From the beginning, this project posed planning challenges to all parties involved. Integrating stormwater management as well as pedestrian, bicycling and car travel with the project’s industrial freight access requirements resulted in unique designs for storm water curb extensions that respond to the larger turning radii required by some trucks that use the industrial district.
If you’d like to learn more about the SE Clay St Green Street project, click here!
Our 2nd Street project in the heart of downtown Lake Oswego has come to an end, and we wanted to show a few photos of the finished product. With the slight narrowing of the curb to curb width of the street, the City transformed the street into a beautiful modern streetscape within the core of the downtown business district. Widened sidewalks, street lights, benches, driveways, street trees, and unique stormwater planters were all delicately knitted together by the design team to deliver a streetscape project that will benefit the surrounding business community while protecting the urban watershed. This project included a number of significant design elements such as:
Construction is complete on a new trail connecting the Springwater Trail through Gresham Main City Park to downtown Gresham. The approximately 1000 foot long multi-use trail improves pedestrian and bicycle connections through the park on an attractive, ADA accessible 15 foot wide promenade. The trail promenade is a key design element of the Main City Park Master Plan which GreenWorks developed with the City in 2008. The trail also features a distinctive gateway structure and plaza at the south end at the connection to the Springwater trail as well as rain gardens that treat stormwater run-off. Funding sponsors on the project included Metro, Oregon Parks and Recreation, Urban Trails Funding and Parks System Development Fees. The design team on the project was comprised of GreenWorks as the prime, KPFF Consulting Engineers (civil engineering), Kittelson & Associates, Inc. (lighting and electrical engineering), and Pacific Geotechnical, Inc.
For more information about the project click here.
Construction has been completed on the City of Wilsonville South Metro Area Regional Transit (SMART) Operations Fleet Facility. The project includes a 12,600 square foot Fleet and Administration Building located on an approximately 4.5 acre site. Site improvements include employee and bus parking, fleet maintenance, and administrative services, and is located on SW Boberg Road adjacent to the Wilsonville Westside Express Service (WES) Station. Design services provided by GreenWorks, include Conceptual Site Design and Grading Coordination, type ‘C’ Tree Preservation and Removal Plans, and Final Construction Documentation. The design team developed a budget sensitive sustainable plan that embraces the natural characteristics of the site, and architectural design features. Habitat and buffering improvements integrated adjacent to the Significant Resource Overlay Zone (SROZ), provide a transition and embraced the landscape strategy of incorporating native and drought tolerant plants, in combination with a temporary irrigation system. Stormwater is managed through on site conveyance in channels and basins, and is celebrated through roof rainwater capture and outfall at architectural scuppers along the building entrance.
GreenWorks is working with the City of Portland Bureau of Environmental Services to design a Green Wall at the Expo Center that will also manage roof stormwater runoff. Because of this added function, we have taken to calling this project a Stormwater Wall. A design workshop was just recently held on April 16th with our project partners at Metro and the Expo Center along with participants from BES and GreenWorks. There was a lot of good conversation, information and design ideas generated during the work session from which to move forward with into the design phase of the project. The Storm Water Wall project will serve as a prototype for BES from which they can monitor and learn from for future green wall projects. It will also provide an exciting and attractive new green sustainable feature to the the Expo Center.
This birdseye view of Oregon City’s Jughandle Project at Highway 213 shows the scale and context of this significant infrastructure project, which is currently under construction. GreenWorks prepared this graphic to illustrate our role in helping design a new landscape gateway into downtown Oregon City, a new roundabout with planting medians, green streets with stormwater facilities, street trees, bicycle lanes and a 6+ acre floodplain mitigation site.
Construction of a swale at Hosford Middle School began during the school’s winter break. It was designed by GreenWorks, PC and constructed by DeSantis Landscapes for the Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership’s stormwater and schools efforts. The design includes a curved concrete wall and other features that reduce the maintenance efforts needed by Portland Public Schools. The swale infiltrates runoff from approximately 4,600 square feet of the school’s roof and reduces the amount of runoff to the combined sewer system. The rerouted downspout creates a runoff powered water feature by directing water through a series of basalt columns before spilling into the swale. The project provides schoolyard learning opportunities for students, beautifies the school grounds, and supports local and regional efforts to improve the health of our rivers through onsite stormwater management. Students and Estuary Partnership educators will plant several hundred native plants in the swale in the next few weeks. Project partners include Hosford Middle School, the Estuary Partnership and Portland Public Schools. We would like to thank the City of Portland, East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District, and New Seasons Market for their generous support.
A few GreenWorks employees recently visited the Lane Community College Health and Wellness Facility at Lane Community College in Eugene to see how the completed project is progressing. The facility functions as the northwestern gateway to the main campus integrating the new facility and existing campus. Clear circulation and a sense of arrival accentuate the overall design, which incorporates stormwater treatment solutions. Exterior spaces are active and engaging areas that translate health and wellness to the landscape.
Following a successful rapid bridge construction that required a multiday road closure, ODOT officials announced the reopening of Highway Oregon 213 in Oregon City at the I-205 interchange on Monday night, ahead of schedule. The “Jughandle Project” will relieve traffic backups and improve safety at the busiest signalized intersection in the state by eliminating left turns, adding a new alignment for Washington Street, and replacing a 130 foot-long section of the 6-lane bridge. Click here to view a brief time lapse video of the rapid bridge construction – amazing stuff!
GreenWorks developed a planting and irrigation design as part of the project, including a rehabilitated gateway landscape into Oregon City, new green streets designed to accept and treat stormwater, and a 7+ acre mitigation site planted with thousands of native trees and shrubs. Click here to view the plans and drawings.
The school community at Beverly Cleary School in NE Portland recently completed construction on a bioswale as part of an overall landscape plan entitled the “Learning Landscape Project.” The project was inspired to develop a system that improved the school’s impact on urban stormwater. The bioswale works to mitigate the impact of polluted stormwater by collecting and filtering the water before it drains in to sewers, rivers, or streams. GreenWorks’ Michelle Mathis led the design effort of this project working with the Beverly Cleary School community. The Beverly Cleary K-8 School is a two-campus school; Kindergarten and first grade students are housed at the Hollyrood campus, and the second through eighth grade students are housed at the Fernwood campus. They built and planted a swale at the Fernwood School in the spring of 2006, but the downspouts were never disconnected to feed into the swale.
For more information and a video on the downspout visit:
Integrating people and nature through creative and sustainable design.
Landscape Architecture | Environmental Design
110 SE Main St, Suite 100, Portland, OR 97214
e. info@greenworkspc.com p. 503.222.5612 f. 503.222.2283
