coming to fruition after the Oregon Legislature's Emergency Board Education Committee recently approved the final $1.2 million in bonds for the center's construction.

The center will provide a cultural home for students and a community center for the 15,000 Native Americans who live in the Portland metropolitan area.

"When it's finished it will be a one-of-a-kind as far as we know in the United States because of the unique combination of community, student and distance learning facilities that will be in here," said Don Stastny, of Portland-based StastnyBrun Architects, the principal designer for the project.

The $4 million, 11,000-square-foot building will sit on the corner of Southwest Jackson and Broadway streets on the PSU campus. Interstate 405 will border the building to the south.

Stastny has been working on the center's design for about five years now.

His knowledge of the Native American community is what...