31st Mar2011

Got Urbanism?

by Jason King

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

Category : announcements, landscape urbanism, planning, press, publications, urbanism, writing
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19th Jan2011

Hidden Hydrology Origins 2: David James Duncan

by Jason King

Another inspiration for the Hidden Hydrology of Portland is the writing of David James Duncan (author of a couple of my favorite books, the Brothers K amongst the best).  In a book of essays from 2002 entitled ‘My Story as Told by Water‘ Duncan tells some stories with a Portland area spin about his youthful explorations in the area.  The idea of oral histories providing an additional layer to mapping and other on-the-ground study is intriguing, as the narrative is both informative and evocative of what these lost urban waterways meant, and what was lost along with them.

image via Wikipedia

Early in his childhood,  he mentions growing up on Mount Tabor (the volcanic outgrowth in East Portland – not the biblical version, seen above between downtown and Mt. Hood in the image), and his quote worth discussing hints at the disconnect between the modern city and the natural processes which shape and feed these places:

“My birth-cone’s slopes were drained by tiny seasonal streams, which, like most of the creeks in that industrialized quadrant of Portland, were buried in underground pipes long before I arrived on the scene. … I was born, then, without a watershed.  On a planet held together by gravity and fed by rain, a planet whose every creature depends on water and whose every slope works full-time, for eternity, to create creeks and rivers.  I was born with neither.  The creeks of my birth-cone were invisible, the river from somewhere else entirely.”  (p.4)

The water system from early in Portland’s history, was stored at high points like Mount Tabor and piped to surrounding neighborhoods.  This shot from 1912 shows one of the reservoirs that are still in operation today (for how long, is a good question).

image via Vintage Portland

The artificiality of the watershed is evident in Duncan’s discussions, as he makes do with building creeks using the hose and the power of gravity (much to his mothers chagrin) – using with water delivered to reservoirs and coming to his tap, as is common in many cities, from distant locales while burying the remnant hydrology that exists.  A map of the water system shows the existing Bull Run watershed in relation to Portland.

Continuing this discussion on Johnson Creek on a youthful visit, showing the degradation of some of the existing waterways that has been occurring for many years.  “It was just one of Portland’s dying creeks.  Really, one with a much-needed but long-lost Indian name.  Johnson Creek was now its anemic title.  But it was twenty-six miles long, hence a little too big to bury.” (p.10)

image via OregonLive

It’s heartening to see the restoration of the creek, which is one of the few to remain on the east side in some natural form, through the work of a number of local groups such as the Johnson Creek Watershed Council, and recently there were reports of dead coho salmon found 15 miles upstream – which is significant as it is the furthest upstream anyone has noticed these species in many years, and a testament to the work on restoration and improvement.   Something Duncan would appreciate, no doubt.

image via OregonLive

While water and rivers was of importance to Duncan, the main driving force for him was fishing – which drove the explorations to the wilds of the city.  After leaving Mount Tabor, the family moved further east towards Gresham, and lived for a time on Osborne Road, the future route of I-205.  Duncan mentions the lure of possible fishing holes, but the inaccessibility:   “A spring a quarter-mile from our new house flowed into a series of backyard trout ponds for neighbors, but these ponds were picture-windowed, guard-dogged, private.  The closest fish-inhabited waters to my house, so far as I knew, were the Columbia, three miles due north.”  (p.17)

The story continues around the small town of Fairview, under Halsey Street, where Duncan spotted a kid and discovered a hidden world amidst the underbrush:  “…the shocking thing, the magical thing, was that he was standing knee-deep in clear, lively creek water.  A creek surrounded on all sides by briars so dense I’d never noticed it before.”  (p.17)   Later in the same spot, he saw  a guy catching a trout there “a secret trout stream” and found his new exploration spot, as mentioned “Fairview Creek, it turned out, was five miles long, two-thirds wild, and amazingly full of life.” (p.18)  See the location on the far right edge as it interfaces with the Columbia Slough watershed.

Following the course, he found gravel pits headwater at Mud Lake that were stocked rainbow trout, near the Kennel Club, a pond with bullheads, and always adventure in the streams. “In the plunge-pool below the Banfield Freeway culvert, I caught a thirteen-inch Giant Pacific Salamader that stared straight into my eyes, flaring and hissing like something out of Dante Volume one, till I apologized, cut my line and released it.”

The approximate area is interesting to see and compare – although the historical imagery from Google Earth (which is awesome btw) only goes back to 1990, there’s a telling transformation in a twenty year time-span (although still a fair amount of stream left intact with development.  I remember this area, as my mother used to live just North of the Salish Ponds park (south of Halsey) and we took the trails through behind the Target and over into Fairview, which is a real gem and one of those places that, like Duncan, you may walk by many times without realizing it’s there.  I’ve highlighted Fairview Creek in Blue.

The same area in 1990 where you can see the residential development along Fairview Creek

The denouement to this story of youthful exploration comes after a few years of fishing these urban creeks and streams:

“At six-thirty or so on a rainy April morning, I crept up to a favorite hole, threaded a worm on a hook, prepared to case – then noticed something impossible: there was no water in the creek. …I began hiking, stunned, downstream.  The aquatic insects were gone, barbershop crawdads gone, catfish, carp, perch, crappie, bass, countless sacrificial cutthroats, not just dying, but completely vanished.  Feeling sick, I headed the opposte way, hiked the emptied creekbed all the way to the source, and there found the eminently rational cause of the countless killings.  Development needs roads and drainfields.  Roads and drainfields need gravel.  Up in the gravel pits at the Glisan Street headwaters, the creek’s entire flow had been diverted for months in order to fill two gigantic new settling ponds.  My favorite teacher was dead.”   (p.22)

A case of disappeared streams, captured in a moment of time from someone that was there.  The sadness in this loss is palpable, as it isn’t just a line on a map, but a leaving & breathing part of someone – both their history and their essence.  This sort of study of writings offers many opportunities for exploration through history, and can reveal much about a place in the past.  Combined with oral histories from residents and other qualitative study, it offers a dimension that maps just can’t on their own.  Thus looking beyond the map to the history is vital and inspirational going forward.

(all page references are to:  Duncan, David James. My Story as Told by Water.  Sierra Club Books, 2002.)

Category : environmental, hidden hydrology, history, images, mapping, portland, research, thoughts, urbanism, water, wetlands, writing
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08th May2010

Urban Ecotones Published in Future Arquitecturas

by Jason King

The publication last year of Future Arquitecturas 19/20 Double Issue from 2009 featured the winners and selected projects from the Re-Invent Infrastructures Competition.  Urban Ecotones, the competition entry by Jason King (Principal of TERRA.fluxus) and Brett Milligan for the Metro Integrating Habitats competition, was a perfect fit for the competition (check out a brief of the Reinvent Infrastructures Competition here).  The project had previously been published in Metropolis and Landscape Architecture China – so the publication in another international Journal was a welcome addition.

Future Arquitecturas is published out of Madrid, so the issue is old news – but due to global snail mail – it took a bit of time for my copy of the publication to arrive (last week).  Brett and I submitted this as a project that fit many of the competition ideas including mobility, resource supply, waste, as ‘Hybrid Habitats’ acting as interrelated components of urban infrastructural systems.

A brief explanation of the project goals that were including in the text:

“Urban Ecotones” provides a contemporary vision for how modular economic development can regenerate, rather than destroy natural systems within an expanding city region.  Rather than seeing the thresholds at which commercial development meets natural systems as points of confrontation, they are approached as environments of unique richness – a synergy of diverse habitats akin to ecotones, spanning nested scales from site to region.  Urban ecotones are spaces for creative cross-programming that facilitate new regenerative urban processes, including: Parking (re)volution, Flow (re)direction and Waste (re)cycle.”

All images are courtesy of Future Arquitecturas Issue 19/20.   Project graphics and text copyright Jason King & Brett Milligan.

Category : environmental, graphics, images, landscape urbanism, press, projects, publications, theory, thoughts, urbanism, writing
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10th Mar2010

On Food Carts: Urban Gastronomic Revolution

by Jason King

The gastronomical heritage of Portland is well known, with strong cult followings in beer, wine, coffee, spirits, urban agriculture, and local/organic food.  The choice of restaurants, farmer’s markets, community gardens, coffeehouses, brewpubs, and dive bars offers anything, literally, on the menu.  While always a fixture of urban life, street food is definitely becoming a more common way of delivering food to urban residents.  A rapidly expanding subset of this genre is the explosion of food carts – those mobile, self-contained, and thriving locally.

screenshot of Food Cart Portland website

One major resource in the search for the ultimate cart is the site Food Carts Portland, operated by the pseudonymous Dieselboi and Cuisine Bonne Femme – who offer reviews and other resources for the cart-based culinary revolution.  They also offer an ode to the cart in a short essay ‘Portland Hearts Food Carts’, which I’ve reprinted from their site here in full:

“Portland has a proliferation of Food Carts and they seem to be growing in numbers and locations. Some might call them lunch wagons, taco trucks or even snack shacks, but whatever you call them, they are truly a phenomenon in Portland. Set up in parking lots, sidewalks, and even parks (sometimes in large groups and sometimes solo), one might nosh on a fresh tortilla Baja fish taco one day, a rib-sticking bowl of traditional goulash the next, have a coffee and pastry for an afternoon snack, and then take home a giant Indian combo box for dinner.

Locals from various places and committed food-loving tourists from all over know that some of the best food to be had in any city from Bangkok to Baja is to be had at small street stands, carts, and other non-restaurant restaurants. New York City, for example, a city with some great street food, holds the annual “Vendy Awards” to express their love for mobile dining. There is even a website dedicated to street food around the world, although oddly, no U.S. cities are represented. In fact, many cities in the U.S. strictly limit or outlaw food carts completely, making Portland more akin to cities in Europe than in the U.S.

Food carts are also about supporting small, locally-owned businesses and small start-ups that might not have the capital or credit to open up their own full-fledged restaurants. That said, food carts are not restaurants! With limited hours, lack of indoor (and sometimes lack of any) seating, and small menus, they complement rather than compete with full-scale restaurants. Food carts help create a vibrant downtown and central city by bringing what planning geeks call a “social fabric on the street” which is great in cultural terms, but in economic terms also attracts other spenders, retail outlets, and restaurants and cafes. Food carts also often illustrate the delicious benefits to a growing ethnically diverse community, as many immigrants own and operate them and make and serve some pretty tasty ethnic specialties.

Plus, food carts can be a fantastic bargain for office workers, students, budget travelers, and anyone looking for a cheap, quick, but delicious bargain lunch.

Regardless, food carts are part of the culinary fabric of our wonderful city and dining in Portland wouldn’t be the same without them.”

A quick glance at the site (or any aggregation of two or more carts) will yield a range of ethnic, specialty & regional variations, and a range types of cuisine.  There is definitely a preponderance of Mexican and Thai represented (sometimes side-by-side), but it is easy to name a type of food and then likely match this to a cart or two.  We have legendary carts, unique carts, even carts owned by rock stars (in this case, former Shins drummer Jesse Sandoval’s Neuvo Mexico) and a Portland v. NYC street food/feud.  This is often the beauty, as the capital expenditure and life expectancy for a restaurant specializing in, say, regional Bavarian cuisine may be a tough go.  But, for a few thousand bucks, a cart can be up and running with minimal overhead.

SW 5th Cart Hub - image via California Planning & Development Report

The FCP site is a great resource, and links to a very simple and helpful map via designer Audrey Eschright, showing locations of many area carts.  Not sure the vintage of the info (there’s a few missing that I know of) but it seems reasonably up to date (also allowing folks to add and edit sites – which is key as there is a quick ebb and flow of carts moving – some purposely, on a moments notice).  The map links back to the FCP site for more info, reviews, menus, etc.  It’s in google maps – so it exports well into Google Earth for a bit more usability (GIS would be even better, so stay tuned).

I fiddled with the symbology a bit and located the carts with smaller yellow markers.  Concentrations of carts on a single site (aka Cart Hubs) have a larger orange marker.  You can see the density of these locations (specifically downtown and inner SE), and also the locations along typically commercial corridors.

A single cart is more than likely the sign of an opportunistic intervention (or a brave pioneer) in an under-served portion of the community.  These pepper the landscape throughout the City, and probably number in the 100′s city-wide, spreading from the core out to more remote locations.  The more concentrated Cart Hubs are a somewhat more recent and interesting phenomena that takes advantage of economy of scale and grouping to make a destination with a variety of choices.  These are typically located on the perimeter edge of a surface parking lot, where folks pay ‘rent’ in terms of monthly parking fees, plus the cost of a vendor license + regular health inspections.

There are four of these ‘hubs’ in Downtown, and a few more emerging across the river to the east.  The older downtown pockets have been around for a while serving downtown office workers, including a grouping in Pioneer Courthouse Square, a some other groupings throughout the inner city (some have been displaced through redevelopment of surface lots) .

A few popular locales in the Downtown core worth of attention:

SW Fifth, between Oak & Stark (along the Transit Mall)

SW Ninth+Tenth, between Washington & Alder

SW Fourth, between College and Hall (near Portland State)

The common denominator (aside from occupation of parking) is a heavy concentration of diners, typically serving during lunch hours.  Thus proximity to office workers and students (i.e. daytime denizens) seems like a recipe for success – particular for these masses of carts.  Many of these carts are only open during lunch for a couple of hours, while some have begun to stay open later to take on the dinner and even late-night crowds in specific areas.  One aspect worth looking at is the inherent competition (or maybe synergy) between bricks-and-mortar retail restaurants and the wheeled mobile varieties, as they seem able to co-exist within similar space.

That is not to say there isn’t some conflict, particularly a well publicized feud from 2002, that pitted a well-known local restaurant owner against food carts – citing specifically different rules governing carts versus restaurants unfairly tipping the competition.  Most folks laughed.  While both provide food – the draw is totally different and satisfies very different aspects of dining experience people look for.

One Eastside example, on 12th & Hawthorne in Southeast. is a slightly different breed.  On the corner of 12th and Hawthorne, this emerging ‘hub’ is located along a commercial strip, and located in a tough development corner adjacent to residential areas.  This merging point of residential and commercial seems to be a key locator to broaden the range of possible customers – in this case occupying a hole where there aren’t many food options.  The organic evolution of the site over time is interesting – and also representative of the neighborhood zeitgeist of Southeast Portland.

12th + Hawthorne Hub @ Night - image via Flickr / cafemama

A similar organically evolving site in a vacant lot is dubbed ‘Area 23′ on Alberta – and I’m sure a few more that will spring up literally overnight.  The new hybrid model of this type of development is the Food Hub at North Mississippi, which is one of the first to be developed specifically for food carts.  Via OregonLive:  “Business man Roger Goldingay spent months (not to mention $900,000 in real-estate costs) to shape a new vision for North Portland: converting a dilapidated building and an abandoned lot into a food-cart center, a community gathering place and an incubator for small artisan businesses focused on food or crafts.”

Prost on Mississippi , with the carts to the left - image via PDX Eater

The project switch, even though the site is located in an emerging neighborhood, was driven by the fact that the economic slowdown caused the site development of new mixed use buildings to stall – making an interim use for the site necessary.  The level of investment makes sense for these ephemeral uses, but perhaps it’s something a bit more long-lasting – offering a type of experience that is common around the world with vibrant street food identities.  The locations may change, but the variety of food will continually expand and evolve, and create another possible use for the various vacant lots around town – perhaps even coupling this with the urban agriculture movements for growing food, wine grapes, or hops for local beer or other consumables in the city.

A potential for a true urban gastronomic revolution.

[For an upcoming project, I'm doing some research on the evolutionary and urban design phenomenon around these locations and groupings of Food Carts in Portland.  A series of posts will outline this process, so check back for more updates as the project progresses.]

Category : community, food, planning, portland, thoughts, urban voids, urbanism, writing
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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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11th Feb2010

Thinking

by Jason King

I was pleasantly surprised that my blog Landscape+Urbanism showed up in a list by Kaid Benfield of NRDC featuring his ‘Urbanist bloggers that make me think’, which,  “… present issues through a different lens than my own, that are like-minded enough to garner my respect but different enough to challenge and expand my thinking.” Other blogs included in the varied and fabulous mammoth, the thoughtfully wonky Urbanophile, and a few others that I will have to add to my feeds.

The specific info on L+U from the post:

“Landscape + Urbanism: Speaking of Portland, that’s where landscape architect Jason King resides.  His site says it is about “landscape architecture, sustainable urbanism, vegetated architecture, urban agriculture, living walls, green roofs, ecological planning and landscape urbanism theory.”  I don’t go as far as Jason does in advocating all of these things, at least not in as many places, but in part that’s why I like this blog.  He makes the case, makes it much better than most, and illustrates it beautifully with photos and other images.  He also wonderfully deviates occasionally from the professional to offer perspective on books, music, food, and the like.”

Category : publications, thoughts, writing
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10th Dec2009

Healing Spaces

by Jason King

Recently published in Landscape Architecture Magazine, December 2009, a book review on ‘Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well-Being” by Esther Sternberg [Harvard University Press, 2009].  Checkout the article from LAM online here, or purchase the book here.

LAM_Dec_2009

Read the original review in full @ Landscape+Urbanism.

Category : heathcare, publications, writing
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