Portland Architecture

Lango Hansen & Metro Unveil Three Design Options for Lone Fir Memorial

Local landscape architecture firm Lango Hansen, who also designed the Hotel Modera courtyard (with Holst Architecture) that I wrote about recently on this blog and in The Oregonian, has unveiled three design options in a Metro-sponsored effort to re-introduce part of Lone Fir Cemetery in Southeast Portland. The agency is seeking public comment on which design is best.

Some background: Several years ago, when the Multnomah Building was planned to be demolished, there was concern that this corner of the cemetery would be developed as a mixed use building, which many locals strongly opposed because it was believed that the land belonged to the cemetery and there were still remains on the site. Multnomah County and Metro conducted an archaeological investigation, and it proved true. Since then, the property has been put on the National Register of Historic Places, as is the rest of the cemetery, and Metro is leading the effort to create a new design for the site that will be a memorial for the Chinese workers believed to be buried there. There will also be a contemplative garden with interpretive elements reflecting the cemetery's history and cultural diversity.

Another historical aspect of the property is that there were several mental patients buried on the site. A Dr. Hawthorne, for whom Hawthorne Boulevard is named, saw to their burial when these patients' families washed their hands of responsibility (mental illness was often hidden away by polite society in these days).

The three Lango Hansen design options are largely about how much of a memorial exists. The firm has provided narrative for each of the three options, listed as follows:

"Option 1 illustrates a long rectangular lawn with a memorial similar to the historic cemetery trellis, located at the east end of the project area. In front of the trellis a small bubbling fountain is proposed on a stone paving pad. The trellis and lawn are separated from the Morrison Street sidewalk by a band low shrubs and perennials to mitigate traffic noise. On the north side of the lawn a serpentine decomposed granite path meanders through a band of low shrubs and perennials providing pedestrian connections between the project site and the rest of the cemetery. A contemplative stone seating circle is located along this path, surrounded by cherry trees, in the location of where the remains were found."

"At the pedestrian entry off of SE 20th and Morrison, a grouping of four raised planters with low stone walls, similar to the walls found in the cemetery, provide a place for seating and colorful perennial plantings. A gateway feature, similar in design to the trellis, is flanked by these planters. This gateway could have side panels containing interpretive information about the cemetery for the public."

"In Option 2 the trellis on the east side of the project area is expanded in length, and the memorial more explicitly acknowledges the Chinese workers as well as Dr. Hawthorne’s patients. The Chinese memorial contains elements similar to a traditional Chinese cemetery altar, such as stone placement with the Chinese inscription “You are with us” and a funerary burner for offerings. The funerary burner could be a metaphoric work of art rather than an actual burner. These elements are placed in front of the trellis structure, with a large pine planted behind them. A larger paving pad surrounding the Chinese memorial acknowledges by name Dr. Hawthorne’s patients that were buried in the area. At the north end of the trellis a small cemetery maintenance building is proposed, which could be visually mitigated with plantings."

"In this scheme the lawn is contained by an elliptical path and is raised at the west end by a low basalt wall that would seep water. This water feature is a focal point in a pedestrian plaza at the intersection of 20th and Morrison. The plaza also contains a grove of cherry trees with benches and interpretive kiosks. Low growing shrubs create a separation of the lawn area from the sidewalk at SE Morrison Street."

"Historically, the Chinese cemetery contained a path down the center, running east/west. Option 3’s scheme recalls that path, but puts a slight curve in it, connecting the pedestrian entry at SE 20th and Morrison to  two separate memorials at the east end of the project area. The path could illustrate a time line of the cemetery or give voice to the rich history of the cemetery, by the use of inscribed stones set in the lawn, crossing the path at intervals, and becoming the interpretive element. The memorial to the Chinese workers is located in the northeast corner of the property and contains a” stone mountain”, similar to those in classical Chinese gardens, potentially using stone from the Guangdong province where the Chinese workers were from. The paving around this memorial could be a stone mosaic, and the entire memorial is proposed to be surrounded by plants of Chinese origin. To the south of this memorial a stone paving circle, nestled within northwest native plantings is proposed with interpretive elements acknowledging Dr. Hawthorne’s patients."

"At the pedestrian entry at SE 20th and Morrison an entry sculpture is proposed as well as a low mound containing a grove of cherry trees which leads into the site. The mound is backed by low basalt rubble walls similar to those inside the cemetery. Two basalt columns with an interpretive panel form a gateway to the cemetery at what was the west edge of the Chinese cemetery."

This project has come about through a grass roots effort over the past 5 years by Friends of Lone Fir, Buckman Community Association, the Consolidated Chinese Benevolent Society, neighbors and interested local citizens.

On Metro's website, there is additional information about the options as well as the opportunity for public input. Personally, I prefer the option that provides separate Chinese and Dr. Hawthorne memorials, but I also like the pathway going through the middle of the space. You don't want this solemn cemetery becoming an athletic field, after all. Meanwhile, congrats to Lango Hansen on a fine set of options.

Jamison Square Reconsidered

When I wrote last week about Randy Gragg’s interview with Brad Cloepfil, the one issue that seemed controversial, or that readers really seemed to disagree with Brad on, was his position on Jamison Square Park in the Pearl District. “It’s a theme park,” Brad said of Jamison “It’s an urban artifice. You could have done something so much more elegant.” He told Randy that the Peter Walker design tried too hard to program a particular type of setting: one of children, families and dogs frolicking near the fountain. Cloepfil lives in the Pearl District near Jamison, but he said he completely avoids the park.

However, an overwhelming majority of people whom I’ve talked to and commented here seem to like this Peter Walker-designed landscape a lot. “I like Cloepfil but he is wide off the mark on Jamison Square,” one commenter said. “Jamison Square is an extremely succesful urban space. In my mind it is incredible how well it functions.”

Although the central attraction is a wide swath of stone blocks from which water flows before gathering in a small pool below and then draining, Jamison also has the ambiance of outdoor diners from Fenouil restaurant overlooking the park. There are also the wonderful Kenny Scharff “Tiki totems” on the west side of the block, and a boardwalk on the east side. The boardwalk also continues north toward and through Tanner Springs Park. It’s a multifaceted experience.

At times in the past I, like Brad, have avoided spending much time there because it’s a little louder environment than I prefer. I like parks with lots of places to sit contemplatively under a canopy of trees. Even so, it may be short-changing Jamison to say that can’t happen here. The trees have started to fill in and grow up on the park, and although it’s a slow process of course, I was really struck visiting Jamison last night at how there really is a marked transformation happening in this respect. Trees really make all the difference in any park.

What’s more, I think Jamison Square has to be considered as a companion to Tanner Springs. The latter is a much quieter space, and thus the two parks seem to work well together. If one heads to Jamison on a sunny afternoon and it’s resembling Romper Room with lots of water-born kid fun, one can go to Tanner and read that dog-eared copy of Proust or meditate over the finer points of, say, Mounds versus Almond Joy or Amanda Fritz against Jim Middaugh.

One thing that City of Portland chief urban design strategist Arun Jain (my guest at tonight's "Designs on Portland" discussion series) told me lately seems relevant to a Jamison debate as well: there's a big difference between people's feelings and emotions about design versus empirical evidence and fact. I think in the past I've been guilty of dismissing Jamison because it's not necessarily the kind of place I would ordinarily spend a lot of time. But I'm hugely sun-phobic (my Nordic skin burns in mere moments) and don't hang out in direct-light open spaces that much anyway, which makes my own ability to evaluate the design objectively somewhat skewed.

As we’ll soon reach the ten-year anniversary of Jamison following its 2000 opening, how do the rest of you use and/or evaluate the square? What do you like and dislike about it? And is one of the other commenters to my Cloepfil post that started this discussion right in saying that Jamison is not only successful, but overtaking Pioneer Courthouse Square as Portland’s living room? In the latter case, I’d say not. But Jamison may indeed be the city’s family room. Although if that's the case, I don't know what that makes Waterfront Park: the city's great room? Its den? Its front lawn?

Greenworks and Ankrom Moisan-Led Team Among Metro Integrating Habitats Competition Winners

Last month Metro held its Integrating Habitats competition, and although I’m late in writing about it, wanted to touch upon at least one of the winners.

The purpose of Integrating Habitats was to generate designs that integrate built and natural environments. According to metro, winners would “redefine the current language and standards of environmental sustainability by fostering balance between conservation and development, maximizing biodiversity and safeguarding water quality for this generation and those to come."

The jury included Stuttgart/Los Angeles architect Stefan Behnisch; University of Michigan landscape architecture professor Joan Nassauer; Tom Schueler, founder of the Center for Watershed Protection in Maryland; Metropolis magazine editor Susan Szenasy; Portland developer Jim Winkler; and David Yocca, director of the Conservation Design Forum in Elmhurst, Illinois.

In the commercial category, a collaborative group from Portland was the winner. Team members came from Greenworks, Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects, ESA Adolphson, SWCA Environmental Consultants, and Bruce Rodgers Design Illustration. The submittal, which drew from Metro’s 2040 Growth Concept and Portland’s Peak Oil Task Force 2007 Report, involved a lowland hardwood forest habitat interface with a big-box green home center, parking, and remnant wetlands.

"We were drawn to Category 2 because it is a type of project (big-box) that is not typically known for sustainability," Greenworks' Jason King told me. "It was mostly a parking problem. We also asked ourselves, "How will design and development change due to peak oil?  How can we design now to respond to the future variability? Our aim was a project that could be viable, one a developer would look at and say 'We could build this.'" 

King also, in his email to me, quoted the landscape urbanism theorist Charles Waldheim: "Landscape replaces architecture as the basic building block of contemporary urbanism... Landscape has become both the lens through which the contemporary city is represented and the medium through which it is constructed."

Among the plans are for unwanted yard and food wastes to be brought on site and transformed into compost. Stormwater collected and cleansed with technologies that replicate wetland processes and habitats. Economically, they explain, “our development model taps into Portland’s leading market for sustainable building practices and lifestyles, and fosters community by creating service- oriented building centers near regional and town centers to meet the challenges of post peak-oil conditions. Through daylighting, façade articulation and site responsive features, the architecture provides a contrasting experience that will attract nearby shoppers from adjacent big box developments for the engaging experience the site will offer them.”

To me this isn't a radical re-invention of the big-box store. It's really just about breaking down the bulk of the store, stopping the roof from being an eyesore and a heat island by landscaping the top and sloping one edge down. And then it's making the surface parking lot softer around the edges.

I wonder if an even greener solution, which for all I know the competition brief didn't allow, might be to put another store next to the big box where the surface parking lot would go, and have the two side-by-side stores share the cost of putting parking underground. You could still integrate nature in but get rid of that ugly surface car lot instead of window dressing it.

Having said that, I would love to pull up at this instead of the hideous, life-sucking environment of the Jantzen Beach Center Target store and its sea of asphalt I visited a couple weekends ago. There are empty buildings all over there, and to walk from Target to, say, Barnes & Noble or Old Navy next door, there's no place to go for a pedestrian except for over grass berms and along the asphalt right next to the cars. If they could clear out all the people and valuables first, I'd have no problem with them demolishing almost the entire Hayden Island shopping area and start over...with stuff like this (and connected by MAX).

You can read more about this winning commercial entry on the Greenworks site. Also, the winning entries for the competition were on display in the Bureau of Development Services at 1900 S.W. Fourth Avenue throughout April, and I believe they'll be shown somewhere else in May - more on that shortly.