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.

Check out the specific links for more information and references for this projects.

I, for one, can’t wait for 2011… it’s gonna be another great year.

Category : agriculture, biophilic design, brownfields, business, community, competitions, ecoroofs, environmental, food, graphics, heathcare, images, installations, landscape, living walls, los angeles, mapping, medford, mitigation, permitting, planning, planting, portland, press, projects, publications, research, REWIND, roof gardens, san francisco, seattle, subnatures, sustainability, teaching, theory, tours, ugb, urban voids, urbanism, vegitecture, water, wetlands
1 Comm
22nd Jun2010

Holding Patterns – Recognition for Urban Voids Matrix

by Jason King

The array of solutions to Seattle’s call for ideas ‘Holding Patterns‘ have been unveiled, and the TERRA.fluxus proposal (along with Kelley Roy from Sassafras Consulting, and Kelly Rodgers from Confluence Planning)  for Urban Voids Matrix and its ‘Modular Approach to Building a Sustainable City’ has garnered one of 13 honorary mentions to complement the 13 winning solutions.  An image showing various iterations of temporary usage for sites from our proposal is found below.

Check out the amazing collection of ideas that this quick competition generated – and soon begin to see some of these ideas pop up in selected sites around Seattle.  And more locally, look forward to more work on urban voids, as a much more expansive idea for identification and use of vacant sites is underway with a range of contributors.

Category : agriculture, announcements, awards, community, competitions, installations, landscape, planning, seattle, thoughts, urban voids, urbanism
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26th May2010

Holding Pattern | Urban Void Matrix

by Jason King

A quick ‘competition’ of sort from Seattle fit nicely into some current thinking around the concept of uses for vacant properties (aka urban voids).  In this case, the focus is on ‘stalled’ building sites that are left partially finished due to economic or other factors.  The gist of the call for idea from the Holding Patterns ‘brief’ distributed by Seattle DPD:

“Have you noticed how many lots have been left empty or partially developed due to the stalled economy? These vacant project sites are all around us. Unattractive and unbecoming of our city, we pass by them every day: empty holes, barren plains of gravel, voids in the city fabric. How can we convert these eyesores to opportunities?

The Seattle Design Commission wants your ideas for Holding Patterns, interim uses for stalled project sites. We are seeking your concepts to transform the following types of stalled project sites around the city:

  • holes in the ground
  • surface lots
  • ongoing construction above or below street level

Whether a concert space or a bumper car track, basketball hoops or a fleeting performance stage, from temporary to semi-permanent, wacky, practical or both, the Design Commission is welcoming any and all ideas. Artists, designers, non-profits, businesses, developers, students, astronauts, everyone is invited to contribute ideas. Interdisciplinary teams are encouraged.”

OUR PROPOSAL

Our team, consisting of Kelley Roy (Sassafras Consulting), Kelly Rodgers (Confluence Planning) and Jason King (TERRA.fluxus) approached this from the viewpoint 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 proposal seeks to use these sites as a way to create a compelling development model that is sustainable, mobile, and integrated. This proposal frames community uses for vacant parcels, providing options for the different needs of the community as well as by type of parcel. It does not suggest that one amenity fits all neighborhoods and sites, thereby providing the flexibility for the community and efficiency for developer.

The idea is that instead of site-specific solutions, solutions have the ability to 1) Roll in-Roll Out (mobility), 2) Be Integrated with Buildings (application to final project) and 3) Productive landscapes (generating income and material for food and building)

Rather than focus on one solution, we decided to apply the matrix to each of the typologies for stalled building projects:  site, hole, and frame.  This gives a snapshot of possible applications to real world conditions, using a generic site configuration.  Each project site would be evaluated for the best mix of interim use that fits the final building project.

SITE: One idea of a building integration strategy is to use vacant building sites as land for producing building materials.  Afforestation can consist of growing products that are sustainably harvested over the years and then used in the building construction.  In this case, groves of bamboo, fast growing trees, industrial fibers like hemp, and sheepswool can be ‘grown’ on the land with an eventual end use within the building cladding, insulation, carpet, and finish work.  Buildings literally grow from the site.

FRAME: using the partially constructed armature of a stalled building structure, the idea is to create temporary three-dimensional habitat through portable hanging habitat gardens.  These habitat pods occupy site for beautification, climate modification, air quality improvement – then move to next site to continue to contribute to urban quality.  Modular planters can be transported easily and placed on a viable partial structure.  Street-level planters keep people out of the site for safety.  Rooftop planters on structural grids give the opportunity to add trees and other habitat elements.

HOLE: taking advantage of the negative space left behind through stalled excavation, gives us an opportunity to create places for community gathering for theater, concerts, and events – amphitheater evolves into a building-integrated arts space.  Tiers of seating are sunken into the excavation to create seating, oriented towards a stage and screen at the low point for an immersive experience.  Temporary planters protect steep edges and generous at-grade elements accommodate passers-by to draw in community.  Modular elements can be repurposed in building or moved to a different site after usage – and allow for a proof of concept that can translate into arts and performance space in the final building installation.

Category : brownfields, community, installations, planning, projects, seattle, sustainability, theory, thoughts, urban voids, urbanism
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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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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06th Apr2010

Designing for Urban Food

by Jason King

I’m happy to be part of a great event happening up in Seattle next week, exploring the role of design in urban agriculture.  Sponsored by the UW College of Built Environments, the first portion of the evening (6-9pm at Gould Hall) will include a number of landscape architecture and design professionals in a session ‘Exploring the Role of Design in the Urban Food Movement’.

“The panel will bring together Jason King, blog author and landscape architect from Portland, Deb Guenther from Mithun, and Keith McPeeters from GGN, with Jeff Hou (author of the recent book Greening Cities, Growing Communities, and chair of landscape architecture) as moderator. Introducing the panel presentation will be faculty members Branden Born, Ken Yocom, and Gundula Proksch who will discuss a crossdisciplinary studio on vertical farms in urban settings (specifically for a housing project in Seattle – Yesler Terrace).”

The panel is a kickoff to a charrette being held the following day to explore a range of urban typologies for food production.  Those up in Seattle should drop in Friday between 10am and 5:30 pm to participate or stop by the  Celebration and Close from 5:30pm – 7:00pm (both at Gould Hall) .  More info on the CBE website.

“The charrette will be organized around 10 categories of design constraints/opportunities (such as alley space, rooftop space, abandoned lot, etc.), to provide a structure for charrette participants and a means of indexing and organizing design ideas for use by the public. The design ideas will be available to the public via a CBE-hosted website and also displayed in Gould Court for a portion of the term. Momentum will hopefully call on further distillation and development of design ideas and additional sharing mechanisms will be developed once target audiences are clarified.”

Category : agriculture, community, presentations, seattle, thoughts
1 Comm
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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