91ÊÓƵ

Chloe Roesch, a sophomore at the Arts and Communication Magnet Academy in Beaverton, said she took the school’s urban design course because she was interested in learning about what made her community unique.

“I wanted to learn about how my neighborhood worked and how that was different from other neighborhoods,” she said.

Roesch and 33 of her ACMA classmates got that opportunity when they joined Beaverton city staff for a design charrette on Tuesday. The charrette was part of the academy’s urban design class taught by Jon Gottshall, who is planning to bring it to the rest of the school district over the next year.

For the charrette, students split into eight groups. Each designed a future use for a mostly vacant 3.5-acre trapezoidal lot bounded by Southwest Hall Boulevard, Southwest Millikan Way and Southwest Watson Road. The site is near Beaverton Creek and MAX light-rail tracks.

One student described the lot as the definition of suburban wasteland. Another quickly chimed in and said she would rather be in math class than at the lot in its current state.

“I never had a single class growing up that focused around how to make where I lived a better place, and I thought an urban planning class would let these young adults do that,” Gottshall said. “So, we’ve spent the whole semester learning about urban growth boundaries, transit-orientated development and various other aspects of urban planning. Now I am turning them loose and letting them put these concepts to practice in Beaverton.

“I don’t expect all these young adults to become urban planners. But, at the very least, I want them to have an understanding of the underlying issues associated with growth and development so they can be informed citizens no matter where they live.”

Gottshall asked Ric Stephens, Beaverton planning commissioner, to suggest a plot of land that could be developed in the future, for the class to use. He was shocked when Stephens not only handed him aerial photos of a lot but also sent several city representatives to oversee the charrette and answer any logistical questions the students might have.

Stephens said he conducts charrettes around the world while working as a consultant but has never participated in one with young adults. The collaborative exercises are the future of urban design, and these students will lead the way, he said.

Most of the student groups incorporated bio-swales, permeable surfaces and mixed-use buildings in their designs. But from there, differences emerged.

One group wanted to create the feeling of open space because when the group members saw a picture of the lot on Google Earth they were immediately drawn to its openness. As a result, their design turned the attention outward.

Another group identified the site’s potential as a gathering space, so participants planned a community center at the center and mixed-use buildings around the perimeter.

Cate Werge, a sophomore, said her group first looked at other cities and determined what defined them. Then the group turned its attention to Beaverton and tried to create a sense of place. The group decided that Beaverton was a green city, so it tried to make the site as sustainable as possible.

Another group didn’t want to work with the lay of the land, so it built the ground level up one story and added tunnels for the surrounding roads.

Erin Bernot, a senior, said her group was aware that Beaverton doesn’t have a cultural center despite the presence of many different ethnicities. So the group developed a design that included restaurants and shops around the outside of the lot, with each building representing its culture within.

“A lot of people want Beaverton to be more like Portland,” Bernot said. “We wanted our design to be unique to Beaverton. We are a suburb. Why try to be anything that we aren’t?”

Next, each group will refine its ideas in the next five weeks. The class will then vote on the three best designs, and those groups will make presentations before Beaverton City Council and the planning commission in June.

Marc San Soucie, council president, said the presented designs will be considered for inclusion in the Beaverton civic plan, which will be developed over the next year.

Gottshall said he wants to eventually see the urban design class expanded throughout the state.

“I didn’t want this to be just another academic class,” he said. “The whole point of this is engaging students by letting them put into practice what they have learned.”