t e r r a . f l u x u s

21st Apr2010

In Progress: Reliance Roof Terrace

by Jason King

A project currently underway is the Rooftop Terrace for the Reliance Apartments on Southeast 31st & Division in Portland. The project is located on the site of the old Reliable Auto Parts building, and is being rehabilitated by the fantastic Urban Development Partners (UD+P) along with Kava Massih Architects from Berkeley California. A shot of what will be a beautiful addition to the neighborhood:

The ground level landscaping was completed by Jason King while at GreenWorks, and the project’s roof terrace has been continued by TERRA.fluxus to provide a usable open space and entries for the residential units. The entry stair extends up to 12 rooftop apartments with private deck areas.

The roof needed to be lightweight, as well as have all elements rest on the decking, so all elements are prefabricated or off-the-shelf elements that will be arranged to create the variety of spaces. To break up the ground-plane, a variety of reclaimed plastic decking colors and textures are combined to prevent the space from looking monotonous, as well as to delineate private and public spaces.

A few shots of the spaces from the model show the use of simple materials palette consisting of galvanized stock tanks, metal planters, and cedar fences and screens. The planters provide support for the vertical elements, requiring minimal penetration through the decking, while separating spaces visually. Vertical materials like bamboo accentuate the screening and create a lush environment.

The challenge, in addition to the constraint of the ground plan was to create usable spaces for residents in a somewhat small environment. Keeping elements vertical allowed spatial arrangement while maximizing usable spaces. Most of these vertical elements are somewhat permeable, as solid walls would make spaces feel smaller and more compartmentalized. The vertical screen panels separating units are located within planters and will act as living screens when planted with vines and add a lush character to the roof decks while reflecting seasonal change.

Another interesting feature was custom benches that were created from wood salvaged during construction of another UD+P project down the street at 38th & Division. A sequoia was removed for construction, and the wood is being milled into thick slabs to act as benches for the roof. A mockup of the bench with galvanized metal frames is found below. This attention to detail and commitment to reuse of materials is evident of the ideology of UD+P, and is reflected in the range of sustainable (and beautiful) features throughout the site.

Category : ecoroofs, graphics, images, landscape, planting, portland, projects, roof gardens, vegitecture

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12th Apr2010

In Progress: Van Ness MOB Green Roof

by Jason King

One of the most exciting projects currently on the boards at TERRA.fluxus is the green roof design for the Van Ness Medical Office Building in Downtown San Francisco. This 10,000 square foot project includes multiple levels of green roof meant for visual access from within the building. Jason King initiated project (originally through GreenWorks) and has continued with TERRA.fluxus through a collaboration with roofing manufacturer Tremco and contractor Lawson Roofing to facilitate the design consultation with owner and design team including architects at Boulder Associates, who have been the main collaborators on the design to date.

The concept plan below shows the three roof levels, including the 2nd, 6th, and 7th floor roofs, all of which contribute the overall aesthetics as well as to provide stormwater management to meet local stormwater guidelines and contribute to multiple LEED credits.

It was determined that a 10″ deep profile was necessary to provide adequate stormwater management. Instead of a monolithic section of soil and plans, it made sense to create undulating berms. These created a number of micro-habitats for different plant species, while also encouraging rooftop fauna in the form of birds, insects, and other desired species whose habitats have been displaced through urbanization. In addition, these waves improve the overall conceptual idea of waves of vegetation that would move in the breezes and break up large expanses of roof – providing a variety of interesting views from all angles.

Early on, a number of precedent images were presented to outline the concept and develop consensus for the group. The following shows a particular study in the landform manipulation, which became a significant point of departure for the design concept for roofs on the 2nd and 6th Floor.

The plant palette consists of a combination of California native species, including grasses, perennials, succulants, and other species adapted for low-maintenance and minimal water usage per LEED requirements. The 7th floor roof included a deeper planter that accommodated larger woody materials including shrubs and small ornamental native trees.

A number of sketchup images also provided design studies and allowed for the design concept to be coordinated with perimeter pavers, rooftop mechanical equipment, drains, and other elements to ensure the interface between building and vegetation was seamless.

The concept of design-build for green roof projects offers many benefits, particularly in green roof projects. The interrelationship of landscape and building in this case required close coordination between contractors and designers to ensure compatibility with a number of project goals. Decisions made could impact LEED credits, waterproofing membrane integrity, or constructability – this a close group effort was necessary to make sure myriad issues were resolved.

The project is progressing through Construction Documentation phase, and is slated for construction beginning in 2011, with green roof scheduled to be installed in 2012. This addition to the skyline of San Francisco, and the growing collection of Bay-area green roofs will be an amenity from adjacent buildings, MOB users, and area wildlife for years to come.

[project credits Jason King, design work completed while working at GreenWorks PC]

Category : ecoroofs, heathcare, images, landscape, planting, projects, roof gardens, san francisco, vegitecture

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12th Apr2010

Coop Competition for PICA

by Jason King

A recent post on Landscape+Urbanism outlined the great work done by designers at SERA Architects for the chicken coop design competition to benefit local arts organization PICA. I was happy to help out with coop consultation and serve on the jury to judge the four outstanding entries that pushed the limits of poultry-specific architecture. We were happy to award the grand prize to Gary Gola + Jeanie Lai for their ‘Hen Hedge’ (see images below of the winning entry and all of the entries here).

You can own this bad boy by bidding at the upcoming auction for PICAs TADA 2010 Annual Gala.

'Hen Hedge' Winning Entry by Gary Gola + Jeanie Lai

An excerpt of the specifics:

“Based on the work from last year to create the Chicken Cube – I was recently asked to serve on a design competition jury put on by SERA Architects to design the perfect chicken coop. The competition was aimed at benefitting the Portland Institute of Conte mporary Art (PICA) for their upcoming TADA 2010 Annual Gala by creating an auction item. SERA donated the design time and $500 for materials and Bremik Construction agreed to donate the construction of the coop at the home of the winner of the auction.”

And a thank you to Eric Philips at SERA for the invite.

Category : agriculture, community, ecoroofs, portland, presentations, projects, teaching

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29th Mar2010

REWIND: 4-Play Parking Day Installation

by Jason King

A new regular feature on the blog will be a ‘REWIND’ of some notable projects from the past – both to show the range of work completed by Jason King (as designer, collaborator, and as PM/LA at other firms) that informs the type of experience reflective of TERRA.fluxus. This will also outline some of the more interesting research and design-oriented processes at work.

The first iteration of this will be the design and development of 4-Play – a temporary installation designed by Jason King along with two talented local landscape designers Brett Milligan and Lisa Town for last years Parking Day. To complicate (or make more interesting) matters a bit, our team took on the project as a traveling exhibit heading up to the Capitol Hill vacant lot organized by People’s Parking Lot(s).

The challenge of both ephemerality and mobility created a difficult task for the team, as modularity and the ability to achieve what was essentially a flat-pack of the concept to fit in a vehicle for transport. As we discussed options, the ability for interactivity and ‘play’ was one idea that re-emerged as a theme we wanted to pursue – not just providing passive space but to allow for a microcosmic sports experience to fit within our 10×20′ space.

CONCEPT ONE: FOOS

The idea of ‘play’ drove the original concept involved the shrinking of a soccer pitch to create a large-scale version of a Foosball table. While researching this aspect, we found a good number of these (using either real people holding a ‘bar’) or the more grandiose oversize versions like this one in Berlin… the preliminary sketches gave some indication of the scale and logistical concept we were undertaking.

In the interim, we started discussing ideas of using tires (and/or inflatable innertubes) to create some of the seating and planters – as an homage to the auto-oriented heritage of parking day. This stemmed from some earlier investigations of the makeup of roads, cars, and statements related to waste.

It became clear that our large-scale foos was going to be both difficult to build, and almost impossible to transport efficiently (not to mention well beyond our budget)… so we moved to alternative two – keeping the idea of play but investigating some other concepts (such as using tires). We got excited about the idea of something that could be packed very small – then inflated into a customized shape with seating, etc. A quick review of tire stores revealed that there were very few surplus inner-tubes available – and that it would take some experimentation to make into some inflatable creations that met our expectations (like these), so we moved on to another direction.

CONCEPT TWO: 4-PLAY

Keeping play as a concept – we decided to expand beyond one single game to create what amounted to a multi-purpose park with both active and passive areas – allowing for rest along with activity, similar to many urban neighborhood and community parks. A visit to the local Goodwill garnered some great board games, clubs & balls for minature golf, bean-bag toss, and plenty of other diversions for. Upon grabbing the Connect-Four game, another idea was spawned to create a large-scale version of this game as a draw to our park.

Picking up on the circular forms of Connect-Four, we decided to include a ground-plane Twister and the putting course, along with tables and chairs for other games. The other aspect became including some verticality to the design through landform, seating, and dividers.

IMPLEMENTATION

Construction further refined the overall concept – with a removal of the golf course, and some different seating configurations, grafitti wall/spinner, and vertical planted poster pockets and carpet twister field… a simplified construction and installation, that allowed for easy transport.

The vegetated poster-pocket wall was a great opportunity for guerilla greening of cities.

And Lisa lounging by one of the green bench/mod-wall partitions.

While the site held together pretty well as a concept – the Connect-Four was definitely the highlight, with a number of competitive games played over the course of the day and a lot of ‘Is that…’ questions from a range of visitors. See below for an action shot of me getting worked over by Brett (it was quickly confirmed that I suck as bad a large-format C4 as the table-top variety.

See more pictures of the installation here – snapped by both Brett and Lisa during the day. Our design did garner the coveted ‘Most Playful’ award – which along with the great feeling of community throughout the day, made it worth the trip. There are plans to dust off elements of 4-Play for the 2010 Parking Day event in Portland – so stay tuned for the somewhat rare opportunity to play over-sized Connect-Four. Not to be missed.

Category : community, graphics, images, installations, projects, REWIND, seattle, urban voids

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29th Mar2010

Ecoroofs + Habitat

by Jason King

I was pleased to see the wonderful follow-up coverage of the Ecoroofs 2010 tour by Linda Velasquez on Sky Gardens, her companion blog to the densely informative Greenroofs.com website.

Linda was kind enough to give a shout-out to TERRA.fluxus, mentioning some of my previous work on area ecoroofs – including the Multnomah County Building (Amy Joslin Ecoroof) seen below – that I was fortunate enough to work on while at Macdonald Environmental Planning (seen in full bloom below). This roof is also the location of the Hope Garden – a transformation of a portion of rooftop planter for urban agriculture implemented in 2009 and continued in 2010.

While not exclusively designed for habitat, I’ll posit that the Multnomah County Roof is still one of the better examples of diversity for local rooftop habitat solutions in our region, through incorporation of a diverse range of plantings, large area, places of refuge, and a specifically broad and non-monocultural species composition that provides benefits for pollinators, birds, and other species.

On that note, for those in the area, don’t miss Dusty Gedge as he discussed habitat on rooftops tomorrow (March 30th). Details below.

Dusty Gedge–World Renowned Expert on Creating Habitat on Urban Rooftops

Come learn how we can turn the rooftops of our city into wildlife habitat. Dusty Gedge is the founder of www.livingroofs.org and president of the European Green Roof Association. He is a recognized worldwide authority on building green roofs to promote biodiversity. He is co author of ‘Building Greener’ the first comprehensive guidance on green roofs and green walls in the UK, soon to be published by the Construction Information and Research Association [www.ciria.org.uk] He is a consultant for the green roof consultancy [www.greenroofconsultancy.com] and a professional naturalist/ecologist/ornithologist specializing in brownfields. He has been published in scientific journals at both a national and international level. Dusty’s talk will focus on how we can convert our rooftops, big and small, into living landscapes.

Cost: $8 for members of Audubon Society of Portland, Oregon Zoo, World Forestry Center, students, and seniors; $10 for all others.

Location: Oregon Zoo

Time: 7pm

For more information, go to www.oregonzoo.org/Education/adults/adults_lecture.htm

Category : announcements, community, ecoroofs, environmental, portland, press, projects, roof gardens, tours, vegitecture

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10th Mar2010

Cultivating the Shrinking City

by Jason King

There has been a ton of press recently on the proposals for demolition and transformation of Detroit vacant lands for large-scale urban agriculture. Articles by Fast Company, The New Republic, Associated Press, The Detroit Free Press and countless other blogs have discussed ideas related to consolidation of urban density and re-purposing this Terrain Vague not just for gardens, but for true large scale urban farming. As part of the team that visited Detroit as part of the AIA Sustainable Design Assessment Team in 2008, I witnessed first-hand some of the conditions that are being discussed – and along with the team offered many of the seeds of change that are beginning to emerge and flourish.

The product of this work is ‘Leaner, Greener, Detroit | A Report by the American Institute of Architects Sustainable Design Assessment Team; authored by Alan Mallach, Subrata Basu, Stephen Gazillo, Jason King, Teresa Lynch, Edwin Marty & Colin Meehan and edited by our AIA handlers Marcia Garcia & Erin Simmons, (October 2008) [link to the full report here]

The problem at the time was pretty clear – and folks were beginning to acknowledge the fact that Detroit would never again be a city of two- million inhabitants, and that this would have implications on any approach to combating the phenomenon of shrinking. From the executive summary on Sustainable Urban Form:

“Detroit has far more land than it needs to accommodate its people. Detroit must begin to look at ways to reconfigure its land uses to create smaller, better functioning, more sustainable and interconnected livable communities. A new compact development pattern based on an urban core and a network of urban villages linked by roads and transitways will not only allow for more efficient and cost effective delivery of public services, but will encourage public transportation, provide opportunities for diverse, mixed income communities, and create long term environmental benefit by reducing vehicle use and fostering transit and land use efficiency.”

The most telling diagram of the size of the problem was the brainchild of Dan Pitera, a local architect and professor of architecture at University of Detroit Mercy. His diagram below shows an indication of the immensity of the problem by comparing the density and size of Detroit with some other populations and sizes of significant US Cities. I was flummoxed by this map as it really struck a chord in the difficulties inherent in providing services to this large area with a relatively dispersed population. [As a side note, I was also similarly amazed when I did a similar study of Portland and found that we are much more similar to Detroit in size and density - which has continued to shock local folks that see our fair city as the model for contained and dense urban growth]

The result was a conceptual diagram that took existing pockets of relative density and aimed to consolidate urban vitality where it was currently strongest. While purposely generic (and for full disclosure, done with the rudimentary stone tools of Microsoft Powerpoint on the fly), this proposal was based on an analysis using local information on specific ‘centers’ that currently existed. From the report: “The recommended urban form consists of an urban core, which includes downtown Detroit and contiguous areas such as Mexicantown, Midtown and New Center, linked to a network of urban villages through public transit, greenways, blueways and bikeways, with future opportunity areas created through land banking distributed around the urban villages.”

diagram by Jason king

As I wrote on Landscape+Urbanism, the hierarchy of urban form includes these urban villages, along with connected layers of greenway corridors and ample ‘opportunity areas’. “From a more physical point of view, the fact that the population of this ‘new Detroit’ could fit within 50 square miles – leaving 80-90 square miles of ‘opportunity area’ that could consist of greenways, parkways, and urban agriculture – along with urban reserves. This leaves areas of density – core and urban villages – intertwined with the new fabric of community that is regenerative.”

While it was implicit in the reference to opportunity that these could be malleable (i.e. support green space, agriculture, or new development – if necessary), it was still met with some vocal skepticism. It is amazing to see the turn-around from the relative shock-and-awe when we presented these ideas in Detroit in 2008. It’s a radical solution that involves both winners and losers (when thought of in terms of specific property) and that rankled (and maybe intrigued) more than a few people. As mentioned in the report, these seeds were essential to the proposals for opportunity areas:

“Detroit is particularly well suited to become a pioneer in commercial urban agriculture. The city already has hundreds of community gardens, and a growing number of small commercial agricultural operations. The operators of these farms and gardens have organized networks to support and promote their activities. The Eastern Market and the surrounding complimentary businesses give Detroit a food-related infrastructure well beyond that which exists in most cities. The benefits of urban agriculture can be realized by an initiative designed to lead to large-scale agricultural production in Detroit, using a significant share of the city’s vacant land over the next five to ten years. 10,000 acres of land used for urban agriculture – less than half of the city’s vacant land – could support hundreds of farms and generate thousands of jobs, while dramatically improving the health of Detroit’s residents. Within five years, Detroit should be able to build an urban agriculture system that would substantially exceed any other system in the United States.”

The beauty of this type of intervention is that it isn’t a permanent solution but offers a measure of flexibility moving into the future. Rather than leave lands within the city fallow until the best use is obtained, this proposal maximizes the overall use for as long as it is viable economically, and also includes ideas of job creation, reduction of blight, increased safety, and access to local food. While maintaining this productivity, it is also rather easy to transform these zones into other uses, were population to grow and require development. Call it productive land banking.

While none of the ideas we presented were new, they were based on solid precedents and made a lot of sense as a response to the context we were facing. Although many now are staking claim to the ‘brilliant idea’ of large scale farming and reconfiguration of vacant lands in Detroit, there was already plenty of talk about these ideas from local residents on our visit and folks were planning visions of major changes to come. The difference is that talk has turned to action (and political will, which in Detroit means everything), with proposals such as Hantz Farms to cultivate large scale areas of the city.

Detroit has stuck with me since Angels’ Night 2008, and is a telling counterpoint to many of the issues facing Portland. The regional variation and issues tied to economics and location are indicative of trends in looking at and applying the unique strategic opportunities based on landscape urbanism principles. Read more on the process and thinking in this series of posts from Landscape+Urbanism:

:: The Detroit Dilemma (Nov 8, 2008)
:: The Detroit Dilemma – Ruminations (Dec 26, 2008)
:: Delirious Detroit: Land of UnReal Estate (Mar 27, 2009)
:: Speaking Dequindre (May 16, 2009)
:: Peril of the Forgotten (May 31, 2009)
:: Detroit: Urbanist Opportunity (Jun 13, 2009)
:: The Incredible Shrinking City (June 17, 2009)
:: Growing the Shrinking City (June 25, 2009)
:: Some SDATisfaction (July 5, 2009)
:: Garden City Detroit (July 28, 2009)
:: Detroit Vacancy (August 17, 2009)

Category : agriculture, landscape urbanism, planning, projects, publications, urban voids, urbanism, writing

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03rd Mar2010

Post-Industrial Landscape Mitigation

by Jason King

An on-going TERRA.fluxus project in North Portland involves a number of tasks related to the mitigation of a post-industrial brownfield site along the Willamette River. This parcel abuts the river and used to be used for ship-building and repair activities, and has been out of use for some years. Overall remnant contamination was removed, and some structures were removed to ensure that pollution was stabilized, in anticipation for future use. In addition, an aggressive schedule of planting mitigation was required for selected areas to prevent erosion and provide vegetative cover.

Jason King and TERRA.fluxus was hired to provide preliminary planting recommendations based on the mitigation plans prepared by environmental consultants. This included consultation with property managers to consider types of planting, appropriate site coverage, and temporary irrigation systems. The scope also included annual review and reporting on the health of plant materials through 2012.

The initial remediation plan included a identification of a number of areas within the site that needed landscape coverage, either in the form of plantings, bark, or rock. These were in place to stabilize slopes and keep any exposed soil surface in place. The map below shows a range of required areas delineated in the initial site assessment.

site landscape mitigation plan

A more detailed planting plan was completed for the buffer area to the SW corner of the site – including native buffer plantings that were required by regulatory agencies to mitigate site disturbance related to cleanup activities. A wide array of native plantings appropriate for riparian areas and the Willamette River Greenway were selected, including Incense Cedar, White Alder, and Big Leaf Maple. The understory was filled in with Red- and Yellow-Twigged Dogwood, Currants, Snowberry, Nootka Rose, Serviceberry and Evergreen Huckleberry – mimicking the dry upland edge of the river habitat.

mitigation area native plantings

After the initial planting, TERRA.fluxus provided initial certification of landscaping to City of Portland. A number of site photos show the initial plantings after 1 year. Overall there was some necessary replacement, but overall plant health was maintained and overall invasive weed coverage was minimal, particularly in the native planting mitigation areas. Some minor repairs to irrigation was required, as well as installation of a few replacement plantings, although both were minimal, due to the diligence of the owners property management team.

view south along riverbank plantings

overall non-mitigation planting and groundcover

view east showing buffer plantings

north property line revegetated buffer

Stay tuned for more updates as annual reviews are completed, and an upcoming non-project related post about some of the unique site features of this parcel. It’s interesting to think of what the eventual best use of the property will be, as the parkland to the south and Port properties to the North expand, and the need for more access to the Willamette River continues.

Category : brownfields, environmental, landscape, mitigation, permitting, planting, portland, projects, urban voids

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26th Feb2010

Planting Time for 2010

by Jason King

As spring approaches, it’s getting close to garden season, and that means year two of the Multnomah County Hope Garden, a demonstration of rooftop agriculture installed in 2009 – which will include the rooftop and urban agriculture experience of TERRA.fluxus for developing plans for 2010 garden installations.

Jason King was the project manager and coordinator of this multidisciplinary effort while at GreenWorks, leading a team that included Teufel Landscape, Tremco Roofing, Anderson Roofing, Phillips Soil Products, Portland Nursery, Territorial Seed Co., HD Fowler, Oregon Wire Products, Parr Lumber, and many other volunteers and contributors to make this project a reality.

To generate interest from contributors, a rendering of the project was generated (above) showing the diversity of plantings for the small space (approximately 200 sf). The project was initially implemented during June, so there was some catching up to get things going during the height of summer. See more photos of the previous site and the construction here. As those who garden in the Pacific Northwest know, it doesn’t take long for vegetables to thrive in the moist heat of June. The planters were deepened to around 16 inches, and soil was amended with some additional organic matter while still maintaining light rooftop tolerances. The skyline of downtown Portland across the river is seen in the background.

Even in shallow soils, the overall productivity of the garden is evident in the following pictures taken in August, including a large stand of sweet corn, squash, and artichokes.

A harvest celebration was conducted in August to glean the first major bounty, and was attended by one of the champions of the project, Commissioner Judy Shiprack, along with Commissioner Jeff Cogen and Kat West from the Multnomah County Sustainability Program.

The 200 sf garden is about half the size of a typical community garden plot, so gave an indication of what level of productivity could be expected through small-scale gardening. Using dense planting and vertical trelllises, the Hope Garden produced over 750 pounds of vegetables that were donated to the Oregon Food Bank through their Plant a Row program – going to local program Loaves & Fishes, which aims to connect homeless and poor families with surplus fresh vegetables from gardens. Every year, thousands of pounds of vegetables and fruits are used to increase food security in our region.

To meet the upcoming goals for 2010, TERRA.fluxus is working with Multnomah County’s Green Team, who is charged with maintenance of the garden throughout the growing season, is to incorporate some additional perennial plantings such as berries, dwarf fruit trees, and other species to provide more seasonal structure, while maintaining areas for productivity using a range of annual plantings.

Due to the small size of the garden and the extensive productivity of the temperate climate, a planting plan for Spring, Summer, and Fall will be implemented, as well as plans for overwintering of a number of plants along with winter mulching. Look forward to more pics of year two of this project.

(project credits: GreenWorks PC – photos + images by Jason King)

Category : agriculture, community, food, landscape, portland, projects, roof gardens, vegitecture

3 Comm

20th Feb2010

Open for Business

by Jason King

It’s been a bit of time in the making, but TERRA.fluxus LLC is now officially open for business.

A bit of background can be gleaned through the website, including some of the seeds of the firm’s philosophy (with thanks to prominent landscape urbanists), some background of Principal Jason A. King, a range of past and recent writings, speculative projects, and teaching. Also, included, with upcoming expansion, is a simple portfolio of a range of project work.

Through my 14 years of experience, I’ve had the opportunity to work on a diverse range of projects personally, which will be showcased in addition to new work under the name of the new firm. I’ve also had the great opportunity to learn from and work with local Portland firms GreenWorks PC and Macdonald Environmental Planning, so I thank both of these offices for the opportunity and ability to share some of this work. I want to personally give credit where it is due with these firms and the great work they are doing, while also showing off some selected projects in which I was integrally involved as project manager and lead designer.

This blog is going to act as the placeholder as I work on a more refined website – so stay tuned for more info, and drop a line to say hello.

Category : announcements, landscape, portland, projects, urbanism

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24th Jan2010

Transformational Subnature

by Jason King

A recent post on Free Association Design (F.A.D.) illuminated one collaborative project with myself and Brett Milligan from last year to investigate the potentials for vacant lands in Portland. While many of the urban areas are relatively built-out, especially in proximity to the central city, there are many parcels available with the potential to become viable . We aimed to investigate the nature and potential of these parcels within the city as a methodology for discussing use and purpose of vacant lands, end uses of said lands, and productive intervals in between.

See the project location in proximity to the downtown core (marked in red).

The history of the site has included some development (the last trace of which included a building on the southern portion that burned and was subsequently removed in 2001) making the site completed cleared of structures, but with remnants of crumbling pavements and other urban detritus that was left over or . The 2+ acres encompassing a connected set of 200′ square blocks, have been left fallow and would by some be considered a weedy vacant lot, which after a quick view through property records, shows the value of this combined parcel. The site however hasn’t had much activity in terms of development proposals for infill, even during the more robust economy in the early 2000s.

While potentially perceived as a lifeless urban void, a close reading of the site evolving into what F.A.D. calls a ‘renegade dynamic ecology’ with dynamic vegetation groups and patches of diverse habitat providing an island of diversity within in the urban ecological matrix. There is also a break in the street grid allowing for a continguous patch, also denoting a termination of the Central Eastside Industrial District (at 12th Avenue) and the adjacent land-use transforming into residential to the east. As part of his daily commute, Milligan has been photographing this landscape an intervals for a few seasons (see more documentation of the site here) and references the sites innate Subnature (see review here):

“Subnatures are primarily experienced as aspects of the seemingly subhuman conditions of contemporary urbanization and its subcultural peripheries…Subnatures are those forms of nature deemed primitive (mud and dankness), filthy (smoke, dust, and exhaust), fearsome (gas or debris), or uncontrollable (weeds, insects, and pigeons).” from Subnature: Architecture’s Other Environments, Gissen, 2009)

These subnatures are evident and evolving, not specifically natural or designed by occupying the middle ground. Consisting of pioneering species, the understory has completed closed in, with the exception of some areas where remnants of pavement and compacted gravel. While mowed periodically, there are also pockets that are harder to maintain in low areas or at the fenced marging that have sprouted with Ailanthus or other early successional tree species.

(a tapestry of microecologies – photographs by Brett Milligan – F.A.D.)

This parcel was identified for some interventions related to making visible this vegetative dynamic on the site and focusing attention towards this land as teeming with life and potential. Through the process of site visits and sketching some possible iterations of design, we settled upon a series of longitudinal bands which would not require full site coverage, provide a varied experience from viewers at different directions, and accentuate the natural topography of the site

(marking territoy – map overlay by Jason King)

The species Helianthus annuus ‘Lemon Queen’ was chosen for it’s hardiness and ease of germination in tough soils as well as allowing for tall growth and visibility of large seed heads to maximize impact.

After doing a fair amount of research and looking at available sources, we decided on this variety, and bulk ordered from the Oregon Wholesale Seed. The description from their website:

“Lemon Queen Sunflowers are tall growing, reaching heights between five and seven feet. They will develop 10” diameter blooms, are drought tolerant and require a lot of sun. Birds flock to these flowers as they provide a substantial amount of food for them. Sunflowers are good cut flowers. Planting should be done in the spring after the danger of frost is past.”

The amount of pure live seed was immense (enough to provide full coverage to the entire lot), both as a product of the inefficiency of hand-seeding and as a hedge against possible germination success (i.e. we really wanted these to work). Total application was for 6 lbs of seed (56,000 seeds per pound), applied in the bands via hand seeding withing a 3-4 wide area of each transect line.

The graphic below shows a representation of the proposed installation with banding of sunflowers bisecting the site. The bands would provide a dynamic visual massing, as well as use the natural heliotropic properties for additional daily and seasonal movement. The idea would be to augment, not obliterate the existing subnatural ecologies on site, but allow for a new focus on the site as a resource of possible productivity and beauty.

(photo montage by Brett Milligan – F.A.D.)

The tracery through the grasses is barely evident with multiple passes for seeding along these transects splitting the site in both directions. This also shows the relatively difficulty of seeding a site with a thick mat of existing vegetation that has been established for some time. While conditions were optimal for seeding, and our expectations were of some patchy germination, but the result of a visible growth of sunflowers was almost inevitable.

After a couple of weeks, with some periodic visits, we were expecting a start to see some growth. There were some signs (perhaps wishful thinking) of new greenery emerging within the bands, but these never grew into anything more robust than a wish for a single seed to grow. The wish never materialized and the results were less than inconclusive.

While disappointed in this failing of germination, the experiment was educational on many fronts: testing the efficacy for the existing ecology to accommodate disturbance, the experience of planning and implementing a guerrilla intervention in an urban void, and refinement of our method for future missions. If anything, we provided forage for many of the local bird species in the early spring, and I envision some of those seeds being sowed through dispersal throughout inner Southeast Portland.

While our visible impact was ephemeral and quickly erased, the experiential resonance was immense.