Birdseye View of Oregon City’s “Jughandle Project” at Highway 213

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.

Hosford Middle School Stormwater Project

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.

Mt. Scott Creek Restoration Nearing Completion

Featured in the the Clackamas Review the Mt. Scott Creek Restoration Project at North Clackamas Park is scheduled to be completed in the upcoming weeks. To read the article, click here. Below are pictures of the construction of the confluence overlook.

Stay tuned for photos of the finished project and information about the grand opening!

Ace Mentoring Session at GreenWorks

GreenWorks hosted ACE Mentoring, a national program with the mission to engage, excite, and enlighten high school students to pursue careers in architecture, landscape architecture, engineering and construction. As one of the team leaders of ACE, Claire Maulhardt, landscape designer with GreenWorks, has been involved with this student group to promote the relationship between students and the Landscape Architecture profession.

On January 24^th, GreenWorks hosted an ACE Mentoring session geared toward site analysis, site design and the urban landscape. The ACE project this year is focused on an existing high school site that needs a new Career/Technical Education Addition or Arts Addition. Over the course of five months, the mentors will walk the students through the design and construction process using the project as an example. In an effort to instill sustainability in the minds of the students, the design will endeavor to reduce energy, conserve/store water, reduce and/or reuse waste, utilize on-site renewable energy sources, and incorporate the use of recycled materials.

The photographs below show a site planning exercise conducted by the students to determine the best location for the new addition on the existing school site.

The Human Access Project: Changing People’s Perception of Portland’s Largest Public Open Space

With the completion of the Big Pipe in 2011, water quality in the Willamette has improved by leaps and bounds. In the wake of this achievement, Will Levenson, head of the non-profit Human Access Project, is leading an effort to change people’s perceptions of the river and encourage recreation in the water and along the waterfront. Mr. Levenson started The Big Float, an annual inner tube float across the Willamette River in downtown Portland to bring awareness to the improved water quality. He has also organized several volunteer clean up days that have uncovered the beach at the base of Tom McCall Bowl and removed 75 yards of concrete from Hawthorne Cove on the east side of Hawthorne Bridge.

Greenworks became involved in the Human Access Project in November 2012, bringing our extensive experience designing places for people within sensitive natural environments, which focus on balancing access with habitat conservation.

This balance is certainly a key consideration as the Human Access Project gains momentum through additional community outreach and scaled interventions along the Willamette’s shores. Greenworks is honored to be contributing to this worthy cause and looks forward to witnessing the transformation of Portland’s largest public open space in the years to come.

Open to Construction: Designing for a New Landscape-Industry to Come

A UO Design Studio Charrette

At the University of Oregon, Irene Curulli, visiting assistant professor from The Netherlands (TU/e-EIndhoven University of Technology), kicked off her winter studio with a design charrette in Portland at the White Stag on UO’s Portland Campus. The intensive three day workshop included a site visit, two lectures from local landscape architecture professionals Claire Maulhardt (GreenWorks) and Elaine Kearney (Lango Hansen), a modeling assignment, and an in-depth analysis of existing site conditions. At the conclusion of the workshop, four groups presented their findings and design goals to the two the reviewers, Claire and Elaine, and the rest of the class. The group used four different lenses through which to look at the site: Water, Patches and Preserves, Site Acoustics, and Edges/Borders. The lenses helped them define characteristics of the site like the “water spine,” “bowl-shaped configuration,” and “shopping the edge.”

This studio will push the students to think about how to design a landscape that lends to the evolution of an industrial site. How can the site be “constructed” to expand and contract as industries come and go? What green infrastructure strategies can be proposed to protect the land from the type of activities industry imposes?

Claire will participate as a reviewer throughout the extent of this studio and encourage students to see new potential in developing industrial areas from the perspective of a landscape architect.

The studio will continue down in Eugene at the main University of Oregon campus for the rest of the term.

Happy Holidays from GreenWorks!

 

The GreenWorks crew enjoyed our annual holiday party at the Jade Lounge in Southeast Portland.

In the spirit of the holiday season, GreenWorkers collected over 275 pounds of food to donate to the Oregon Food Bank!

Wishing you all the best this holiday season. We look forward to seeing you in 2013!

College Nature Park Nearing Completion

The finishing touches are going on at the College Nature Park site at the corner of Troutdale Road and Stark Road in Troutdale, Oregon. Metro purchased the site from Mt. Hood Community College and the City of Troutdale is developing it for recreation as well as preserving it for open space. This project is the first phase in the Beaver Creek Trail system that will eventually link together Mount Hood Community College, Beaver Creek Canyon, local neighborhoods and the 40-mile regional trail. The multiuse, accessible trail loop features three wetland overlooks offering unique views into the Beaver Creek wetlands below. Street improvements along Troutdale Road provide parking, access and improved green street facilities. A rustic stone wall and a curving trail fit the sites rolling topography and make this brand new development feel like it has always been there. This is another great GreenWorks project example of balanced conservation and recreation.

Oregon Department of Justice Site Improvements

The Oregon Department of Justice (DOJ) is the main legal branch of government for the State of Oregon. Its main offices are located in Salem, Oregon in a historic building built in 1929 adjacent to the state capitol building and the capitol mall grounds. GreenWorks provided new planting and irrigation design services to replace existing planting and irrigation of the DOJ building site perimeter. Much of the existing planting and irrigation piping was from the 1930’s and in need of an upgrade. Large overgrown rhododendrons were posing security concerns and the irrigation system had become a patchwork of repairs. The new planting design addresses security, provides a mixture of native and ornamental plant species, and upholds the standards of the capitol mall landscape. The new, efficient irrigation uses water saving rotor spray heads. Additional project site improvements include waterproofing the building foundation and a large electrical vault as well as resurfacing the facility parking area. These improvements follow on the heels of an extensive interior remodel completed in 2007. The client for this project is State of Oregon, Department of Administrative Services (DAS). Project design consultants include SERA (Architecture - project lead), KPFF (Civil Engineering), PAE Consulting (Electrical Engineering), Peter Meijer Architect (Historical Consultant) and Professional Roof Consultants (Waterproofing). The contractor for the project is Dalke Construction and the landscape contractor is DeSantis Landscapes.

Engelman Park: A Nature-Themed Neighborhood Park

With the high demand to incorporate nature into people’s lives in urban settings yet provide basic needs such as playgrounds and passive open space, there is a new type of park emerging: Nature-Based Neighborhood Park. Engelman Park in Wilsonville, Oregon has the elements of a traditional neighborhood park, but it feels quite different. Located in a high-density residential neighborhood, the nature-theme is a derivative of the large amount and size of the existing trees planted by the Engelman family in the 1960’s. Along with the preservation of the urban tree canopy, the design relies on vast native planting areas and an understory of forest duff, as well as nature-based playgrounds to give the sense and feel of a wild, natural environment amidst a developed neighborhood setting.

On opening day, children started their play experience at the nature-themed playground structures near the entrance of the park. After a few runs down the slide, they made their way along the crushed rock path that follows the dry-creek bed towards the play equipment in the back of the park that focus on balancing and climbing. Along the way, the kids discovered boulders and downed logs carefully placed throughout the park as landscape elements. As soon as one child strayed off the trail, others followed suit as if they never had the opportunity to see and touch a real rock or log. Next thing we knew, a two-year old was insisting the dry creek bed was their personal pathway. Why walk on plain-old concrete when you can walk on rocks?

Nature-Based Parks allow for self-discovery; children are free to roam the park and play in areas that are unlike any place they have seen or been to. Despite being quite simple looking, it was no small feat to create this feeling in a one acre park. It took thoughtful design moves to create the space, from the layout and scale of paths and gathering spaces, to planting design, to the placement of boulders and downed logs. The park was designed to represent a wilder, natural environment with an aesthetic that enables park users to feel as if they have left the City without going far from home.