4
big moves
SYMBIOTIC DISTRICTS PORTLAND TOWARDS A BALANCED CITY Leverage Points
lloyd
1 2 3 4
a
Repurposing the Big Box
b
Re-envisioning Main Street
1
Rich street life: shifting right of way from autos to pedestrians and bikes
2
Green Infrastructure: conveying water, connecting habitat, growing food, and processing waste
3
Net zero energy and water: connecting energy and water sources and uses across the district
4
Urban agriculture: growing on green spaces, greenways, rooftops and green walls
Gateway
GATEWAY EcoDISTRICT 1
gateway
Local farmers manage garden plots Water flows freely and is reused for irrigation Trails connect to city-wide network People have community spaces to gather in natural areas
4 b
university district
a
south waterfront
lents 2
feasting on freeways
b
transforming highways to green spaces and agricultural production
3
7PETALS
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 beauty
equity
materials
health
energy
water
Neighborhoods are the right scale to accelerate sustainability – small enough to innovate quickly and big enough to have meaningful impact. Their varied behavior and characteristics are a asset providing resources to share across a city. For example, a district with ample sun exposure can fuel a downtown that consumes more than its solar potential. Together, they create balance and a city in symbiosis whose sum is greater than its parts.
site
four big moves
existing site conditions
putting the streets to work above and below the surface
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EcoDISTRICTS
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1 university district
2 south waterfront
3 lloyd district
4 lents
5 gateway
An urban, higher education district that provides a bounty of thought leadership, demonstration and innovation power, and resource capacity to support the city; it lacks student housing, a retail core, open space and an ability to provide its own energy, food, or water.
A new high-density, brownfield redevelopment is anchored by a regional medical research facility that is a model for sustainability and health and its community of high rise residential living minimize individual resource footprints; though walkable and open, the area suffers from a poor connection to the city, limited space dedicated to producing food, and the lack of a retail core with a dynamic mix of uses and affordable housing.
A mid rise office district in the central east side with excellent transit access and a well organized business community committed to investing in its future; it suffers from lack of residential buildings that create mixed-use activity or a culture of place or diversity due to the dominance of large-business and institutions.
A low density, low income, and diverse residential area in outer east Portland that suffers from years of poor urban planning and frequent flooding. With recent investments to improve the historic town center, transportation access, watershed health and urban farming, Lents has the potential to become a new model for suburban sustainability.
A former low-density suburb lies at the nexus of the region’s transportation system allowing it to hold on to the retail services that support its local residential communities and has an abundance of vacant land to manage and treat stormwater and provide urban habitat and food production; the neighborhood’s diverse immigrant populations are not integrated and a freeway severs the district’s connection to nearby residential neighborhoods
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CH2M Hill | David Evans and Associates | Greenworks PC | Newlands and Company, Inc. | Portland State University, Institute for Sustainable Solutions | Sparling
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Living City Design Competition 2.1.2011
Gateway Gateway Gateway
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