University of Oregon

Oregon's flagship public university — leafy 295-acre campus southeast of downtown

Address 1585 E 13th Avenue

The University of Oregon is Eugene's largest single thing — a 295-acre campus of brick buildings, oaks, and rhododendrons immediately southeast of downtown. It is best wandered on foot or bike: cross the Willamette via the Autzen Footbridge, pick up the river path, and loop back through the leafy academic quad.

The buildings worth a closer look are Johnson Hall (the columned 1915 administration block at the head of the main quad), the Knight Library, and the Pioneer Cemetery tucked into the campus's northwest corner. Two excellent museums — the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art and the Museum of Natural and Cultural History — sit on campus. Free public tours of the campus run most weekdays.

things to do sight architecture
A story
Bill Bowerman, the UO track coach who trained Steve Prefontaine, was experimenting with rubber soles in his garage near campus in 1971. The waffle iron he ruined in the process produced the prototype of the Nike Cortez — and the company itself, which he co-founded with his former runner Phil Knight.