T E R R A . f l u x u s

12th Jan2012

Landscape Urbanism + The Agency of Mapping

by Jason King

I am excited to be teaching again at University of Oregon in the White Stag Building in Portland, this time a seminar entitled ‘Landscape Urbanism + The Agency of Mapping’.

In this class, a combination of architecture and landscape architecture students are going to blend theory with on the ground techniques related to large-scale, landscape-focused urban analysis, planning and design. The major technical components will focus on GIS mapping and using this as a tool for multidisciplinary design, as well as studying the agency of mapping (a major tenet of landscape urbanism theory) as a tool for communication and organization of complex spatial information.

The focus area will be the Cully Neighborhood in NE Portland and their plans for an eco-district, being initiated by Verde (www.verdenw.org) , a social justice nonprofit, as both a viable model of district strategies and as an alternative approach to the more mainstream ecodistricts planning happening in other areas throughout the city by POSI. Students will do case studies and critiques of local and global district planning, determine community needs and collect data, then use mapping to elaborate and provide urban visions of Cully that focus on bottom-up scenarios for development of social justice, food security, job creation and community connectivity and less on top-down solutions.”

See more past classes here.

Category : announcements, community, landscape, landscape urbanism, mapping, planning, policy, portland, research, sustainability, teaching, theory, urbanism

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11th Jan2012

Cully Community Garden – Design Process

by Jason King

TERRA.fluxus is providing guidance and pro-bono services in support of a new community garden that will be located in Cully Neighborhood in Northeast Portland. This area is currently under-served with both parks and garden opportunities, so a new park is being designed with the support of the Let Us Build Cully Park, “a collaboration of 15 community-based organizations, including the Columbia Slough Watershed Council, the Cully Association of Neighbors, Hacienda CDC, Latino Network, Native American Youth & Family Center, Portland Community Reinvestment Initiatives, and Verde.” The project was also planned to be supported with a group of students from Harvey Scott School, led by their teacher Patrick Mangan.

Rather than design the park and present this to the group, Jason King from TERRA.fluxus, along with Tony DeFalco from Verde brainstormed ideas to include both students and stakeholders in the design process. The community members would act as the clients, and the students would design the park, incorporating feedback from the larger group. We held our first brainstorming session in mid-December with a group of stakeholders and students, with a focus on brainstorming ideas and an overall vision for the garden. Students and community members wrote many ideas on large sheets of paper, and presented these to the rest of the group for discussion.

Photo Credit: Tony DeFalco

Following this initial brainstorm, we had another session this week which began the design process with the students. Looking at ideas like distance and scale, along with what components are required in a garden, how people will use spaces, access from park and the community, entrances, and other design considerations. A few photos from the session, showing the measuring and plot design process, along with the beginnings of spatial arrangement. Following sessions will incorporate more development of ideas, and creation of three concepts for review with stakeholders in late January.

The process has also been aided by a number of great volunteers, including landscape designer Sandra Koike and community volunteers Ross Kenney and Bryan Coorlim – all of whom are donating their time and energy to making the project a reality. As you seen below, the initial output is somewhat rough but is a great start and will evolve over time. It is starting to take shape in the form of a community garden, accessible to all, and most importantly, designed and built by the community!

All photos © TERRA.fluxus/Jason King unless otherwise credited

Category : agriculture, announcements, brownfields, community, food, gardens, landscape, planning, portland, presentations, projects, teaching, urban voids

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15th Dec2011

Visualizing OHSU’s Casey Eye Institute

by Jason King

TERRA.fluxus was asked by OHSU to provide a visualization for a potential project on their campus. Casey Eye Institute offers the potential for a visual ‘sustainable roof’ that includes a number of features. The site is visible from many locations on campus, as well as viewable from the aerial tram – where it is viewed by 1.5 million visitors annually.

The project description includes:

“A dynamic concept featuring concentric rings of vegetation that work with the architecture of the building. Bands define microclimates and allow for different soil depths that support a variety of species for aesthetics and biological habitat potential. The circular penthouse is ringed with vertical axis wind turbines and the south edge is lined with photovoltaic panels to supplement building energy usage and provide visible elements of OHSU’s commitment to green development.”

A rendering of the planned roof is found below, with additional detail. There will be more information to come as this project evolves.

Category : announcements, ecoroofs, environmental, graphics, habitat, heathcare, landscape, planning, planting, portland, projects, roof gardens, stormwater, sustainability, vegitecture

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18th May2011

Lake Oswego Stormwater Design Guidelines

by Jason King

TERRA.fluxus is pleased to announce it’s involvement with the team, led by prime consultant Herrera Environmental Consultants, who was recently contracted by the City of Lake Oswego to update of the City’s stormwater codes and manual. Along with TERRA.fluxus, Jeanne Lawson Associates is on the Herrera team to coordinate public involvement.

The project is just getting underway, and will continue over the next several months. Specific scope for TERRA.fluxus will include assisting in development of a stormwater tour for information gathering, helping craft design guidelines, and development of landscape-specific elements to ensure stormwater facility designs meet the aesthetic expectations of local residents, and also reflect the community values of Lake Oswego. This work builds on a solid foundation of experience in large-scale municipal planning, stormwater management design, and work associated with stormwater manuals.

Thanks to Herrera for making me a part of the team!

Category : announcements, community, environmental, landscape, planning, policy, projects, stormwater, sustainability, urbanism

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17th Apr2011

Move the House Apartments – Sustainable Sites

by Jason King

Under development is a project along 38th & Division in Portland, Oregon – an infill mixed-use apartment complex developed by Urban Development Partners and designed by Francis Dardis with a range of sustainable features. A few renderings of the proposed project gives you a feel for the style, which provides a modern twist along this southeast Portland street. The major features include moving an existing house to the back of the property, and a split building that spans overtop a community courtyard that drifts through the property.

The project includes permeable paving and flow-through planters to accommodate stormwater management, which is beneficial as the project is within a combined sewer overflow (CSO) area, so additional measures were taken to relieve the pressure on the City infrastructure through this development as part of the Stormwater Management Manual. The challenge in meeting all of these requirements is to avoid stormwater becoming a problem and to treat it as an opportunity. A view of the site plan shows additional features that add to the vibrancy of the project, including artwork and landscape beds integrated through the site. In addition, the project is getting additional funding from Metro to provide innovative development approaches, which added some great ideas to an already cool project.

The canopies around the perimeter of the project will include vegetated planters to soften the building edges and provide an amenity from street level as well as from units. The following sheet shows the configuration of these ‘Green Canopies’ along with their detailed specifications and locations.

Another feature is a living wall that will surround the trash enclosure area, turning what could be a difficult area into an amenity. The design will use a custom metal fabricated system of vertical trays that will hold growing media and a number of perennials and herbs to provide color and texture throughout the seasons.

On the south portion of the property, we are incorporating a number of habitat art elements, including areas for mason bees, hummingbirds and songbirds, micro-invertebrate habitat areas, and a bird-bath feature, along with interpretive information.

The habitat is closely aligned with the site plantings, which is densely configured along the south of the property and includes screening and a large flow-through planter which will include a number of habitat-friendly species that provide shelter, food, water, and other inputs to a range of insects, birds, mammals, and potentially amphibians or other species. For a small site, this concentration of planting area creates a significant patch, especially due to its adjacency to the Ivon Community Garden.

A visual matrix of species associations shows the benefits that come from the site features, and it is interesting to note how particular species are beneficial to multiple different types of habitat from invertebrates to birds and mammals. It will be fun to see the the success of the site in attracting wildlife through art and landscape as it matures.

The site is currently under construction, and additional features are being developed, so stay tuned for updates.

Category : art, community, details, ecoroofs, environmental, graphics, habitat, images, landscape, living walls, planning, planting, portland, projects, rain gardens, stormwater, sustainability, vegitecture, water, wetlands

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02nd Apr2011

Women’s Health Center of Southern Oregon

by Jason King

The schematic design was recently completed for the Women’s Health Center of Southern Oregon in Grants Pass, a new medical office building adjacent to the Three Rivers Community Hospital campus that is a collaboration between a collection of local physicians and Asante Health System. The project architect is TVA Architects, working with medical facility planning specialists from the Estime Group. TERRA.fluxus is excited to be working with an interdisciplinary team of designers and continuing a great history of work with Asante on this exciting project.

The scope of the project includes a 15 acre portion of a larger site (slated for more medical office development). Services include site planning, layout, public space design, stormwater management, planting design, and irrigation for the site – working within the codes of Grants Pass while also realizing the aesthetic and functional goals of the client group. Key to this is a strong landscape integration from building to site. A view of the site plan schematic shows the extent of the site, which is the northwest tip of the larger site, providing the arrival to this future complex. The buildings are set close to the street with parking and services tucked behind. Rather than manage stormwater in a traditional manner, this vegetated infrastructure is brought to the forefront, in a linear swale along the entire frontage of the building. Working with KPFF Civil, these stormwater areas are planned to be year-long amenities rather than merely functional systems.

A closer look at the front corner of the site shows the swales connecting to a larger rain garden that doubles as amenity area for the Women’s Health Center staff through an adjacent seating area, and through a curving pathway that allows for seating and viewpoints. This feature will ebb and flow with rainfall while being designed to give a different aesthetic through the varied seasons of the southern Oregon climate. Stormwater facilities will be relatively shallow due to high groundwater, which will make them moist depressions of greenery instead of the typical large wet ponds.

The major aesthetic move comes in the entry court, a public space near the front entrance to the building. This are provides a welcoming view to new visitors, as well as offering a range of seating options, and a water feature that is fed and replenished by captured rainwater. A simple geometric arrangement of spaces opens to the south, and connects to parking area, service, and the adjacent raingarde. There are a variety of planters break the section into more intimate outdoor rooms. The materials and vegetation are more formal at the building perimeter edges, transitioning through this wide, flat plane into a mix of native and adapted vegetation, which softens the geometry, provides screening, and provides a connection to the Southern Cascade ecosystem.

The building by TVA is designed to provide a seamless integration from outdoors to inside, and also makes use of a wide array of local materials. The project is aiming to achieve LEED certification as well, which is aided through many of these choices. It also brings a high level of design sophistication to the region, as evidenced in the renderings of the building form.

Night-time View – rendering courtesy TVA Architects

More to come on this as we continue through the design process.

Category : landscape, planning, planting, projects, stormwater, sustainability, water

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31st Mar2011

Got Urbanism?

by Jason King

In the upcoming April issue of Planning, the magazine of the American Planning Association, there is an interesting article by Jonathan Barnett, exploring the predominance of the use of the word ‘urbanism’ to describe the phenomena of the contemporary city. Derived from a post on Landscape+Urbanism, – along with expanded conversations with PSU Professor Ethan Seltzer, fellow PSU Urban Studies student Allison Duncan, and landscape architecture colleague Brett Milligan - Barnett takes this and gives shape to the range of terms, expanding and defining the range that exist – and hinting that even these 60 may just scratch the surface in common usage.

Category : announcements, landscape urbanism, planning, press, publications, urbanism, writing

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20th Mar2011

Asante – Genesis Campus Site Plan

by Jason King

Preliminary planning for the Asante Health System Genesis Campus in Central Point, Oregon, a retrofit of an existing building to house the adminstration staff for the hospital. Working with TVA Architects, the site planning incorporated the addition of new building structures and remodel of existing buildings to create new entries and enclosed courtyards. Moving the existing park back away from the edge of the buildings allows for the buildings to sit in a landscaped plane as the landscape provides an extension of the architectural elements. New entry circles provide an arrival experience, and parking areas are provided for visitors and staff – with a series of stormwater swales to provide treatment of runoff from impervious surfaces. Public spaces include a central courtyard, and smaller plaza spaces incorporated adjacent to meeting rooms to allow activities to spill out into the landscape. A perimeter trail provides a walking respite, providing a loop through the entire site.

site master plan

preliminary rendering by TVA architects

Category : environmental, landscape, planning, planting, projects, stormwater, sustainability

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25th Feb2011

Quotable: The Green Roof Manual

by Jason King

A trip to Powell’s yesterday yielded a number of fine resources for the ever-expanding library. One of note is the long-awaited publication by Ed Snodgrass and Linda McIntyre of a new resource, ‘The Green Roof Manual: A Professional Guide to Design, Installation, and Maintenance’ (Timber Press, 2010).

I spoke with Ms. McIntyre last year at length while they were in the midst of writing, and was happy to see both a reference to my Landscape Architecture editorial, as well as a nice quotation amidst the pages of the book (pages 164-165). The focus of the discussion was based on the role of design not just for aesthetics, but as part of an integrated process to generate cost effective solutions to make projects a reality:

“Landscape Architect Jason King was able to safely eliminate most of the metal edging on a project and save about $2.50 per square foot. He also tries hard to find appropriate local materials to save on transport costs, as well as for the ecological benefits. No single tweak will necessarily save a lot of money, King says, but factoring costs into decision-making throughout the process can cut the price per square foot almost in half on some project. “That can make the difference between a green roof being built or having it value engineered out of the project.”

Category : announcements, ecoroofs, environmental, installations, landscape, planning, portland, press, publications, vegitecture

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22nd Dec2010

REWIND: 2010, A Year in Review

by Jason King

What a great year. Ok, while not a complete year (the firm began operations in mid-February), 2010 was a great start to TERRA.fluxus, with a number of highlights, projects, research, and exploration worthy of a recap. Rather than a chronological walk through the year, there are a number of themes to be captured within the projects and activities of the firm, which ranged through the west from Washington & Oregon to California, and included a wide variety of explorations of planning, design, and urbanism. Starting in the home office, I first moved to a shared space with Design Department, then finally to the current location at Tenpod, another shared office space inside the Rocket Building on East Burnside, centrally located and packed with a range of creative folks. The changes of scenery have been great, and the people I’ve met, make me feel fortunate to live and practice in Portland.

Starting a business is hard. This fact is not made easier by a tepid economic climate, but I felt I had the opportunity to grow and expand the nature of my experience and the potential for landscape architecture. So I did so , because I thought I had something to offer clients and the community. My business model is simple – do innovative client-based work in a range of areas, balanced with equal time for research and speculation of new ideas. The ability to take on work that is meaningful, challenging, and vital is rare. The opportunity to do it for a living is a gift. So, in year number one, I must give thanks to my clients and collaborators, both old and new, who trusted me with their projects, ideas, sites, budgets, and visions. I wholeheartedly appreciate it, and hope to continue to provide services in the upcoming year.

Green Above Ground

The work in the realm of Veg.itecture was front and center for TERRA.fluxus in 2010, including over 40,000 s.f. of projects designed and/or installed in 2010, augmenting the total ecoroof square footage i’ve worked on over the years to well over three acres. Always trying to push the envelope for understanding vegetated roofing, I also compiled some new research related to the specific requirements of ecoroof irrigation in the Portland region in a presentation for an on-going group that I helped to co-found, the Green Roof info Think-tank, or GRiT, for short. In addition, I published a DIY Guide to small scale ecoroofs, and also helped lead the Ecoroofs 2010 Tour as part of the annual ecoroof Vendor showcase that highlights the great companies in the industry throughout the region.

Built work included a number of great OHSU Projects including the Child Development Research Center (CDRC) which was constructed this year, and the Hatfield Research Center (HRC) and the main Hospital C-Wing projects that will be installed in early 2011. Other projects include the ongoing development BPA 905 Building project, working with the GSA to provide stimulus-funded improvements to multiple roofs on this headquarters building in the Lloyd District. This project will also happen in 2011.

A major highlight was winning the RFP and the award of the contract from Bureau of Environmental Services for the Ecoroof Design-Build Contract for the Green Above Ground Collaborative, along with wonderful partners Snyder Roofing, Teufel Landscape, Verde, and Cascade Design Professionals. Our goal of 30,000 square feet of green roof, along with tours, education, a proposed video and mobilization of emerging, women, and minority-owned businesses will provide a ton of excitement through the next two years, expanding on our collective experience in the industry. This award was also mentioned in local media publications such as the AGC Oregon newsletter and the DJC Oregon.

Media coverage was also thick for the arrival of Ty Pennington and the crew from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, where the Green Above Ground crew participated in the fast-paced design of the vegetated roof for the Oregon Center for the Deaf in Salem. It was wonderful to be involved in this great project that benefited so many, while giving green roofs some visible media coverage on a national forum. A different small scale roof terrace for the Reliable Apartments went as well. Outside of the region, I finished up Van Ness MOB (my first project in San Francisco) which will be built in 2011, and locally, got to see the completion of a few older projects done prior to starting TERRA.fluxus, such as the First+Main Building in downtown.

Visualizing Vegitecture

An adjunct to the built work around Green Above Ground, there are visuals to sell future projects. Many of these were done, working with Tremco, for projects in California, including the Wilshire-Rodeo roof terrace in Los Angeles, which re-envisioned a drab commercial rooftop into a lively outdoor meeting space. Another LA project was for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center where views from patient rooms overlooked a gray gravel roof, which also led to significant heat gain in the building. Moving to Oakland, there was also the Washington Medical Center which combined green walls and roofs to provide aesthetically-pleasing (and sustainable) views from patient roofs instead of drab rooftops and mechanical equipment.

This concept expanded on an idea I believed strongly in, that of biophilic design, which engages our connection to nature and natural materials and processes in the creation of healthy and restorative spaces. While green roofs are great for a number of reasons, the connection to building occupants through visible engagement with nature is one with a special power in hospital settings, where these can aid in many health outcomes. These visuals aid in convincing decision-makers of the beauty and utility of these concepts.

Urban Agriculture & Food

Continuing the theme of rooftops, this time mixed with food, I had the opportunity to again be involved in the planning, design, and installation of the Multnomah County Hope Garden, a rooftop urban agricultural showcase that provides food for local hunger-relief agencies. This project, in its second year, donates over 500 pounds of locally-grown produce, cared for by the County’s Green Team, in just a small 200 s.f. area on their rooftop. The work in urban agriculture led to some great networking, capture here in a great blurb on the ASLA Sustainable Sites PPN blog, which discussed my presentation up at University of Washington on urban agriculture ‘Designing for Urban Food‘ – where I shared the stage with great minds like Deb Guenther from Mithun, Keith McPeters’ from GGN, and Jeffrey Hou from UW.

I also meet some great folks teaching at UW, like Brandon Born and Thaisa Way whom have offered additional opportunities for learning and interaction. While my time on the Food Policy Council came and went, there were some other exciting projects like the community based remediation of the Emerson Street Garden – a brownfield site turned community gardening, and the site planning for the WVMC Hospital Garden in McMinnville, planned to help feed patients fresh produce at the hospital.

Another highlight was the opportunity to show off the Chicken Cube, our ecoroof topped coop design-build project on this years Tour de Coops, an annual tour of innovative chicken homes put on by local non-profit group Growing Gardens. The tour had over 300 people, and the coop even garnered some TV time with a short spot on the local show Garden Time – which was a blast – a good use of my fifteen minutes of fame. On the subject of coops, I also had a great opportunity to be guest juror for an internal coop-design competition sponsored by SERA Architects, as part of a fundraiser for local arts group PICA.

In addition to chickens, the food cart phenomenon was in full gear, and one of my first commisions came working on design for a food cart pod on a derelict brownfield site in Southeast Portland for one of my favorite clients, Urban Development Partners. This forward thinking developer took a vacant parcel which will eventually be built-out, and constructed this pop-up site, opening in July with a few pioneers. The site has quickly filled up with over 15 carts, expanding to include covered areas and heaters for all-weather dining. This planning and design experience also included a quote in the recently released book Cartopia, authored by friends and colleagues Kelley Roy and Kelly Rodgers, which is literally flying off the shelves since it’s October debut.

Ecology & Site Remediation

An ongoing project is the Bradford Street Property where I am conducting multi-year evaluation of remediation plantings done on this waterfront site along the Willamette River in North Portland. There is also a remediation component for the Emerson Street Garden and 2011 offers opportunities for more specific technical aspects of phytoremediation as this aspect of the lead-contaminated site begins in earnest. Another ecologically notable project that has also continued is the work around the wetland area for the Asante Court Park in Medford, Oregon. This multi-phase project, working with uber client Asante Health System, began with wetland mitigation plantings, this year followed with the installation of the new park area plantings to provide more sustainable design than lawn and non-native plantings. New phases include continue this theme with additional common area plantings and the addition of the stormwater outfall garden, which are in final design and approval process, to be installed in Spring of 2011.

A great article showed up in Multi-Family News focused on sustainable landscaping, where I was able to drop some ideas on ecoroofs, efficient irrigation, appropriate plant selection, and ecological stormwater design. These principles were also embedded in our proposal for the Min Zidell Garden at the National College of Natural Medicine, which unfortunately we did not get – but the experience working with the team and the great folks at NCNM was truly wonderful, and I’m sure the results will be fantastic. Another small project includes LEED evaluation for Creekside Clinic in Medford, (operated by Asante).

This site-scale work continued with development of native plantings and LEED evaluation for the Reliable Apartments in Southeast Portland, and will continue into 2011 with some Metro-funded sustainable site improvements to the Move-the-House Apartments on 38th and Division. The proposed work, in addition to flow-through planters and permeable pavement, will include a vertical wetland sculpture, habitat nodes throughout the site, a vertical green wall, and canopy ecoroofs.

The Urban Laboratory

The beginnings of the year continued the on-going activities related to the Oregon Solutions process for Community Gardening, along with the seminar class at University of Oregon investigating the ‘Urban Edge‘ of Portland. Both of these projects were specifically representative of using the Portland region as a working laboratory for study. In that vein, the work on Landscape+Urbanism also continued, with more focus on local issues and ideas as I study my home place in new and exciting ways. The writing led to a great connection and interview with colleague Christian Barnhard for his great new podcast series LANDCAST.

Work also continues on the PDX Greenmap, to provide a resource for locating information on a range of sustainable resource throughout the Portland metro region. Also, the next iteration of the urban laboratory to continue into the next year will be recently unveiled Hidden Hydrology Project – which will provide a more robust information gathering, analysis, mapping, and exploration of a range of topics concerning urbanism, water, and the definition of our place.

Community Building

Per my business model, I’ve had the opportunity to work on a number of community-based activities and projects around the region. There are educational items like the tour of sustainable sites in downtown for the World Affairs Council of Oregon as well as more expansive tours and workshops such as the great Oregon Sustainability Experience that brings folks from out of town to learn from Portland about sustainability and urban agriculture. I was also honored to be a juror for the BEST awards, which awards local businesses pushing the boundaries of sustainability. Pro-bono work included the design for the Extreme Makeover Ecoroof, the Hope Garden Rooftop Agriculture, and the Willamette Valley Medical Center garden project.

Other projects include the afforementioned Emerson Street Garden included a series of workshops and alternatives that were developed over six months, culminating in the final design concept and groundbreaking in mid-summer. My involvement in the garden sprang from the connections made during the Oregon Solutions Gardening project – which included representatives from the amazing Groundwork Portland – who have plans for many brownfileld sites throughout Portland. A community-oriented proposal for the Seattle-based ideas competition Holding Patterns garnered an honorable mention from the judges as well, liking our take on the Urban Voids Matrix, a notion of ‘A Modular Approach to Building the Sustainable City’ that looks at the three typologies of the site, hole, and frame within a matrix of food, community, ecology, and materials. This award-winning project offers potential for vacant properties not just in Seattle, but also in Portland, which will be explored further in the next year.