11th Jan2012

Cully Community Garden – Design Process

by Jason King

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

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

Photo Credit: Tony DeFalco

Photo Credit: Tony DeFalco

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

   

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

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

Category : agriculture, announcements, brownfields, community, food, gardens, landscape, planning, portland, presentations, projects, teaching, urban voids
0 Comm
05th Aug2011

A Trio of Noted Projects

by Jason King

Sifting around the wonder that is the internet, it is always a surprise to see something that references a project you’ve been involved in.  I managed the trifecta with references of recent project work in media and as part of educational materials.  Enjoy these little snapshots of projects.

HEALING ROOFTOPS

First, my friend and colleague Elizabeth Hart, who is a Sustainable Technologies Specialist at Tremco Roofing penned an article in Healthcare Development Magazine on ‘Green Roofs on Health Care Facilities‘, mentioning projects at Portland’s OHSU Hospital, as well as the Van Ness Medical Office Building in San Francisco, all projects designed by TERRA.fluxus.   The benefits of green roofs in hospitals is hard to quantify, but there are signs that this particular building type may be well-suited for multiple reasons for vegetated roofs.  As Hart mentions in her article:

“While the benefits can be attractive, a major setback for the green roof industry is that there is really no way to create a broadly applicable baseline for the benefits of adding a green roof.  Energy savings in the building, the capacity for storm water control, the exact number of years you can extend the life of the roof membrane – these factors shift with each unique building situation and green roof system.  They are living organisms and their functions vary widely with each microclimate, building type and method of install.  The lack of an easily quantifiable return on the investment can prove challenging in the early planning stages.  Despite this, green roofs seem to speak for themselves by how widely they have been adopted, and how rapidly they are changing the “nature” of hospital rooftops.”

 

INNOVATIVE IRRIGATION

Second, the 2011 Brochure for KISSS America – supplier of subsurface capillary irrigation, which TERRA.fluxus used on the OHSU CDRC Green Roof project, the first use on a green roof in the Portland area.  The beauty of sub-surface capillary irrigation is that it eliminates the issues with regular drip in porous, lightweight rooftop soils.   Click here for a link to the full PDF, showcasing some other great projects using this innovative technology.  A snapshot of the brochure showing the installation photos:

BROWNFIELD SUCCESS

Finally, a fact sheet published by the Environmental Protection Agency as part of their Brownfield program includes a ‘success story’ on the Emerson Street Garden, as formerly polluted site that was transformed by the community into a model for transforming underused properties into community assets.  TERRA.fluxus was involved in preliminary site planning for the garden, translating workshop comments and feedback into a roadmap for the site to follow as it took shape.  The site has evolved rapidly since these photos from last year, so will post more soon.  The fact sheet offers lots of background on the garden evolution, as well as resources related to brownfield redevelopment.

Download the entire PDF of the success story here.

Category : announcements, brownfields, ecoroofs, environmental, heathcare, installations, portland, press, projects, publications, stormwater, sustainability, urban voids, vegitecture
2 Comm
15th Jan2011

Hidden Hydrology Origins 1: The Yellowwood and the Forgotten Creek

by Jason King

As I mentioned in the previous post, there have been a number of inspirations that led to the current work on the Hidden Hydrology of Portland.  I will take this week outlining a few of the past words and images that have led to the current work.  A seminal work, by Anne Whiston Spirn, is part of the great book ‘The Language of Landscape‘.  This particular text was adapted into a short prose piece in Arcade Journal – although I can’t seem to find the exact issue (so anyone who knows give me a heads up).

The imagery has stayed with me, and the resonance is echoed by Spirn in a different quote in the book about the revelatory power in searching for and expressing hidden hydrology: “Revealing the presence of the buried creek is an important part of the proposal because many who live here do not even know the creek exists despite its persistent influence on their lives.” (Spirn, 2000: p.213)

The Yellowwood and the Forgotten Creek

…One day the street caved in.

Sidewalks collapsed into a block-long chasm.

People looked down, shocked to see a strong, brown, rushing river.
A truck fell into a hole like that years back,
Someone said. A whole block of homes fell in
One night a long time ago, said someone else.

They weren’t sure where.
Six months later, the hole was filled, street patched,
Sidewalks rebuilt. Years went by, people left, new folks moved in,
Water seeped, streets dipped, walls cracked.

Once a creek flowed—long before there was anyone to give it a name–coursing
Down, carving, plunging, pooling, thousands of years
Before dams harnessed its power,
Before people buried it in a sewer and built houses on top.

Now, swollen with rain and sewage, the buried creek bursts pipes, soaks soil, floods basements,
Undermines buildings. During storms brown water gushes from inlets and manholes into streets and,
Downstream, overwhelms the sewage treatment plant, overflowing into the river from which the city
Draws its water…

…Signs of hope, signs of warning are all around, unseen,
Unheard, undetected. Most people can no longer read the signs whether they live in a floodplain,
Whether they are rebuilding a neighborhood or planting the seeds of its destruction,
Whether they are protecting or polluting the water they drink,
Caring for or killing a tree.

Architects’ drawings show no roots,
No growing, just green lollipops and buildings floating on a page, as if ground were flat and blank,
The tree an object, not a life.

Planners’ maps show no buried rivers, no flowing, just streets, lines of ownership, and
Proposals for future use, as if past were not present, as if the city were merely a human construct,
Not a living, changing landscape…

…Humans are story-telling animals, thinking in metaphors steeped in landscape:
Putting down roots means commitment,
Uprooting, a traumatic event.

Like a living tree rooted in place,
Language is rooted in landscape. Imagining
New ways of living means relearning the language
Which roots life in place.

The meanings landscapes hold are
Not just metaphorical and metaphysical,
But real, their messages practical;
understanding may spell survival or extinction.

Losing or failing to hear and read
the language of landscape threatens body and spirit, for the pragmatic
and imaginative aspects of landscape language
have always coexisted.

Relearning the language that holds
Life in place is an urgent task.
My work is dedicated to its recovery
And renewal.

Category : environmental, hidden hydrology, history, landscape, thoughts, urban voids, water
2 Comm
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
10th Dec2010

Emerson Street Garden – Site Plan

by Jason King

Final plan for the Emerson Street Garden, to guide implementation over the next year – including 14 garden beds, permaculture area with fruit-bearing trees and shrubs – and the initial remediation planting.  Lots happening in 2011.  What to help out, there are plenty of opportunities – contact Cassie Cohen at Groundwork Portland.

Category : agriculture, brownfields, community, environmental, food, graphics, planning, portland, projects, urban voids
1 Comm
29th Nov2010

Brownfields to Veggies

by Jason King

The Emerson Street Garden was featured in a recent Portland Mercury  article “Gone to Seed: County Turns Empty, Foreclosed Lots into Urban Gardens” mentioning Multnomah County’s program ‘County Digs‘ which provides a mechanism for “giving away tax-foreclosed property to qualified organizations for use as urban gardens by governments, non-profits and religious organizations”

Joanne Green and Groundwork Portland's Cassie Cohen at the new Emerson Street Garden formerly home to Green's house.

The article, by Sarah Mink, offers some insight into the potential of vacant urban properties to be ‘remade’ as productive space.

SCATTERED AROUND Multnomah County are 384 vacant lots that stick out like little scars of a lousy economy. For years, the county has been trying to figure out what to do with these lots—empty land seized through property tax foreclosure. But now the county has finally hit on a new idea to bring life to the abandoned lots: turning them into urban gardens.

Joanne Green pointed to the freshly planted seeds that occupy one corner of the Northeast Portland vacant lot where her home once stood. Green lived in the house at 800 NE Emerson from the mid-1970s to the early ’80s, but after she moved, the house hit some hard times: It burned down and its owner stopped paying property taxes.

After entering property tax foreclosure, Multnomah County eventually took over the derelict patch and, under the new County Digs program, donated it tax free to nonprofit Oregon Sustainable Agriculture Land Trust (OSALT) who let Groundwork Portland turn it into a garden.

The vacant lots that County Digs is turning into foreclosure gardens aren’t properties caught up in the national foreclosure crisis—there are no banks with bad loans or mortgage defaults directly involved. Instead, these vacant lots are green spaces whose owners haven’t paid property tax in six years or more.

The properties could potentially be sold off to developers. But most are oddly shaped or poorly located strips leftover after the county either sold off or gave away more desirable properties to county offices, government entities, or affordable-housing groups. The smallest is a 62-square-foot triangle running along SW Hewett; another is a 566-square-foot strip bordering 12 homes along NE Beech and Failing that remained vacant because of a state mapping error. The largest is a 16,000-square-foot railroad spur on NE 87th.

Since 2005, Multnomah County has donated three plots, all in North and Northeast Portland, to the nonprofit OSALT to turn into gardens. The nonprofit gets the land for free, under the condition that it will always be used for agriculture. This month, the county is kicking the program into full swing, opening up 16 new properties that nonprofits can apply to start farming.

Someday soon, these tax foreclosures could be coming up roses.

Green and her neighbors planted their little garden, lined with hay bales and covered in a plastic tarp to keep off frost, this past summer. The fledgling Emerson Street Garden is part of a citywide Groundwork initiative to transform unused land into neighborhood resources. A team of Blazers Boys and Girls Club kids helped plant seeds last summer in the garden, after volunteers had stripped off the topsoil, which was contaminated with lead.

Now, plastic knives stuck into the soil read “potatoes” and “carrots”—Green even planted a cute little kale next to the garden water spout. “For the slugs,” she says.

“There was good times and bad times here, but I think the garden will be an improvement,” says Green.

Category : agriculture, brownfields, community, environmental, food, mitigation, portland, press, urban voids
0 Comm
25th Sep2010

Emerson Street Garden – Update

by Jason King

My last update on the Emerson Street Garden in Northeast Portland was in July – as the groundbreaking celebration was imminent.  There has been some progress on site, with the delivery of the garden shed, some additional earthwork, and installation of the water service.  I was on-site recently to check on the progress and take some field measurements, so snapped a few shots.  More info and to get involved contact Cassie Cohen at Groundwork Portland.

The garden shed, completed by Oregon Tradeswomen Inc. as part of their training programs, is beautiful (and heavy) – sitting in it’s temporary location until a base is prepped in it’s final resting place.

In addition, to get some productivity out of the site this fall, a raised planter bed was developed with strawbales.  The area behind that is taped off is the phytoremediation zone.

This zone is taped off, with warning signs due to the lead contamination.  This area will eventually be fenced, and planted with a range of species which will uptake the high levels of lead in the soils.

This has also given us an opportunity to finalize the site plan – to give shape to the phasing and potential of the site to guide future development activities.  (click to enlarge)

Category : agriculture, brownfields, community, environmental, food, installations, landscape, mitigation, portland, projects, urban voids
1 Comm
08th Aug2010

Good Food Here in the Oregonian

by Jason King

Last Thursday’s Oregonian featured a nice article ‘Outposts for food carts are sizzling in Southeast Portland’ all about new food cart hubs emerging, including Good Food Here (more info on the design here).  One of the residents of the fast growing 43rd and Belmont pod (now with almost 10 carts up and running) includes the funky bus from Creme de la Creme (image via the Oregonian).

A choice quote from the article:

“…the property owners at these two carefully planned Southeast sites are betting that the city’s appetite for cheap street food is still growing and that family-friendly cart pods in residential neighborhoods can do business as brisk as the rollicking late-night Cartopia pod at Southeast 12th Avenue and Hawthorne Boulevard. “It matters to us that this is a hub, a part of the neighborhood,” says Neeley Wells, project manager for Good Food Here. No alcohol or smoking is permitted at the site, and all carts close at 10 p.m. There are picnic tables under shade trees, portable toilets and planter boxes filled with edible plants; in winter there will be heated tents.  The land is owned by Urban Development Partners NW LP which eventually plans to put a mixed-use building there. But until then, the company is putting the site to work. Nine carts are operating, with five opening soon. Wells is seeking “the city’s best pizza and barbecue” to fill out the culinary offerings.”

Other fabulous carts on site include Dog Eat Dawg, Rockabillies, Namu (a second location), Lucille’s Balls, The Urban Garlic, DE-pressed, and Yum Zap (with more on the way).  Any carts have links, I’m happy to add them.

Category : business, community, food, installations, portland, projects, publications, urban voids, urbanism
0 Comm
20th Jul2010

Fields of Green in McMinnville

by Jason King

Last week marked the kick-off for an exciting new project to create an organic garden at the Willamette Valley Medical Center in McMinnville, Oregon.  This is an opportunity for Jason King to work with the campus again (now owned by Capella Health) after working on a pair of projects while at another firm*.  This project involves a remnant section of the property to the south, which is envisioned by Becky Prelitz, dietitian at the hospital, as a productive organic garden area.

The team took a look at the site on Friday, showing the context adjacent to the existing track area and the transition zone between the campus and adjacent agricultural lands.   The team includes local master gardeners, urban farmers, staff from WVMC – all working together to create a productive space that will incorporate crops that will be harvested and utilized within the hospital cafeteria.

The initial meeting identified some uses, components, and options for incorporating healing elements, but the focus is squarely on creating a vibrant space for growing a range of veggies for harvest and consumption throughout the year.  The site is truly a tabula rasa, encompassing over 2 acres of land.  Plans are for the garden to be implemented in phases – starting with an initial installation of one-eighth of an acre.

Look forward to more updates as we plan for this field of green – turning grass into a much more robust and diverse use – feeding the community of Willamette Valley Medical Center.

* (Healing Track and Oncology Center completed while at Macdonald Environmental Planning)

Category : agriculture, community, food, heathcare, landscape, planning, planting, projects, sustainability, urban voids
1 Comm
06th Jul2010

Good Food Here Takes Shape

by Jason King

Over the past week, the folks at Urban Development Partners have been hard at work putting the finishing touches on the site improvements for Good Food Here at SE 43rd & Belmont… and carts should start rolling in over the next few days.  This pop-up variety of site intervention involved minimal investment and the ability to take the majority of elements away from the site to be re-purposed elsewhere when the site evolves into it’s final use as a mixed use building.

Planters are placed to delineate spaces and limit access into the site, and areas of traffic to allow some carts owners, if the desire, to come and go.  Tables, umbrellas, and additional plantings are in the queue for upcoming days.  Water Bureau was on-site this morning to install service to the site – making it fully operational.  Overall space for 20+ carts is in the plans, a sure way to offer a variety of culinary experiences.

One major task was cleaning up the site – as weeds and brush had filled up beds and occupied cracks in the pavement.  The asphalt was also patched and coated for a clean lay-down surface for carts.   Simple mulch with some supplemental plantings were added along the street frontage, along with some raised planter beds.  With the exception of some iconic windmill palms at the entries, the site landscaping consists of a range of edibles including evergreen huckleberry, strawberry, pineapple guava, currants, artichokes, fruit & nut trees, and a variety of herbs.  The area in front will act as a public food court with tables and umbrellas for shade – adding life to the streetscape of Belmont Avenue.

The transition from parking to cart area is facilitated with a new boardwalk to connect the two areas, flanked by planters and leading to the main cart space and the food court to the west.  Other than a few trees removed, all existing vegetation was maintained on site to keep it as lush as possible.

The boardwalks spans a number of existing trees which form a secondary seating node within the shady grove.  Picnic tables are ready to be placed once final electrical and water is completed and groundcover is completed. This area is filled with a local agricultural byproduct, crushed hazelnut shells, as a surfacing material – which acts as a great mulch and denotes this area for use.

The traffic coming to new businesses in the area, along with the proximity to traffic from local institution Movie Madness, will make this cart pod a great addition to Southeast Portland.  Additional areas and site amenities include portable toilets,  off-street parking, garbage and recycling, and option to rent commissary kitchen space for food prep down the street.  Cart owners who want to make this their home can check out details on renting space at their website.  (photos by Jason King, © 2010)

Category : business, community, food, installations, landscape, planting, portland, projects, urban voids, urbanism
2 Comm
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