Portland’s Green Streets Network and Street Design

GreenWorks' Principal Mike Faha collaborated with the Portland Bureau of Environmental Services' Dave Elkin to lead a Green Street tour last week for the Congress for the New Urbanism.  The tour highlighted GreenWorks green street projects' design, implementation, and policies and codes that govern them.  For more information visit www.cnu.org.

"Tour 1: Portland’s Green Streets Network and Street Design"

The Congress for the New Urbanism’s “Project for Transportation” has long promoted humane, multi-modal, narrower streets and complete networks through its collaborations with the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and International Code Council. Attempts to establish a national initiative in support of green streets, or streets that reduce environmental impacts, has been disappointingly slow for advocacy groups aiming to push the initiative into the mainstream. Multi-benefit streets have been most successfully implemented at the local level by a handful of cities. Portland is one of these, and since beginning design and construction of green streets in 2003, Portland now has roughly 700 public and private green streets--streets that reduce stormwater run-off and improve water quality. Over the next 10 years, the City is planning to install 500 more green streets. The numerous green streets in Portland are part of a 20-year plan to reduce overflow into the Willamette River and Columbia Slough. Portland’s green streets are designed for all contexts, from neighborhood residential areas to central business districts. Learn about green streets’ design and implementation challenges from one of Portland’s leading landscape architects. Learn about the policies and codes that govern them from representatives of the city’s environmental and transportation agencies.

The tour will be led by Mike Faha, ASLA, LEED AP, Principal, GreenWorks PC; David Elkin, Portland Bureau of Environmental Services, and Portland Bureau of Transportation."

Click on the gallery below to learn more about the tour and the projects featured:

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