The most recent A-List of Landscape Architecture published by the Oregon Daily Journal of Commerce. TERRA.fluxus made the tail end of the list in it’s initial year – in a tie for 27th (rankings are determined by number of licensed landscape architects).
The Green Above Ground team is pleased to announce that we have been selected by the City of Portland for their recent request for proposals for design building services for ecoroofs. On June 30th, the City announced the ‘Intent to Award’ the contract to Snyder Roofing, the prime consultant and lead for our team. Other team members include TERRA.fluxus, Teufel Nursery, Cascade Design Professionals, and Verde. Read more about our team here.
The team already has a long track record of current and past projects throughout Portland, and this project will allow us to expand our current marketing efforts through additional pathways that will increase the overall number of projects locally but also provide ongoing materials for the City to use. Our basic package of information in Phase I includes a number of current activities:
We’re very excited about Phase II – which will feature the production of a documentary video that will follow the steps from evaluation, design, installation, and maintenance of a selected project, featuring many local area ecoroof projects in the process. An example of the type of informative video is found in this short film on the Vancouver Convention Centre rooftop – which shows design intent and construction elements. We hope to emulate great examples such as this to provide a range of resources.
There have been some short local resources in video format focused on residential scale, but we hope to capture the essence of the process from start to finish for a large-scale commercial project. Resources like those above will continue to inform and grow the local industry, making it possible for Portland to meet the goals of the Grey to Green initiative of installing 43 acres of ecrooof in 5 years. We’re happy to be a part of making this a reality.
The array of solutions to Seattle’s call for ideas ‘Holding Patterns‘ have been unveiled, and the TERRA.fluxus proposal (along with Kelley Roy from Sassafras Consulting, and Kelly Rodgers from Confluence Planning) for Urban Voids Matrix and its ‘Modular Approach to Building a Sustainable City’ has garnered one of 13 honorary mentions to complement the 13 winning solutions. An image showing various iterations of temporary usage for sites from our proposal is found below.
Check out the amazing collection of ideas that this quick competition generated – and soon begin to see some of these ideas pop up in selected sites around Seattle. And more locally, look forward to more work on urban voids, as a much more expansive idea for identification and use of vacant sites is underway with a range of contributors.
Working with Groundwork Portland, the Emerson Street Garden is beginning to take shape, as concepts have been whittled down from three alternatives into a preferred layout through the design workshops. The groundbreaking ceremony and celebration is scheduled for July, and the concept design will provide a blueprint for the eventual garden configuration.
The design is still in flux, but here’s an image of the bones of the garden as it takes shape – featuring neighborhood history, art, educational areas, orchard, raised beds, and large areas for garden production. Another feature is the tool shed that is being built by the Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. working with summer programs of middle- and high-school girls to provide exposure to construction trades. Stay tuned for updates on this project throughout the summer.
TERRA.fluxus is happy to be part of the growing Oregon Sustainability Experience, now in it’s third year. The collaborative multi-day event is convened by The Oregon Business Council, The Oregon University System and E3: Employers for Education Excellence. In past years, Jason King has helped to lead a downtown tours of the Pearl district and discussed the integration of landscape into the urban realm. He also has contributed presentations on stormwater, green infrastructure, and veg.itecture (ecoroofs and roof terraces) to round out discussions of sustainability locally and abroad. This year offers the chance to be involved in a larger section of the 5 day events, which should be rewarding as the interaction with participants has been one of the highlights.
The two tracks cover a pair of elements that fit into the work of TERRA.fluxus – now I just wish I could clone myself to work on both the urban environments and sustainable agriculture tracks. Some information on the program below:
“Oregon has earned a reputation of leadership in sustainability and is a living laboratory of successes, challenges, and on-going experiments. The Oregon Sustainability Experience allows participants to explore this rich environment, with hands-on learning from innovators in sustainability in four sectors: business, university, government, and not-for-profit. The 2010 program offers two distinct tracks: Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems and Sustainable Urban Built Environments.
With an emphasis on field exploration and hands-on discovery, participants will meet and interact with nationally recognized business leaders and experts who have put sustainability at the forefront of their work. For professionals, the five-day program offers a shortcut to months of expensive training – providing knowledge that can deliver an immediate return in setting the direction for new programs and strategies, benchmarking best practices and the latest methods, and building a direct connection with fellow leaders. For graduate students, the program accelerates their research and provides real-world advancement on these topics—along with building a network within their industry.”
To register for the Oregon Sustainability Experience and see for yourself, please visit their website for more details.
After working in offices for the past 13 years, the thought of working at home was both welcome and somewhat disturbing. Knowing my ability to diverge from the task at hand, and coupled with a veritable ‘zoo’ of furry co-workers, the time has been indeed lovely. Alas, our 600 s.f. house is quite cozy without the addition of an office, so after a couple of months of hanging out in the living room office, I’ve finally found a home away from home in a spacious and wonderful warehouse space in the Central Eastside Industrial District – located at 1315 SE 9th Avenue (map).
image via DESIGN DEPARTMENT
The space is home to some awesome creative types Ben Hufford and Eric Black - known as DESIGN DEPARTMENT which “…was founded in 2008 as a collective design approach. We believe that design encompasses all projects from t-shirts to master plans. While there are firms that specialize in particular types of project, we design special projects. Our approach is rooted in making. Our shop is an unconventional mix of high technology computing and hands’ on prototyping and construction.”
They also will help me with my ping-pong skills.
image via DESIGN DEPARTMENT
The focus on collaboration in a loose creative space, along with the ability to develop some prototypes fits into the research side of TERRA.fluxus – as it will give the space to develop some prototypes of a number of products that are currently in process.
image via DESIGN DEPARTMENT
Part of the space consists of a storefront gallery painted with the very visible ADX - (which is currently the Olinka Broadfoot Gallery operated by my fabulous friend Kelley Roy from Sassafras Consulting) – which makes for a wonderful entrance to the studio space.
image via DESIGN DEPARTMENT
Starting next week – feel free to swing by and check out the space. More details to follow.
A recent post on the ASLA Sustainable Design and Development Blog by Deb Guenther recapped the great panel discussion and charrette. The feature “Seattle has declared 2010 the Year of Urban Agriculture gives a snapshot of the speakers, including Jeff Hou, the chair of the UW landscape architecture department, along with Keith McPeters, a principal at Gustafson Guthrie Nichol in Seattle, and Guenther, a principal at Mithun. The panel was moderated by Thaisa Way, the UW landscape architecture professor of history and also included student work integrating urban farming with housing redevelopment in Seattle.
An excerpt from the post:
“Jason’s presentation revealed Portland’s long-time commitment to urban farming along with a series of five principles: 1. Utilize a hierarchy of urban spaces, 2. Work through policy barriers, 3. Reframe permaculture in a new lens, 4. Maximize Efficiency per square foot, and 5. Develop orderly frames. I found his comprehensive list of the wide range of urban farming typologies to be immensely interesting as it captured the wide range of ways we are beginning to integrate a “new” , old land use into our cities.”
Another aspect of the presentation mentioned was an ongoing list of ‘urban agriculture typologies’ that was started within the Oregon Solutions Community Garden process last fall, and has continued through further exploration in Portland and beyond. The various elements of what encompasses urban agriculture and food production is wide-ranging, and it was a treat to see these in action through the work of Mithun and the research from Hou, to heed the call for design excellence as laid out by McPeters, and to see it wrapped up in the student work. I’m excited to see the results that came from the charrette the following day to generate ideas for a range of urban spaces infused with food production.
Thanks to Deb for the mention – Read the entire post here – and check out the other activities from the ASLA Sustainable Design & Development PPN here.
An article in Multi-Housing News from May 2010 features a number quotes on the philosophy for sustainable landscape architecture on dense housing sites. Anuradha Kher authored the article that included input from Jason King of TERRA.fluxus, alongside nationally recognized landscape architects Mia Lerher of Mia Lehrer + Associates, and Deb Guenther from Seattle’s Mithun. The article mentions the ability to increase renter retention and attracting new tenants, and expands this to include the economic, social, and environmental benefits that can be interjected into sustainable sites.
An excerpt of the article:
“Jason A. King ASLA CLARB LEED is Principal and Landscape Architect at TERRA.fluxus LLC, a company he recently started. He tells MHN that the idea of water efficiency is big and is dominating a lot of sustainable landscaping practices. “Rain gardens and small storm water management strategies are catching on. The nice thing is that they can act as an amenity for sites where you can build the interactive part of the project around the rain gardens or storm water facility depending on the density of the project. Green roofs are gaining a lot of importance because they add to the aesthetics of a property but also because they offer a multifunctional aspect. Prices for those have dropped substantially and there are a lot of incentives to integrate them into projects on a limited budget now.”
King says that the concept of eco-friendly lawns for play areas – as many lawn substitutes don’t work well for heavy traffic/use—is also getting attention. Another is a trend toward protecting existing trees and other site resources like wetlands – rather than the typical trend of wall-to-wall site clearing.
Many landscape architects are looking for opportunities for each portion of the site to do multiple things at once. From a practical standpoint, it provides an opportunity to do things with a little more efficiency on sites that don’t have extra room. The other benefit is maximizing the investment, so if a developer doesn’t have the budget for a storm water facility and open meeting space, he/she can get both at once with creative landscaping. Jason explains, “I think it’s a newer trend but its helping architects look at landscaping as something more than merely a tool to decorate. It’s more integrated into the specifics of the site and is helping solve some of the problems that were previously tackled through civil engineering techniques.”
Xeriscape landscaping, which by definition is landscaping designed specifically for areas that are susceptible to drought, or for properties where water conservation is practiced, is now practiced more and more commonly as a sustainable initiative.
“There are a lot of great new technologies that make it relatively simple such as high efficiency irrigation like spray irrigation. From the management’s perspective we like to use pretty detailed water budgets, determining owners expectations of water management and coming up with budgets that can save them money in the long term and be sustainable,” adds King.
Plant selection is another area of landscaping that can make a big impact on how sustainable a project can be. Native plants, which have a lot of proponents, are great because they are totally adapted to the region, and are, by definition more sustainable and ecologically appropriate. They also use less water but on the flip side, says King, “They might not be the most appropriate plants for a particular design. Most natives in the Pacific Northwest for example are quite large so if you are doing something on a tight sits, where you don’t have enough room, planting purely native plants opens up many long-term issues.”
King explains that the trend is more to use natives as a base and expand beyond that to regionally adapted plants, to those that are either cultivated varieties of those natives and happen to be smaller or more appropriate for certain types of development. While choosing plants, a lot of things have to be considered and balancing sustainability with drought tolerant aspects and color, seasonal variation etc. are all critical for good landscaping practices.”
Read the entire article here.
Victoria, British Columbia-based Landscape Architect and blogger Christian Barnard was kind enough to include TERRA.fluxus Principal Jason King on episode #2 of his new series LANDCAST – a podcast format addressing ”the voice of contemporary landscape culture”. The discussion was light and fun, and topics ranged from the origins of the firm name from James Corners seminal essay, to social media and landscape architecture, a dream tour of sustainable Portland sites, and the local food cart phenomenon – to name a few highlights. Thanks Christian… it was a blast.
I’m pleased to announce that in addition to my Oregon Landscape Architecture license (#537), I am now officially licensed to practice in the State of Washington (#1185) and now California (#5619), giving full bioregional coverage for the West Coast.
Why does this matter? For me it is tied to an intimate knowledge of the Cascadia bioregion encompassing the contiguous temperate coastal rainforest ecosystem that spans from Northern California to the tip of Alaska. This watershed based approach to delineation of space is a counterpoint to the hard-line political boundaries determined through a cultural lens. Understand ecosystems means blurring the boundaries between places that don’t stop at site boundaries or city limits, but continue on through ecological flows of materials. This is the essence of a new form of landscape architecture.
