We’re excited to report that the newly constructed festival street we designed for the City of Hermiston has been rockin’ and rollin’ this summer with all kinds of fun—including this giant inflatable watermelon!
Interested in learning more about how this project came to life? Check out the Hermiston Festival Street project here!
The American Public Works national awards program was established to recognize outstanding individuals, groups, and chapters representing the best in the public works profession. This year, Chambers Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant (CCWTP) was the recipient of the Project of the Year Award in the Environment category in projects more than $75 million. Working with MWA Architects and Brown and Caldwell, GreenWorks developed the landscape buffer concept to visually and physically screen the treatment plant.
We are excited to announce the return of Jason King to Greenworks as a Associate Principal. Jason is a Landscape Architect with over 20 years of experience, focusing on ecological design, green stormwater infrastructure (GSI), and vegetated roofs with numerous built works. His work spans multiple sectors including urban development, healthcare design, campus, multi-family and mixed-use housing, streets and infrastructure, master planning, and community-centered design. He pushes the boundaries on sustainable strategies, through implementation and development of sustainable sites with LEED and SITES, as well as his involvement as a contributor and assessment team member for Salmon Safe.
Welcome back Jason!
Greenworks is honored to be working with the City of Independence to implement the vision set forth in the Open Space Master Plan completed in 2015. The current work on Independence Landing improves a key piece of public waterfront located immediately south of Riverview Park, the flagship of the Independence park system. Designed in tandem with the large waterfront re-development on the old Valley Concrete Site, Independence Landing is one piece in a larger orchestrated effort to revitalize downtown Independence and support commercial growth.
Conceived of as an extension of Riverview Park, Independence landing will offer users a number of passive recreation opportunities. Included in the plan are a waterfront multi-use trail with a river overlook, a shaded patio and lawn space able to accommodate flexible programming, a sizable restoration planting area braided by soft surface trails and a grove of shade trees in which the user can find informal, private seating areas. This implementation of the Open Space Master Plan sets the stage for the continued expansion of improved public waterfront southward along the Willamette River and strengthens the downtown, pedestrian connections to the waterfront.
The success of this project has been a measure of how well the project team has worked together. Shawn Irvine and David Clyne with the City of Independence and Steve Ward with Westech Engineering have been instrumental in guiding the design process, representing the diverse community of Independence and streamlining the construction of this exciting new park space.
We are excited to announce that Margot Halpin has joined GreenWorks as a Landscape Designer! Margot comes to Greenworks with an educational background in Natural Resource Planning coupled with a Masters in Ecological Landscape Design and Planning. She is drawn to projects that result in community building and educational spaces as well as an ecologically rich habitat for native plants, insects, and animals. Welcome Margot!
We are pleased to announce that Andrew Holder has joined Greenworks as a Landscape Designer. Andrew brings over 17 years of design experience to the firm. He has worked on a diverse range of projects throughout the Portland region including parks, recreation planning, multi-family residential development, public schools, and higher education. Andrew brings a practical design approach, creative solutions, and an emphasis on realizing the client's vision to every project he works on. Welcome Andrew!
Thanks to Portland Parks and Recreation, Friends of Gateway Green (FoGG) and the hard work of community partner groups like Northwest Trail Alliance, exciting developments continue to unfold at Gateway Green. The park, which opened last June, offers singletrack trails, a bike skills area, gravity area, and a cyclocross course, and has been celebrated by Portland’s mountain biking community as Portland’s first mountain bike park. It’s even been featured on bike blogs, such as Bermstyle (check out the latest here).As GreenWorks continues to work with Gateway Green stakeholders to see the project through its next phase of development, it’s great to see how the park is already being embraced, enjoyed, and invested in by the community. Visit our Works page to learn more about GreenWorks’ involvement with Gateway Green.
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 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.
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!
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
