Gresham CFTA Plaza Opens Tomorrow

Updated pics of the GCFTA Plaza with plantings... as the grand opening gets near.

Just a reminder about the Grand-opening festivities for the Gresham Center for the Arts Plaza, to be held tomorrow on Saturday at 12:30 p.m., followed by musical performances and family-fun activities from 1 to 8:30 p.m.

For more information on the project, visit http://www.gcfta.org/.

DaVinci School in NY Times

A recent blog post from the NY Times showed "A prototype green classroom addition under construction at the Da Vinci Arts Middle School in Portland, Ore. includes natural daylighting, passive heating and cooling systems, solar roof tiles and other green features that yield a 70 percent efficiency improvement over Oregon building code requirements."

:: image via NY Times Blog

The project by SRG Partnership and the University of Oregon’s Energy Studies in Buildings Lab was aided by pro-bono services from GreenWorks for site improvements and land use issues. Read the full NYT post about this innovative project here, as well as some additional local coverage in the DJC here.

Franklin High School Bike Parking

Some great comments around one of GreenWorks pro-bono projects. Associate Alexandra Perove has been work with Franklin High School to create expanded bike parking facilities... and aside from the final touches of plants and some seatwalls, the project is looking good. A snippet from 'Local high school does bike parking right', recently posted by Jonathan Maus on the BikePortland.org blog.

Posted by Jonathan Maus (Editor) on May 6th, 2009 at 8:00 am (all text and photos from BikePortland.org - check out the article for more pics and an interesting comment stream)

"Local high school does bike parking right

When students and staff arrive at the campus of Benjamin Franklin High School in Southeast Portland (5405 SE Woodward), they’re greeted with an important message: Bikes are respected, encouraged, and accommodated for.

The message isn’t something you read on a poster. It’s implied — by rows of perfectly spaced staple racks installed on concrete slabs surrounded by attractive cobblestones and located smack dab near the main entrance of the school. (A roof would make this parking perfect, and sources say that’s in the works). There are 18 staple racks, room for 36 bikes. With the generous spacing between them, cargo bikes, bikes with trailers, recumbents and even freak bikes have plenty of breathing room (for themselves and their owners). According to Jeff Smith at the Bureau of Transportation, the racks were installed with the help of parent volunteer Jeremy Sarant and Franklin High students. The school has a vocational/technical focus so students from a shop class prepped the area, poured the concrete and installed the cobblestones. (Smith says they plan on covering the racks soon). The total cost of the project was about $2000, with $900 spent on racks and $1100 on installation. Funds for the project came from a small pot (less than $5,000 total, that is used for hundreds of racks at schools throughout the city) that Smith sets aside each year for bike parking at schools and special events. Smith uses the money specifically for schools that aren’t a part of the federally funded Safer Routes to Schools program. Here’s more from Smith:

“This came out of the realization that if you wait for schools to fund bike parking, you’re likely to be waiting a long time — it’s just not going to make it far enough up the list of essential school services at most schools in the current desperate funding climate.”

In the last year or so, Smith figures he’s put in about 170 bike parking spaces at schools throughout the city. This seems like a great example of how the city can work with a school, get students involved, and deliver a low-cost, high impact project that encourages biking and good transportation choices."

Ecoroof Vendor Fair

GreenWorks participated in the Ecoroof Vendor Fair on Saturday, April 25th. The Portland Ecoroof Vendors Fair provided designers, developers, homeowners and building owners, with information and technical assistance about ecoroofs. Featured ecoroof vendors will include architects, consultants, contractors, landscape architects, manufacturers, nurseries, structural engineers, suppliers, research, and non-profit and community organizations.

The event offered GreenWorks a chance to show off some of the latest green projects, including the Encore Condominiums (LEED Silver), First+Main Office Tower (pending LEED Platinum), and Independence Station (pending LEED Platinum).

Walking the Walk - Earth Day Style

Crew pitches in to clean up school’s bio-swale

Volunteers from Portland landscape architecture and environmental design firm work on Earth Day

Volunteers from GreenWorks, a Portland landscape architecture and environmental design firm, spent their Earth Day morning sprucing up Rosa Parks Elementary School in North Portland. The crew did some weeding, pruning and trash pickup in the large bio-swale in front of the elementary school in the Portsmouth neighborhood.

“These days are a chance for us to get out of the office and do some needed work in the community that ties in with the mission of our company,” said Greenworks principal Mike Faha, who volunteered. “We have been working with schools on projects like this for several years and always feel good about our efforts after we are finished and see the results.”

(source: Daily Journal of Commerce, April 24 2009)