LOOP PDX
LOCALLY GROWN
An Old Pattern Becomes New Again The first citizens who lived here in this place we now call Portland routinely ventured from the surrounding hills and valleys down to the banks of the Willamette River in search of camas roots to supplement their diet. Hundreds of years later, white settlers arrived to what they called; “the clearing” at a bend in the river and decided because of the deep river channel, its relation to fertile valleys and hills populated with an abundance of tall timber, this might just be a good place to build a townsite. Both of these early communities of inhabitants built their lives around the continuity of the land. From the timber-laden stands to the low-lying grasslands to the deciduously rich hills – all served by a navigable riverway. This region has always been blessed with the ability to grow things. In short we love the beauty of the land, and when nurtured with care, what the land can provide for us. This pattern – grow it/ship it has been the backbone of our lives here. Today the same pattern exists however it has been enhanced through the fertilization, harvesting and exporting of intellectual crops as well.
PORTLAND PAST
PORTLAND PRESENT
PORTLAND FUTURE
H o w O u r S u b m i t ta l I s S t r u c t u r e d
. The Forest, The Farm, A Welcome, Park Blocks for the Future,
Cloud Park, and East Hill : Broad context diagrams set the stage for our deeper investigation into our 6 new loci. Each of these new nodes includes a plan diagram, a conceptual illustration and a brief narrative including a list of partners who might be engaged to undertake its development and long term stewardship.
. Plug and Playisms : a description of various initiatives which could And so now, The Loop. What an extraordinary opportunity for this place at this time. An opportunity to blend circulation and recreation, sustainability and sustenance into one byway that serves the entire city. The challenge, as we see it, is to look hard at what the City has been to date and look long at what it might become in the future.
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We assembled a team comprised of a landscape architecture firm, an engineering-transit firm, an architectural firm, and an artist – some in Portland, some not. We considered how future climate changes will alter our regional agricultural patterns in the early stages providing opportunities for a more diverse palate of species and then later an ever increasing need for controlled, closer-to-home food production. We asked ourselves how might the city grow in density over the next 100 years. We anticipate a continued influx of new residents. We envision land use changes that are un-practiced now. We see a city that is denser and taller yet clings to its past structures and the appreciation of nature whenever possible. And, as hundred-year-old trees that were planted in our parks fall to both storm and beetle, we understand that planting for the next century can be an opportunity for improvement, rather than merely following century-old patterns.
While the Loop promises to create an extraordinary connective tissue within our city, our team firmly believes that significant new urban oases can be created along the Loop – not created from scratch mind you, but rather places that build and improve on what the land has to offer us. These are places in our city where our team has increased the efficiency of the transportation network while increasing opportunities for preserving the social intimacy which is so rooted in the DNA of our lives in this place.
occur throughout the Loop, including a series of 22nd century drinking fountains.
. Inches and Feet : is a series of roadway cross-sections and diagrams which illustrate just some of the real world engineering solutions that begin to make this project a reality.
It should be noted that we do not see the Loop as a “just add water” kind of undertaking, but quite to the contrary, something that may take a hundred years to reach it’s full fruition. Where prudent, in this submittal we have striven to illustrate or describe these changes over time. Just like the fallen nurse log that rots deep in the forest hosts new saplings in its mulch, cities too can host new versions of themselves and foster fresh ways of living. Ways of living that make sense. Ways of living that are sustainable. And finally, ways of living that strike a northwestern balance of the natural, the human and the animal worlds. If we are able to do that, we can all be proud.
Now, let’s go for a RIDE!
CEDAR / HEMLOCK FOREST
Brown Nuthatch
Sword Fern
Junco
Lady Fern
Pine Siskin
Licorice Fern
Owls
Lungworts Oregon Oxalis
understory
bird species
Salmonberry
Winter Wren
Salal
Western Flycatcher
Bracken Fern
Golden-Crowned Kinglet
Evergreen violet Oregon Grape
Wilson’s warbler
Vine Maple
DOUGLAS FIR forest
Bitter Cherry Solomon Seal Wintergreen Oregon Ash
understory
bird species
Red Alder
Ash-Throated Flycatcher
Big Leaf Maple Garry Oak Hawthorn Bitter Cherry
DECIDUOUS forest
PARTNERS Oregon State University School of Forestry Friends of Trees City of Portland Arborist Portland Parks Bureau Oregon Museum of Science and Industry Bureau of Environmental Services Explorer Scouts of America Americore
Pileated Woodpeckers
Huckleberry
Lichens
a living amenity for recreation, respite and rejuvenation
Here we envision returning the land to a proud, sprawling stand of evergreens – complete with understory and habitat. In essence a wild, green open space, a counterpoint to the topcoat and walking stick-inspired formality of the North and South Park Blocks. The Close-in East Side has always lacked open space for its workers and its families. Now, through the development of the Loop, they have their nature, they have their heritage and they have their future.
bird species
Salmonberry
Stair Step Moss
THE FOREST (1)
First the initiatives are simple – a tree planted here, an underutilized parcel captured there. A painted curb extension, a street tree-planting program led by property and business owners along with the Explorer Scouts and others. But as time goes on and additional densificiation occurs, open space becomes a premium – not only highly valued, but highly desired and the full park development begins to span a hundred years.
understory
Blue-grey Gnatcatcher
Pacific Madrone
understory
bird species
Bunch Berry
American Kestrel
Stream Violet
Lark Sparrow
Western Trillium
Western Meadowlark
Western Fescue Oregon Avens Blue Wildrye Common horsetail
PRAIRIE GRASSLANDS
White-Breasted Nuthatch
Slough sedge Northern Maidenhair Fern Western Wheatgrass
YEAR 1 FOREST SUCCESSION
A THE FOREST (2)
keeping portland wild - east side park blocks car
YEAR 10 FOREST SUCCESSION
BIKE car
YEAR 30 FOREST SUCCESSION
A 6th / 7th Avenue bikeway transformation typ.
YEAR 50 FOREST SUCCESSION
STREET TRA NSFO RM A TIO N B EG INS SEE P LA N INSET THIS SHEET
THE FOREST (3)
A CENTURY OF GROWTH
12th AVENUE
I-84 Park/bridge
bridging the gap A new park, and a new bridge. Sullivan’s Gulch/I-84 has long separated the close-in east side jobs from the houses in the Lloyd Center district where these workers live. While there is vehicle connectivity between the two, there is nothing that joins these two districts to reinforce the human scale. Already today vertical residential towers are popping up in the Lloyd District. Its density is increasing with the change of every season. With this park/bridge there will now be a there, there.
GRANDE AVE
Interstate 84
6th / 7th AVENUE
row crops over underground parking repurposed memorial coliseum with vertical indoor farming new residential
interstate 5
land bridge over interstate 5
THE FARM
growing our own We are capturing less active and “left over” public and private parcels to grow The Farm – sites completely devoted to the growing of food for our children’s school lunches, our homeless, and our needy. The two current Moda Center parking structure uses here are undergrounded and capped with additional farmland. The interior causeways of the Memorial Coliseum are now utilized for vertical farming. The area is ripe for redevelopment and addressing the highest and best use equation for our next century. As our climate warms, our region will find itself with longer and stronger agricultural growing seasons. This change, when combined with the wish to have our agriculture be grown closer to where it’s consumed encourages us to seek new solutions for sustenance.
moda center
willamette river
PARTNERS Oregon State University Food Innovation Center Oregon State University College of Agriculture 4H of America Americore Portland Trail Blazers Meals on Wheels Transition Projects
broadway bridge
aquaculture ponds farm fields over interstate ave ( placed underground )
WELCOME MONUMENT
a new celebrated entry to our downtown A civic icon, new development, cafÊ streets and an improved street plan all work together to create a new entry to the Downtown’s core. The team has proposed placing the Broadway/Ankeny intersection on a street diet + improving bus circulation while also swapping some of the ROW to the private sector for a building site on the east, closing portions of Ankeny to enhance retail spill out, and finally erecting a formal monument in the pivot point. A Welcome if you will.
PARTNERS Portland Development Commission Private Sector Regional Arts and Culture Council Portland Bureau of Transportation TriMet
broadway
A WELCOME
burnside ST.
sw anke ny st.
welcome monument + Traffic island
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PARK BLOCKS for the future
vehicle lane
a sustainable park land for the next 100 years
parking separated bike lane
crosswalk
The team has three concepts to strengthen and sustain the Park Blocks.
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In order to reinforce the consistency of the Loop we’ve “greened up” the vertical faces of buildings along the MidTown Park Blocks better linking them with the already planted park blocks and continuing the green ribbon throughout west side’s urbanized core.
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We introduce new species within the Parks themselves, more resilient for our changing climate and plantings that offer a more diverse setting.
3
We closed and/or greened up a few short runs of low functioning rights-of-ways and dedicated them over to a more graceful link of pedestrian circulation. This improves the connections between cultural institutions, educational institutions and their associated activities. Some of these include sections of streetcar use but can still be greened up.
PARTNERS Parks Bureau Portland Bureau of Transportation Portland Streetcar Portland Art Museum Bureau of Environmental Services
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1 existing park blocks PARK BLOCKS CONTINUATION
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PARK BLOCKS illustrative section
PARK BLOCKS for the future Green walls along the vertical faces of buildings link gaps between existing park blocks and continue the flow of the Loop.
CLOUD PARK
harnessing the surplus OF elevated concrete structures into a new, exuberant bike AND pedestrian parkway We fitted the 405 Freeway overhead structures with vibration collection pads to generate energy to power the LED lights for the parkway below. Now the endless rumble of freeway traffic has been captured for our enjoyment. We installed stormwater feeds to bring the filthy roadway water down to filtered cisterns which when cleaned, provide irrigation for the seasonal wildflowers, street trees and native grasses that line the parkway. Freeway structures now become supports for hanging gardens, alternative power generation devices and stormwater capturing facilities. While the “commuter bike route� of the Loop at this location will surely attach itself to the outboard side of the Lincoln Structure, this new park way creates a alternative path for those in search of a more meandering journey.
PARTNERS Oregon Department of Transportation Portland Bureau of Transportation Bureau of Environmental Services Oregon Museum of Science and Industry Portland State University College of Engineering Hardy Plant Society
EAST Hill
a new observation point in which to recreate by day and view the heavens by night A new vertical landform constructed from fill and detritus created from new vertical development in the close-in east side stands tall on a currently vacant parcel owned by TriMet. This development provides sorely-needed active recreational space for the residents in the established neighborhoods to the east and simplifies the current mix-master circulation of bikecar-ped-heavy rail-light rail-bus-freight movement activity at this node. Built over a parking structure, it provides much needed parking for those who work in the district by day (and access their jobs via streetcar) and serves as parking for night time, heavens-viewing families by night.
PARTNERS Oregon Museum of Science and Industry Building Owners and Managers Association Close-in East Side Industrial Council Bureau of Environmental Services Portland Parks Bureau TriMet Portland Streetcar
22nd century drinking fountain
THE NEXT GENERATION WATERING HOLE While touring the Green Loop stop by one of eight strategically placed Filling Stations and take advantage of the opportunity to fill your lungs with clean ionized air, slake your thirst with filtered ionized water, and during the depths of winter, absorb full spectrum light. These eight Filling Stations are a combination of the universal and the specific, tradition and innovation. The idea for providing three universal elements of well-being for the general public - clean air, water, and light – was inspired by the Benson Bubblers, first introduced to Portland in 1912 to foster healthy drinking habits in Portland’s often raucous citizenry. These three universal elements are collected, housed, and delivered within an architecture specific to Portland and the Northwest.
. The outer layer of each station is a perforated metal screen whose pattern is derived from microscopic wood fibers native to our temperate rain forest.
FAN + FILTER + IONIZER
FULL SPECTRUM LIGHT
IONIZED AIR IONIZED WATER
IONIZED H20
IONIZED AIR
FULL SPECTRUM LIGHT
BATTERIES
+
_
THE FILLING STATION IN + OUT SYSTEMS DIAGRAM
PUMP + FILTER + IONIZER
. Air, water, and light are delivered through nodes,
nodules, and nozzles inspired by prominent Pacific NW artist Leroy Setziol’s eccentric, nature-driven sculptures.
. Beer and wine – or at least the copper and stainless
steel vessels in which they are crafted – which is the cladding for the enclosure’s outer wall.
YE OLDE DRINKING FOUNTAIN
1912 BENSON BUBBLER
WOOD FIBERS AND DISTRIBUTION VESSELS
SETZIOL WOOD SCULPTURES
BREWING COPPERS
22nd century drinking fountain GLASS ROOF PANELS WITH PHOTOVOLTAICS PERFORATED METAL SCREEN & SOFFIT SCREEN
WATER STATION FULL SPECTRUM LIGHT STATION
ELEVATION
AIR STATION
THE FILLING STATION COPPER ENCLOSURE RAINWATER STORAGE & FILTRATION EQUIPMENT / AIR PLENUM PERFORATED METAL SCREEN ROOF OVERHANG ABOVE WATER, AIR, OR LIGHT STATION
FLOOR PLAN
NOTCHES
PLUG + PLAYISMs RANGERS Develop a partnership program through Travel Portland, The Portland Business Alliance and Clean and Safe to create a staff of overly energized know-it-alls, retirees, obsessive high school nerds and old history teachers to be present on the Loop to provide information (human search engines) and act as the “eyes on the street”.
Develop a standard assembly of utility feeds, canopy deployment, seating elements etc. for specific locations along the Loop. Big enough for a bloodmobile or two food carts, a girl scout cookie sale stand, product roll-outs, bike and IT service day kiosks, etc. These sites could be free to non-profits or rentable for other uses. Their use and programming would be administered by the PBOT and the Portland Parks Bureau as they do with other similar permitting processes such as sidewalk cafes and event programming.
BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT
PUBLIC ART
Partner with the Portland Development Commission to access their existing Urban Renewal Area Storefront Improvement Program and re-establish the proactive “swat team” approach used on the redevelopment of the Portland Transit Mall to leverage public investment and business improvements.
Partner with the Regional Arts and Culture Council to hire a team of artists to develop a Loop Public Art Master Plan which would identify potential sites, themes and processes for the incorporation of public art works within the Loop. Use public dollars generated from “Percent for Art” funds as triggered by City of Portland Parks, Bureau of Transportation, Bureau of Environmental Services and Portland Development Commission expenditures on the Loop. Ensure that the Master Plan is inclusive of a diverse vocabulary of traditional, historical, conceptual, temporary, performance, media-based and ephemeral opportunities as appropriate for specific sites.
INCHES + FEET
implementation is achieved one lovely gesture at a time We do not see the Loop as a “just add water� kind of undertaking. Quite to the contrary, we see it as something that may take a hundred years to reach its full fruition. How does one plant a forest? Simple, the same way a forest grows in nature - not with one sweeping gesture but lots of small initiatives. A nurse log nurtures a sapling, a bird flies overhead and drops a seed from something it ate, a sudden gust of wind blows a pine cone into a ravine. And so, we too envision not a wholesale dig of the City, but rather countless actions, all coming from different sources and different interests. A local business plants a tree in planter box which is transferred to the forest 10 years later. An engineer stripes a new sidewalk bulb-out and bike lane. A grandma shows a ten year old how to plant a tomato. An ex-astronaut describes the stars from a new vantage point. This is what we see as the potential of the Loop. A new ribbon of connectivity which engages city and nature, expert and novice, culture and industry.