Chuck Slothower//September 5, 2018//

Two projects in the Portland-metro area – the proposed Willamette Falls Riverwalk and the completed Yard – received honor awards recently from the American Society of Landscape Architects as part of the .
The Willamette Falls Riverwalk in Oregon City was one of four projects to receive an honor award in the analysis and planning category. The Interstate 25 Conservation Corridor Master Plan in Douglas County, Colorado, received the category’s award of excellence.
The Riverwalk, designed by Snohetta, is the anticipated first phase of a plan to remake Oregon City’s frontage of Willamette Falls. The waterfall, blocked for decades by a paper mill, is considered a potential tourist attraction.
“Here we see the combining of public access, habitat, historic and cultural interpretation, and economic development in a project that’s very tangible in terms of its potential to being implemented,” the awards jury wrote.
Snohetta is an international design firm with headquarters in Oslo, Norway, and U.S. operations based in New York City. The design firm’s client is Metro and a coalition of government agencies. The landscape architects are Mayer/Reed and Dialog Design.
Yard, a 21-story mixed-use building with a landscaped podium at the east end of the Burnside Bridge, was one of two projects to receive an honor award in the residential design category. 2.ink Studio was the landscape architect for Yard. The Balcones Residence in Austin, Texas, received the category’s award of excellence.
Yard “sets itself apart from a competitive marketplace, and the market has responded positively to it,” the awards jury wrote.