ASLA Emerging Professionals: Nursery Tour + Wine Tasting

On June 9^th five members of GreenWorks enjoyed a beautiful evening in Newberg, Oregon at Oregon Small Trees Nursery.  Danae Davison, Claire Maulhardt, Alex Perove, Azad Sadjadi, and our new summer intern Ben Hedstrom attended a nursery tour plus wine tasting as part of ASLA Oregon’s Emerging Professional (EP) series.  Claire is the ASLA Oregon Emerging Professionals Committee Co-Chair, and put on the event with Emily Hull and Christopher Olin. Dave Leckey, owner of Small Trees Nursery, gave an educational talk about process of building his nursery, consisting mostly of mature small trees.  He explained sustainable processes he implements to grow the trees and shared the different qualities of trees he grows and how their form matures over the years.  Dave discussed how small trees could inspire a design and be a nice accent in small places. The nursery was started about 15 years ago when Dave began planting a group of unique and unusual small slow growing conifers. Today, the nursery still contains mostly small conifers with a small collection of maples.

In tangent with the nursery tour, K&M Alchemy Vineyards held a wine tasting in the central gathering space. Ken Morrison, owner of K&M, poured a selection of their Pinot Noir vintages.

Dave Leckey talks about the qualities and characteristics of a tree at Oregon Small Trees Nursery

For more information about Upcoming ASLA Events, visit: www.aslaoregon.org

Oregon Small Trees Nursery Phone: 503.625.9467

www.oregonsmalltrees.com

K&M alchemy vineyard

Phone: 503.625.3236

http://kandmwines.com/

Volunteers Install New Playground in Forest Hills Park

GreenWorks joined Tualatin Hills Parks & Recreation District, the Beaverton Optimist Club, a representative from Ross Recreation and neighborhood volunteers last Saturday to install new playground equipment for Forest Hills Park Playground in Beaverton.  THPRD Maintenance Department staff directed GreenWorks and other volunteers through the process, installing landscape structures play equipment including 4 swings, a play structure and a mobius climbing wall. Forest Hills Park is one of three area playgrounds slated for new equipment in addition to upgraded ADA accessibility, new site amenities, plantings for buffers and shading, and fencing and seat walls.  Saturday’s installation brings a collaborative design between THPRD, GreenWorks and Ross Recreation  to life, based on community feedback from the internet and public meetings.

Forest Hills is the second area park to be built by volunteers.   John Marty underwent installation last month and is now open to the public. http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/5/prweb8459301.htm.  New play equipment will be installed at Raleigh Hills Park before the end of the month.

Special thanks to THPRD, GreenWorks staff, and all the volunteers that pitched in to make the playground installation a success.  Forest Hills Park will open to the public in early July.

GreenWorks Adds Two New Professionals

GreenWorks announces the addition of two new landscape designers, Azad Sadjadi, LEED, and Danae Davison. Azad Sadjadi, LEED, joins GreenWorks as a landscape designer with 3 years of experience. Previously employed at firms in California and in Oregon, he has a passion for sustainable design and skills in landscape design, graphic design, computer modeling and engineering details. His professional experience includes landscape design and planning of a 400-acre school redevelopment site for Architects without Borders Azad is currently working on the Coquille National Wildlife Refuge Area in Bandon, Oregon assisting with design of green infrastructure. Azad also enjoys painting and is a freelance artist whose work has been displayed at various venues and galleries.  Azad received a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

 Danae Davison is a landscape designer with 4 years of experience in park planning, cultural landscapes and residential design. Working on projects as near as the Columbia River Gorge and as far as remote mountains in Greece, she has an understanding of the relationship between natural and human landscapes. Her experience includes site design, master planning, design development, planting design, and hand and digital rendering. Danae is currently working on street improvements for the Mt. Hood Community College Greenway project. Danae holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Utah and a Masters in Landscape Architecture from the University of Oregon.

Students Gain Invaluable Professional Insight

GreenWorks hosted two energetic student groups last week, giving them a sneak peek into the profession. Claire Maulhardt, landscape designer, is involved with two students groups that encourage the relationship between students and the Landscape Architecture profession; ACE Mentoring program for high school students (Architecture, Construction Management and Engineering) and ASLA Oregon Student Liaison.

Claire’s enthusiasm for teaching leads to her involvement in the (ACE) Mentoring program designed for high school students interested in pursuing Architecture, Construction Management and Engineering. On January 25^th, GreenWorks hosted one of the biweekly meetings exposing students to a range of projects in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Design. The students learned about site analysis and site planning  related to drawings for a waterfront café they are designing over the next few months. Crowded around the site plan on the wall, students threw out suggestions for site placement of their café  and discussed the opportunities and constraints as they took turns drawing. At the end of the two-hour session, the students came to an agreement on their building location. To create the most ideal waterfront “atmosphere,” the student team placed their café cantilevered over the river. In the coming weeks, structural engineering mentors will walk them through the exciting challenges that this decision imposes on the process of design and construction.

Claire Maulhardt is also involved with ASLA Oregon as a Student Liaison on the Executive Committee. This role helps facilitates the relationship between the Student ASLA chapter and ASLA Oregon. On January 28^th, GreenWorks hosted five college students from the University of Oregon as part of the Eighteenth Annual Shadow Mentor Day, an event organized by the University of Oregon’s Professional Outreach and Development Services (PODS), the Department of Landscape Architecture, Student ASLA and ASLA Oregon. The students spent the day with GreenWorks staffers learning about the day-to-day of being a landscape architect. GreenWorks staff and the students toured a few recent projects, one of which was 1^st and Main, a new roof terrace garden closed to the general public. The students learned about the range of green roof types and had ample opportunity to ask LOTS of questions about Landscape Design.

Happy Holidays from GreenWorks

Two GreenWorkers Earn Landscape Architect Licenses

GreenWorks’ Michelle Mathis and Tim Strand recently became registered Landscape Architects in the State of Oregon. Mathis and Strand passed five sections of the Landscape Architect Registration Examination (LARE) administered by CLARB. CLARB provides uniform testing requirements to each state or province (Canada) for landscape architect candidates to show “sufficient knowledge, skills and abilities to provide landscape architectural services without endangering the health, safety and welfare of the public.”

Congrats to Tim and Michelle on your new licensure and the positive impact it will have on the practice of landscape architecture within the community.

GreenWorks Presents "137 Green Street Facilities in 4 Days" at Fall 2010 APWA Conference

Dave Elkin and Tim Strand recently presented their work with the City of Portland's Columbia Slough Watershed group that produced an inventory of stormwater treatment facilities in four high priority stormwater outfall target areas within industrialized areas of the Columbia Slough Watershed. During a four day process, the project team evaluated 109 acres of public right-of-way and identified over 130 green street facilities that would potentially treat stormwater runoff from 39 acres of impermeable surfaces. The results of the inventory were cataloged in a Stormwater Inventory & Prioritization GIS database, which was used to evaluate facility performance, design & construction feasibility, cost information, and supplemental benefits for each facility.

 

       

GreenWorks Leads Streetscape Design Tour in Pendleton

GreenWorks' Mike Faha and Tim Strand led a tour of Pendleton's newly completed streetscape projects as part of the Fall 2010 APWA Conference. The group began the tour at the new US30 / Court / Dorion intersection, which was designed as a landscape gateway and features curvilinear basalt walls and groves of Jacquemonti Birch trees that create a grand sense of arrival to Pendleton's River Quarter District. They then toured the new Round-Up frontage improvements and Centennial Plaza, which features a new Pendleton landmark: a $150,000, 16-foot tall, bronze statue of the iconic Bucking Bronco. They concluded the tour at Pendleton's new Riverfront Park, which was designed to provide a visual and physical connection to the Umatilla River and Parkway trail system. The park also offers a flexible tree-lined plaza space that accommodates vendors during civic events.

GreenWorker Finishes Strong in Portland Marathon

GreenWorks' Emily Arruda finished her second Portland Marathon on Sunday's 10-10-10 downtown event. Despite the pouring rain and wet conditions, Emily finished 38 minutes faster than last year's time setting a personal record of 4:32:15 and average pace of 10:23 per mile. She ranked in the top 47% overall and finished full stride passing 544 people in the final 6 miles while only allowing 8 to pass her by.  Congrats on your personal record and second marathon achievement Emily!

Emily and her brother David after their marathon finish

GreenWorks Finishes 6th in Division for Bike to Work Challenge

September's end wrapped up the 2010 Bike Commute Challenge and the results are in - GreenWorks placed sixth in their category for Businesses and Non-Profit Agencies with 5-24 employees. This ranking was based on a 79.2% commute rate, out of 303 competitors in the category! GreenWorkers logged a total of 149 commutes and 1324 miles overall. We also held our annual internal competition to see which employee bikes the most based on miles and commutes. Alex Perove swept both categories with 342 logged miles, biking every day in the month for a total of 44 commutes. Hats off to GreenWorks bikers for their hard work and miles put in for this year's challenge!