Ben Johnson Presents on Nature Play at Design Museum Mornings

Last Friday GreenWorks was delighted to host Design Museum Mornings: Nature Play in the City at the Center for Architecture in Portland's Pearl District. Drawing an enthusiastic crowd of about fifty—everyone from early childhood education professionals and community organizers, to fellow landscape architects and nature play experts—the event included a fun social session with breakfast provided by GreenWorks followed by a comprehensive lecture on Westmoreland Nature-Based Play Area by GreenWorks' Landscape Architect, Ben Johnson.

Ben, who has gained a reputation as a nature-based play specialist, began by sharing academic research on the subject, including the benefits of risky play and exposure to nature at a young age, before moving on to the vision and design process at Westmoreland. He outlined the successful Public Engagement process lead by Elizabeth Kennedy-Wong at Portland Parks and Recreation, who brought the community together early on to support the project and also described Adam Kuby’s role as the project Artist who had an integral role throughout the visioning and construction phases.

From the structural integrity of the massive logs and boulders, which are meant to encourage balance and climbing, to the carved stones which capture the journey of rain water, every detail of the space was carefully analyzed through multiple lenses including sustainability, safety, childhood development, and design.

GreenWorks had a fantastic time working with Design Museum Portland, a pop-up museum whose mission is to "educate the world about design," and look forward to following their work around the city.

Missed the lecture? Interested in learning more? Check out our award-winning work on Westmoreland's Nature-Based Play Area here and here!

GreenWorks Hosts Independence Riverfront Programming Open House

GreenWorks is currently developing an advanced conceptual plan for IWP east of the existing amphitheater. The concept design will include proposed connections to Independence Landing Waterfront Park to the south and integrate with Riverview Park to the West. As part of this effort, the GreenWorks team hosted a series of Open Houses on the topic of potential programming opportunities for Riverview Park. The events, which were hosted at Independence Public Library and St. Patrick Catholic Church, drew around 160 participants and gave the design team an opportunity to connect with community members and leaders, and to kickoff exciting conversations about the future of Riverview Park.

Westmoreland Featured at Design Museum Mornings

GreenWorks is excited to partner with Design Museum Portland to host "Nature Play in the City" this Friday, March 2 from 8:30-10:00am at the Center for Architecture. The event will include a brief networking session with free breakfast, followed by a short presentation by GreenWorks' Associate Landscape Architect Ben Johnson on the Westmoreland Nature-Based Play Area. Exploring how natural playscapes are designed and created in an urban environment, Ben will discuss Westmoreland's features including structures that exercise sustainable practices and double as play objects, from salvaged concrete re-purposed for water play elements and many salvaged logs for climbing features and custom benches.

Westmoreland Nature-Based Play Area opened in 2014 and has been embraced by children and adults alike, earning the ASLA Oregon Honor Award and a feature in Design & Play!

Interested in attending the upcoming Design Museum Morning with GreenWorks? We'd love to see you there. Learn more and reserve your tickets today!

A Day In The Life Of A Landscape Architect

On Friday, February 2nd GreenWorks hosted three students for the University of Oregon’s Landscape Architecture Department for their Shadow Mentor Day. This annual program invites students to visit firms and agencies throughout Oregon and Washington to experience what a day in the life of a professional landscape architect looks like.

The day kicked off with a tour around the GreenWorks office and an introduction to the team, followed by presentations about current work on the boards. There was an opportunity for the students to share their portfolios, ask questions, and even get messy with a mini design charrette for a current waterfront project.

The students were invited to meetings, as well as accompanied GreenWorks staff on site visits to nearby Spring Park and Westmoreland.

Later, as the students wound down at a hosted happy hour, they shared stories from their experiences on the job and networked with professionals in the local industry.

GreenWorks welcomes (back) Sean Stroup

We are pleased to announce the return of Sean Stroup to GreenWorks! Sean comes to GreenWorks with a skill set enhanced by his time as a construction foreman where his hands-on experience translated to an understanding of constructability and strong technical deftness. His experience includes project management, natural resource planning, sustainable stormwater management, green infrastructure design, recreational/interpretation design and environmental restoration. Welcome back, Sean!

City of Hermiston Breaks Ground on New Festival Street

The City of Hermiston celebrated the groundbreaking of their new festival street this week! Serving as a central gateway into downtown Hermiston, and a cornerstone for the city, the NE 2nd plaza will help stimulate economic development as well as enhance community engagement by providing a space for public programming such as farmer's markets and art festivals. GreenWorks worked with Anderson Perry & Associates and a committee of local business owners to provide preliminary design concepts for the street. Construction on phase one of the project should be complete by Memorial Day.

Graphic rendering by Michael Corrente.

The Not-So-Lost Art of Drawing

Flora, a senior project manager at GreenWorks, took the opportunity this week to present to us the importance drawing has on the design process. An article written by renowned architect, Michael Graves, inspired the presentation. He argues that computer-aided design software, such as AutoCAD and SketchUp, has replaced hand-drawing along multiple phases of the design process. His ultimate message is that drawing should never divorce itself from design, because it stimulates the imagination and expresses the interaction of mind, body, and hand more so than technology is able to. Flora shares these beliefs with Graves, and often utilizes hand-drawing over computer-aided design software in her designs. This process is directly reflected in her work for Mt. Hood Community College where, after site analysis and setting goals with the clients, Flora began with study sketches of the space. Through refinement, she transformed the sketches into design layouts. The concept plans and axonometric sketches were presented to the students and faculty at an open house at the school earlier this week. Thank you for sharing your design process with us Flora!

To read the article in its entirety please follow the link: Architecture and the Lost Art of Drawing

GreenWorks Receives Three ACEC Awards

Three GreenWorks projects recently received awards from the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) of Oregon for 2018. The awards recognize engineering firms and projects that demonstrate an exceptional degree of innovation, complexity, achievement and value. The following projects were award recipients.

Grand Award: Peter Courtney Minto Island Bridge

OBEC Consulting Engineers with the City of Salem and project partners GreenWorks and DKS Associates, created a connected system between Minto Island, Salem, and West Salem providing increased access to 1,300-acres of riverfront park space and 30 miles of off-street trails.

Honor Award: River Island Restoration Project

Inter-Fluve worked with METRO and Biohabitats, Aquatic Contracting, Clackamas County Parks, ODFW, PGE, K&E Excavation, Clackamas River Basin Council and GreenWorks to restore natural channel processes to support multiple values including fish and wildlife habitat, riparian and upland forests, as well as water quality and recreation on the Clackamas River.

Honor Award: Terminal 4 Sustainability Stormwater Street

GeoEngineers, Inc., Century West Engineering, and David Evans and Associates with the Port of Portland worked with project partners GreenWorks and RailPros to create a new access road into the port’s most active marine terminal utilizing green street approaches.

We would like to thank the above mentioned clients and engineering firms for their continued partnership and commitment to excellent work.

GreenWorks Welcomes Judith Edwards

We are excited to announce that Judith Edwards has joined the GreenWorks team as a Marketing Coordinator. Her experience ranges from website development to content creation. In college, she studied Cultural Anthropology and focused on ecological anthropology—how cultures adapt around an environment. Now, as an avid gardener, outdoorswoman, and environmentalist, she is passionate about bringing humans into a closer relationship with the earth for our mutual benefit. She is looking forward to putting her experience in writing and marketing to work telling the GreenWorks story—how we’re bringing people and nature together through creative and sustainable design. Welcome Judith!

Minto Island Bridge named Project of the Year

The Peter Courtney Minto Island Bridge, which opened to the public on August 2^nd 2017, has been named the APWA Oregon Chapter Project of the Year in the category Structures-$5 Million to under $25 Million. This project is the culmination of years of planning and effort by the City of Salem and Salem’s Urban Renewal Agency. The bridge was designed by OBEC Consulting Engineers. GreenWorks had the pleasure of developing a conceptual framework that integrated existing park features, such as the “Eco Earth” art globe, with new terraced seatwalls and complemented accent plantings. The bridge now serves as a link between downtown Salem and Minto-Brown Island Park, a 1,400 acre green space. It is estimated that 2,000 people use the bridge each day. We would like to thank OBEC Consulting Engineers, the City of Salem, and DKS Associates for their partnership on this project.

To see all APWA Oregon award winners please visit: http://oregon.apwa.net/PageDetails/12969