07th Jun2010

Community Gardens Signing Ceremony

by Jason King

Earlier this month was the culmination of the process to address the shortage of area community gardens, working with the Oregon Solutions led-process involving a group of multidisciplinary partners.  Jason King from TERRA.fluxus was involved as the chair of the garden demand working group, and also worked on a map of community-gardens and gardening resources throughout the community.

The team celebrates after Wednesday night's signing ceremony

A recent announcement from Portland Commissioner Nick Fish highlighted the group accomplishments:

“We have some exciting news to report about community gardens!  Last fall, to address the growing demand for community gardens, the Mayor and I launched an Oregon Solutions project.  Working with dozens of community partners, we developed a plan to address several areas of need. Already, we:

  • Developed a Community Gardens Toolkit to help Portlanders connect with local resources.
  • Updated our maps to include school gardens, faith-based gardens, and the newest gardens in the City’s Community Gardens program.
  • Created a phone bank to better communicate with folks on the waiting list for plots.
  • Committed, as part of the Climate Action Plan, to adding at least 1,000 plots by 2012.

We are developing exciting new partnerships and securing new financial support, from organizations like the East and West Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation Districts.  I am passionate about community gardens: they foster a sense of community, encourage us to engage in healthy outdoor activities, and connect us to the food we eat in a truly meaningful way. And the surplus food goes to local food banks to help those in need.  Working with our community partners, and building on the blueprint we developed through the Oregon Solutions project, we are working hard to deliver more home-grown food to Portlanders than ever before.”

TERRA.fluxus earned a special recognition in the final product of the process, the Declaration of Cooperation (pdf file), which highlighted key elements of the process and contributions from all members of the team: “With technical assistance from Jason King, landscape architect, and Maren Murphy of Depave, and input from several Team members, mapping of community gardens and growing food needs and resources was begun and will be maintained within the city’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability.”

Check out a small version of the map below, or download the full version here.

Category : agriculture, community, food, mapping, planning, portland, press, projects, publications
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30th May2010

Green Above Ground

by Jason King

The evolving nature of the ecoroof industry has created a desire for a streamlined approach to providing design and contracting for projects.  This has been the impetus for Green Above Ground, a a network of design/build professionals who provide a single source solution for local ecoroof projects. Our network is designed to maximize the collective knowledge of our members and offer a full service ecoroof package to clients who will benefit from not having to purchase design services and installation separately. Our experienced project team recognizes the importance of ecoroof technologies, and ensures a high level of quality for every project.

GREEN ABOVE GROUND

The core team consists of Snyder Roofing of Oregon LLC, which will act as the main point of contact, and provide roofing and waterproofing services as well as general contracting. Design services will be provided by TERRA.fluxus LLC, a landscape architecture firm with a broad range of rooftop experience. This is complemented by Teufel Landscape, providing vast experience related to planting and ecoroof component installation, as well as ongoing project maintenance.  We have a team structure that promotes seamless communication and allows us to provide comprehensive and lasting solutions to your ecoroof needs.  We are currently at work on a pair of design-build projects, including retrofits for the BPA 905 Building which should be completed in summer of 2010.

A notable collaboration that really spawned thinking about this opportunity was with the Portland Building Ecoroof.  The design team for this 18,000 s.f. retrofit was led by Macdonald Environmental Planning (Jason King as lead designer & project manager while at MEPpc).  After a competitive bidding process, Snyder Roofing was selected to lead the construction, bringing in Teufel Landscape to provide installation for ecoroof system components.  While not design-build, this created a positive working relationship that has continued on many projects over the years.

image courtesy of BES

A more recent example was First+Main Building, completed in 2010, where the team members worked in tandem to create a 15,000 square foot roof terrace in downtown Portland.  Jason King* of TERRA.fluxus led the design efforts (while working at GreenWorks PC) providing design and project management for this terrace.  The team using Snyder Roofing and Teufel Landscape as subcontractors for waterproofing for the entire building and installation of the roof terrace walls, planters.

The site features our collective team experience with a number of collaborative projects.  A full listing of TERRA.fluxus ecoroof and rooftop garden design encompasses over 3 acres of vegetated roofing  over a span of 10 years, including projects completed by Jason King while at GreenWorks and Macdonald Environmental Planning.

• Van Ness Medical Office Building Green Roof (San Francisco, CA) – 10,100 s.f.
• BPA 905 Building Ecoroof Retrofit (Portland, OR) – 6,000 s.f.
• Multnomah County Rooftop Agriculture Demonstration (Portland, OR) – 200 s.f.
• The Chicken Cube (Portland, OR) – 20 s.f.
• First & Main Roof Terrace* (Portland, OR) – 15,000 s.f.
• The Beacon* (Portland, OR) – 7,000 s.f. (current)
• The Nines Rooftop Plantings* (Portland, OR) – 2,500 s.f. (unbuilt)
• Arnada Commons Condominiums* (Vancouver, WA) – 6,000 s.f. (unbuilt)
• Beranger Condominiums* (Gresham, OR) – 3,000 s.f.
• The Encore Condominiums* (Portland, OR) – 1,500 s.f.
• Independence Station* (Independence, OR) – 6,000 s.f. (unbuilt)
• PSU Urban Studies Annex (Portland, OR) – 1,500 s.f. (unbuilt)
• Orpinela Guesthouse Ecoroof*** (Portland, OR) – 720 s.f.
• People’s Food Coop Ecoroof*** (Portland, OR) – 270 s.f.
• Hawthorne Condominiums Ecoroof *** (Portland, OR) – 1,500 s.f.
• Sweeney Residence Ecoroof (Portland, OR) – 800 s.f.
• Refi Residence Ecoroof (Portland, OR) – 400 s.f.
• Stacey Residence Ecoroof** (Portland, OR) – 250 s.f.
• B33 – Albina Fuel Site** (Portland, OR) – 10,000 s.f. (unbuilt)
• Borealis Living Wall & Roof Garden** (Seattle, WA) – 1,200 s.f.
• Fifth & Lenora Green Roof & Terrace** (Seattle, WA) – 15,000 s.f. (unbuilt)
• Portland Building Ecoroof** (Portland, OR) – 18,000 s.f.
• Sky Lakes Medical Center Healing Garden** (Klamath Falls, OR) – 12,000 s.f.
• Village at Headwaters at Tryon Creek Ecoroof ** (Portland, OR) – 13,000 s.f.
• Multnomah County Building Ecorooof ** (Portland, OR) – 12,000 s.f.

Some projects completed with a firm other than TERRA.fluxus (designated below):
• GreenWorks PC * (www.greenworkspc.com)
• MacDonald Environmental Planning pc ** (www.mep-pc.com)
• With Ecoroofs Everywhere (non-profit)  *** (www.ecoroofseverywhere.com)

Category : business, ecoroofs, environmental, landscape, planning, portland, projects, roof gardens, vegitecture
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28th May2010

New Digs

by Jason King

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.

Category : announcements, business, community, portland, thoughts
2 Comm
24th May2010

Chicken Cube Ecoroof

by Jason King

It’s been a bit less than a year since we planted the ecoroof on the Chicken Cube, and it has burst with a flowery showing of color in the past few weeks.  The announcement that the coop will be featured on this years Tour de Coops (Saturday, July 24) was an added bonus as the roof is looking great. And we have plenty of time to finish the run and reconfiguration of the nest box in the next couple of months – if it will ever stop raining on the weekends.  (All Photos Copyright (c) Jason King, 2010 – TERRA.fluxus LLC)


We literally didn’t do any maintenance on this over the past year – a spritz of water a few times in August, and some weeding a few weeks ago, along with filling in some holes with cuttings and a few new additions.  I thought it was time to look a bit closer at how the roof had fared over the year, and see some of the specific elements at work in the plant palette.  For starters, there is still a ton of diversity, with great groupings of succulents punctuated with some perennial color.  There were a few species that didn’t make it, but the overall mosaic seems to have filled in.  About a month ago I grabbed a chive that was left from the garden – and ‘bombed’ the roof – tossing it up there with it’s root ball – and in a few weeks it had rooted into the growing media (the chive closest to the right).

The stars right now are definitely the Chives (Allium) and the Dianthus, which are both in full bloom and visible from the ground level.  A closeup of a few species shows some subtle washes of color – such as the aforementioned chives, as well as the Lewisia (a replacement as the one planted last year didn’t make it).

Another interesting condition with a closer look was some of the flowering with these new blossoms sprouting yellow and red from the Sedum kamtschaticum variegatum.

And the textures, with the addition of the Sempervivum in both red (above) and green (below), providing a noted contrast to the Sedums and perennials.

One interesting aspect was the microclimate that exists due to the surrounding vegetation – and it’s influence on the species.  The Sedum ruprestre shows a marked difference in color from full sun (top photo) with significant yellow bleeding into the foliage.  This is in contrast to the area on the top portion of the roof shaded from most of the direct sun (bottom photo) where it retains much more of a glossy green coloring.  These subtle differences and having the roof literally right out the back door make it a laboratory for monitoring plant health and possible species to try on larger projects.

Much like an Pearl-district Condo, the residents care little for the beauty of the ecoroof they can’t see or interact with… but I’m sure they appreciate it in their own way.

Category : ecoroofs, environmental, landscape, planting, portland, sustainability, tours, vegitecture
1 Comm
16th May2010

Emerson Street Garden

by Jason King

An exciting project and local group that is worth of some attention is the Emerson Street Garden – a project from Groundwork Portland and the Oregon Sustainable Agriculture Land Trust (OSALT) who are developing a community driven agriculture installation with a twist.  The site is 100′ x 25′ making it a thin slice adjacent to an existing residential neighborhood.  Lead is presumed to have accumulated when the house burned down some years back, and the contamination is isolated in the top layers of soil.  The groups are “…working with the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) on a unique experiment to determine if the lead can be removed or more thinly distributed with plants. The desired result is soil safe enough to support a community garden.” Areas of lead contaminated soil will be moved to the back portion of the site, and a number of phytoremediation techniques will be applied to these areas.

An aerial for some context:

In a recent update, Groundwork Portland Executive Director Cassie Cohen gave some latest news, including the commencement of cleanup activities:

  • Two weekends ago, the contaminated soil where the house sat was moved to the back of the lot by volunteers from OSALT and GeoSyntec.
  • Yesterday, volunteers from GeoSyntec took dozens of soil samples and sent them off to a lab.  Now, we will wait one to two weeks for the results to see if the remaining soil is safe to begin designing a garden.
  • In the meantime, some cover crop will be thrown on the soil to help rejuvenate the nutrients in the ground, and prepare for a garden.

CONCEPT DESIGN

After participating in the first workshop on April 17th, for the latest workshop on May 6th, TERRA.fluxus did a few quick studies of the space to give participants a feel for options in arranging the site elements.  These weren’t meant to be final designs, but a range of possible ideas to get the juices flowing for participants of the workshop.   Design elements included the phytoremediation area, water feature, entry gateway, benches and tables, tool shed, areas for education, compost areas, raised beds, and shared garden plots.  Here’s a snapshot of these concepts.

The first concept utilized a central pathway from a semi-circular entry plaza that opened up to the street.  Elements were located on each side of the pathway and included a micro-orchard and other community site elements towards the north side of the site.  The location of trees towards the north portion keeps solar access at a maximum for garden beds, and provides some buffering from the street.  The plaza includes a reconfigured sidewalk routing and a visible historic marker on the boulevard to denote the sites location.  Raised beds, tool shed, and small plots are fit on each side of the central pathway leading to the phytoremediation area to the southernmost portion of the site.

The second iteration kept the central entry into the site, and located most of the community elements towards the north, but shifted the pathway to accomodate larger 20×20′ garden plots along the south portion of the site.  A central structure would be used to capture rainwater for storage in rainbarrels, and the social and educational spaces would be in close proximity for keeping an eye on kids while they were in class activities.  Gateway and fencing around the site draws from neighborhood history and offers security while welcoming visitors when open.

The third concept was derived from a sketch by one of the participants of the first workshop, and featured a sinuous pathway weaving through the site and fitting the program elements within the spaces left over.  The northernmost portion of the site includes fencing, and a micro-orchard, along with a shade structure and social space.  Raised beds are fit inside each pathway node, along with spaces for art and historical markers throughout.  A central tool shed becomes the spot for education within the garden, and the phytoremediation area is separated from the garden by a water feature to delineate this space.

Look forward to further updates as the project progresses in Summer of 2010.

Category : agriculture, brownfields, community, environmental, food, landscape, planning, portland, projects, urban voids
1 Comm
12th May2010

ASLA Sustainable PPN on Urban Agriculture

by Jason King

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.

Category : agriculture, announcements, community, landscape, portland, presentations, press, publications, seattle, sustainability, thoughts
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07th May2010

Real Good Food

by Jason King

An on-going project with Urban Development Partners NW (UD+P)  is a food cart hub located at 43rd & Belmont (read more about food carts here).  TERRA.fluxus has been working with UD+P to develop this interim use for the currently vacant lot in Southeast Portland as a multi-cart hub with associated amenities such as seating, tents, restrooms, landscaping, storage, and other site elements.  The site is located on an existing parking lot that has not been used for some time – adjacent to this commercial and mixed-use neighborhood.

A few close-ups of the existing site.

The site plan shows the relationship of elements, including the potential for approximately twenty carts.  Routing of water, electrical, and sewer was included to minimize conflicts with site users.  The site also benefits from a number of adjacent parking stalls.

To show the relationship, TERRA.fluxus created a simple SketchUp model to give a feel for the spaces. A birdseye perspective shows the entire site.

The following vignettes show a number of the site elements.

VIEW FROM BELMONT STREET

CENTRAL SEATING AREA

CENTRAL SEATING AREA W/ SHADE TENT

PATHWAY FROM PARKING AREA AND GARDEN SEATING

Finally, watch a video ‘walk-through’ of the site model to get a feel for the spaces.

Real Good Food from Jason King on Vimeo.
Category : community, food, graphics, images, landscape, planning, portland, presentations, projects, urban voids, urbanism
1 Comm
06th May2010

Ecoroof Graphics

by Jason King

A recent TERRA.fluxus project was to create a series of promotional graphics for local landscape contractor Teufel Landscape emphasizing their work on Ecoroof projects throughout the Pacific Northwest.  Utilizing a range of rooftop project imagery organized in alternating panels of text and photos, these 18 x 48″ poster sized images incorporate a variety projects along with some key statistics showing the overall breadth of project involvement for the company.  Scope also included a short powerpoint ‘commercial’ giving an added dimension to the companies marketing opportunities.

images courtesy Teufel Landscape - Oregon LCB #5133

Category : graphics, images, landscape, portland, roof gardens, seattle, vegitecture
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26th Apr2010

Hope Garden Planting

by Jason King

A great turnout on Earth Day for the Hope Garden Planting, where the beds were prepped and the plantings were installed for the 2010 growing season.  Special thanks to project partners Teufel Landscape and Tremco Roofing for their support, and always, the Multnomah County Green Team to mobilize and continue to maintain the roof throughout the season.  Read more about the day from Sandy McCollum and see a slideshow of the planting at the Examiner.

Earlier in the day, the weeding was completed and beds were laid out for installation.

With an army of volunteers the planting was completed in less than half an hour.

The new addition of the herb garden going in the ground.

Category : agriculture, community, ecoroofs, food, installations, landscape, planting, portland, projects, roof gardens, sustainability, vegitecture
0 Comm
21st Apr2010

Earth Day Hope Garden Planting

by Jason King

Tomorrow, April 22, in celebration of Earth Day 2010, TERRA.fluxus is proud to help out with the planting for the Hope Garden on the rooftop of the Multnomah County Building.   Read more about last year’s installation and see the full list of community partners here.

The garden design takes into account feedback on last years plantings for food that is appropriate for donation to the food bank.  We are also including an expansion of the rooftop herb garden within the ecoroof areas to provide year round productivity for a variety of vegetables and herbs.  This year the event is part of the County’s Celebration of the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day activities conducted by the Multnomah County Green Team and features many events locally in addition to the planting of the Hope Garden.    The following message from Commissioner Judy Shiprack summarizes the days events.

“This year marks the 40th anniversary of Earth Day events around the world, and I would like to extend a warm invitation to attend some of the great activities we have planned to celebrate Earth Day at Multnomah County. These events are a wonderful opportunity to get involved with a few of Multnomah County’s efforts to be a leader in sustainability. Please join me at the morning Board Briefing to learn more about the Green Team’s accomplishments and later at the 2010 Hope Garden planting party to help grow food for the neediest in our community. April 22nd is also “Take Your Child to Work Day”, so if you have your child with you I encourage you to let them take part in the afternoon Hope Garden planting.

I would like to thank the donors from the community whose resources have made the 2010 Hope Garden project possible: Jason King with TERRA.fluxus LLC, Elizabeth Hart with Tremco Inc., and SuSu Hunniecutt with Teufel Landscape.”

Working for a Sustainable Future,

Commissioner Judy Shiprack

Category : agriculture, community, ecoroofs, food, landscape, planting, portland, projects, sustainability, vegitecture
1 Comm
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