In East Portland, where Interstate 84 meets Interstate 205, offers 25 acres of parkland – an opportunity for respite from hustle and bustle. And now it’s even better.

A $5.75 million project concluded recently. It produced a gravity-oriented mountain bike trail, an asphalt pump track nearly 600 feet in length, a playground, a grassy area for gatherings and performances (when public health conditions allow), improved utilities including restrooms and a drinking fountain, and more.

“Gateway Green is finally the park we always dreamed it could be,” Paul Dickow, chairman of the Friends of Gateway Green board, stated in a press release. “This is a huge day for East Portland, Portland Parks, and off-road cyclists!”

The park now features two miles of single track, two pump tracks, gravity-oriented flow trails, and a bike park with an adaptive course for people in wheelchairs. Also, the habitat was diversified via additions of plants.

The project was paid with Portland Parks & Recreation system development charges and a $1 million Nature in Neighborhood grant from Metro. In addition to Friends of Gateway Green, project partners included Northwest Trail Alliance, The UNPavement Project and Sasquatch Trails.

Design consultants included GreenWorks PC, PBS Engineering & Environmental, and C2 Recreation. Minority-owned Raimore Construction served as the contractor.

“We didn’t want to reduce the quality of the bike experience out there but with added advancements improved upon them,” GreenWorks landscape architect Ben Johnson said.

Johnson worked to make sure people could access all of the trails in the park without disrupting the existing bike trails.

Because Gateway Green differs in elevation by approximately 100 feet from its top to its bottom, design and construction were challenging. A key design aspect was ensuring accessibility for all potential park users.

GreenWorks also improved the habitat to keep wildlife and recreational use in mind. For example, trees were planted in areas to provide shade for cyclists. The whole habitat was designed with native trees except for a few by the hub to give the area separation and prominence.

Upon the park’s opening in 2017, it had only a single track and bike park. It was “bare-bones,” Chris Bernhardt, of C2 Recreation, said. “(It) didn’t feel like a park.”

Now Gateway Green is expected to become a regional destination for cyclists of all skill levels as well as an attraction for many others.

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People in the Portland design community are continuing to come up with ideas for the long-debated green loop. The latest ones to throw ideas into the mix are students from the University of Oregon‘s School of Architecture and Allied Arts; they participated in a design studio event led by GreenWorks principal Gill Williams and SERA Architects principal Tim Smith.

“We exposed (students) to thinking about how infrastructure systems function together,” Williams said. “A lot of them weren’t used to working like that.”

The idea of the event was to give students the opportunity to contribute to an urban design concept that has been kicked around by the city for the past five years.

“It was focused on new types of development in the green loop,” Smith said. “One of the concepts was the idea of trying to keep industry close in. What does a 21st century industrial area look like?”

As proposed, the green loop would be a six-mile linear greenway running through Portland’s central city on both sides of the Willamette River. The concept is part of the 2035 master plan.

“The green loop is a big idea,” said Marc Asnis, urban designer at the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability. “There isn’t a definitive design for the green loop yet. It’s about getting ideas out there right now. How would people want to see a green loop?”

The concept will go before the Portland City Council on Sept. 14. Stakeholders are hoping that concepts presented at this recent design event and others can be incorporated in the final project. If the City Council issues approval, then officials would begin planning, identifying funding possibilities and pursuing specific designs.

For the recent event, developers helped students focus their ideas, Williams said.

“One of the aspects we brought was outside sources and outside perspectives,” he said. “What do they consider good catalytic projects?”

Students were encouraged to consider ideas that could spur other development. The Portland Streetcar was offered as one such project that promoted other development along its route.

“If the loop happens, there are portions of it that could be executed now that could provide a catalyst for growth,” Williams said.

One challenge is that portions of the proposed loop would run through areas that include distribution, light industrial and food processing facilities.

“The eastside industrial businesses have some trepidation about the green loop,” Williams said. “They still watch it with a wary eye.”

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Dozens of landscape architects gathered recently at the Multnomah Athletic Club to honor their own.

The American Society of Landscape Architects‘ Oregon chapter opened the awards ceremony by bestowing its highest honor, Fellow of ASLA, to two people: Mike Faha of GreenWorks and Rob Ribe of the University of Oregon.

Ribe teaches ecological planning and research methods to students in landscape architecture, planning and environmental studies. He was director of the Institute of Sustainable Environment for 10 years. He also is an author, and according to ASLA, his research on forest landscapes has advanced that body of knowledge.

Faha was one of the nation’s first landscape architects to demonstrate that ecological function can work along with urbanism and aesthetics, according to ASLA, and has worked in the field for 25 years. His built projects in the Pacific Northwest have received international recognition, as well as attention from thousands of visitors.

Mayer/Reed Inc. and GreenWorks received the Award of Excellence and the People’s Choice Award for landscape architecture and urban design for the east segment of TriMet‘s MAX orange line from Portland to Milwaukie. GreenWorks also received a Merit Award for its landscaping design along U.S. 20 near Sisters.

Four other Merit Awards were given. University of Oregon associate professor Roxi Thoren received one for her book, “Landscapes of Change Innovative Designs and Reinvented Sites.”

Design studio MIG Inc. received a Merit Award for its design of the playground at Nadaka Nature Park in Southeast Portland. Design studio PLACE received a Merit Award for its greenscape design of the Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building. Also, students in UO‘s Landscape Architecture Department received a Merit Award for a hypothetical indoor food production project.

Rebecca Wahlstrom, a spokeswoman for ASLA Oregon, said the students navigated a landscape design challenge for their project.

“It was a kind of imagining about what could happen and looking at ways to grow food indoors,” she said.

Lorraine Davis, special assistant to the UO president and provost, was given an honorary ASLA membership for her years of helping schools with the landscape architecture accreditation process.

The Oregon Chapter Service Award was presented to Renee Wilkinson, Oregon ASLA communications chairwoman, for redesign of the Oregon chapter’s website.

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A landscape architect and a landscape architecture professor from Oregon have been elevated to American Society of Landscape Architects Council of Fellows.

Mike Faha, founding principal of Portland-based landscape architecture and urban design firm GreenWorks, and University of Oregon landscape architecture professor Rob Ribe have been named 2015 ASLA Fellows. They will be among 37 new Fellows from across the country recognized at the 2015 ASLA Annual Meeting and EXPO, held Nov. 6-9 in Chicago.

The Oregon chapter of ASLA nominated Faha and Ribe for the honor. It is among the highest the national organization bestows on its members and recognizes contributions to the profession and society.

Faha, who founded GreenWorks in 1987, was honored for his pioneering work demonstrating that ecological function can be achieved with urbanism and aesthetic beauty. At GreenWorks, he leads planning and design teams for a variety of project types that integrate urban ecology, green infrastructure and urban design.

Ribe teaches ecological planning studios and research methods to landscape architecture, planning and environmental studies students. He is the former director of the University of Oregon’s Institute for a Sustainable Environment and led efforts to provide primary research and advice to governments in Oregon and Washington on issues of growth, ecosystem preservation and agricultural and forest productivity.

The ASLA Fellow designation recognizes exceptional accomplishments over a sustained period of time, including work, leadership, management, knowledge and service. Individuals considered for the designation must be ASLA members for at least 10 years and be recommended for the honor by their local chapter, the ASLA Executive Committee or the Executive Committee of the Council of Fellows.

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Four Oregon projects that incorporated public art have received from Americans for the Arts.

The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization, an advocate for the arts and arts education, compiled a list of 31 outstanding public art projects constructed in 2014. Three were for the city of Portland: Fire Station 21, a nature playground at Westmoreland Park and improvements to Southeast Division Street. A memorial at the Oregon State Hospital in Salem also was recognized.

The projects are included in the Public Art Network Year in Review database, which annually recognizes compelling public art in the U.S. and Canada.

This year’s jury-selected projects were announced last week during an Americans for the Arts’ convention in Chicago. The 2015 Public Arts Network Year in Review jury included an Oregon official – Peggy Kendellen, public art manager for Portland’s Regional Arts & Culture Council.

Pacific Northwest artist David Franklin was honored for an installation that invokes water ripples on the west façade of Fire Station 21 in Southeast Portland. The building was designed by Whelton Architecture in collaboration with architect David P. Suttle and constructed by Skanska USA Building.

A Portland Bureau of Transportation streetscape improvement project was recognized for including eight sculptures of people by Portland artists Crystal Schenk and Shelby Davis. They were installed along Division Street between 11th and 36th avenues.

Americans for the Arts recognized the Portland Parks & Recreation effort to replace the Westmoreland Park playground with a nature play area designed by Portland-based landscape architecture firm GreenWorks in collaboration with artist Adam Kuby.

Seattle-based art and architecture firm Lead Pencil Studio was honored for designing a memorial that holds the 3,456 cremated remains of patients who died at the Oregon State Hospital and were never claimed by family members.

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One of the most significant moves in Cypress Equities‘ $50 million remodel of the Lloyd Center mall has gained Portland Design Commission approval.

Commissioners on Thursday voted 3-1 to approve plans to carve out a new pedestrian entrance and plaza between Macy’s and Lloyd Center’s southwest parking structure on Northeast Multnomah Street. The plaza is expected to include stormwater and conventional planters with attached benches, storefronts, a new sky bridge, and a glass-lined entrance revealing a large spiral staircase inside. The stairs, an element of the original 1950s mall design, will be restored.

As a condition of approval, commissioners requested several revisions to the plaza design by Portland-based firms Waterleaf Architecture, Interiors & Planning and GreenWorks. These included switching out the birch trees proposed for the plaza planters with a species that would create less shade, removing one of the planters to open up access to a covered area adjacent to the parking garage and eliminating plans for fixed wooden benches.

Thursday’s hearing was the third time the Design Commission has reviewed plans to create a new plaza at Lloyd Center across the street from Holladay Park. The project team took careful note of the commission’s feedback at previous hearings and incorporated it into the revised design, said John Fainter, vice president of development with Dallas-based Cypress Equities. He said company officials believe replacing a portion of the mall’s parking spots with a plaza will be worthwhile.

“Our consultants have done a good job of hearing you all,” he told the commission. “We think that by creating this space it will pay off in the long run.”

During a check-in hearing in February to discuss the proposed plaza design, commissioners expressed lingering reservations. They emphasized that they’d like the space to feel less barren and more inviting. Other concerns included providing adequate rain protection and visibility into a planned bike parking area.

In response, revised plans call for awnings that extend the length of the space and relocating the bike parking outside of the plaza to a more visible and accessible location on the west side of a mall truck ramp, said Mark Mikolavich, a Waterleaf Architecture associate. Seating that extends off the stormwater planters and trees were added to enliven the space, he said.

“The intention was to provide more landscaping variability and also draw in the feel of (Holladay Park),” he said.

The latest plans propose a water feature using rain runoff from an existing downspout on the Macy’s wall facing the plaza. The bike parking on the west side of the plaza was replaced with a covered area that could house food carts.

“We’ve made some significant moves,” Mikolavich said. “I think we’ve created a more flexible space that can incorporate a variety of informal and formal activities.”

Overall, commissioners said they were pleased with the changes, but expressed concerns that the covered area when unoccupied with food carts would turn dark and uninviting. Vice Chairman Ben Kaiser noted that when the trees in nearby planters matured they would create too much shade, darkening the space.

“Five or six years from now, I don’t think that will be very appealing,” he said.

Commissioner Jeff Simpson suggested replacing birch trees with a less bushy species.

“To me, the solution may be a change in the variety of trees,” he said. “Maybe it’s a tall, columnar tree that goes in that planter.”

This suggestion was incorporated into the conditions for approval, along with a commission consensus for removal of one of the planters to make the covered area feel less walled-off.

Commissioner Guenevere Millius said she appreciated the addition of an awning that extends the length of the plaza.

“I think there was a lot of push from us to provide rain protection and depth, and this is an ingenious solution,” she said.

Commissioner Tad Savinar, who cast the sole vote against approval, said he would like to see the plaza include more public art than a stormwater wall feature.

“Art is made by artists,” he said. “It’s not really public art.”

Kaiser told the development team that the commission has scrutinized the design of the planned plaza because it will be part of the new face of the rapidly redeveloping Lloyd District.

“It’s in the center of what’s quickly becoming a very important part of our city,” he said. “I’m kind of trying to make up for years of neglect. This is the biggest positive step forward.”

Construction of the plaza is scheduled to start in January 2016. A contractor has not been selected yet.

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The roar of Celilo Falls in Eastern Oregon could be heard from miles around before the sound was silenced by construction of The Dalles Dam in 1957.

For centuries, the falls now submerged under the Columbia River near Celilo Park east of The Dalles served as productive salmon fishing grounds and a much revered site for nearby Native American tribes. A park restoration project conceived by renowned designer Maya Lin is intended to remind visitors of this history.

Lin’s designs for the Celilo Park Confluence Project include a curved, wooden structure inspired by traditional Native American fishing platforms used at the site. The elevated walkway will overlook the now calm stretch of river where the basalt rock formation the falls once cascaded over still exists underwater.

“This was such a sacred space, and it was so powerful,” Lin said last week during a City Club of Portland talk. “The falls are still there. They’re just hidden from view.”

She spoke last week in Portland and Eugene about designing the Celilo Park project and other portions of Confluence, a series of six public art installations at historically significant points along the Columbia River system in Oregon and Washington.

When the $10.5 million Celilo Park restoration is completed in 2017, the project will be Lin’s final contribution to Confluence, a 12-year collaborative effort between Pacific Northwest tribes, civic groups, artists, architects and landscape architects. A recent $1 million donation from the Schnitzer family, $1.5 million from the state of Oregon and grants from various charitable organizations will help pay for the “Celilo Arc” elevated walkway, an interpretive pavilion with information about the site’s history, and park facility improvements, Confluence Executive Director Colin Fogarty said.

Currently, there are three interpretive signs at the Celilo Park rest area and picnic grounds operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers off of Interstate 84, Fogarty said. The signs mostly talk about the Lewis and Clark Expedition in the early 1800s and only briefly mention the site’s significance to Native American tribes, he said.

“This 10,000-year history of Native American culture and commerce (is discussed), but not enough,” he said.

The Confluence sites are spread out along a 438-mile stretch from the mouth of the Columbia River to the Hells Canyon area in Eastern Oregon. Each installation includes educational components with information about both the Lewis and Clark Expedition and Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest. The aim of the Celilo Park Confluence Project is to educate visitors about Celilo Falls and pay homage to the site’s importance to Native American tribes, Fogarty said.

“We want it to be as culturally sensitive as possible and we want it to be for them,” he said.

When Lin first conferred with tribal members about designing the various Confluence sites they expressed hesitancy about anything being built at Celilo Park.

“When we first started, we met with the tribes and we were told it was too painful a site,” she said.

After the success of Confluence installations at Cape Disappointment State Park on the Washington Coast and Sandy River Delta Park near Troutdale, the tribes returned to Lin to help tell the story of Celilo Falls. The elevated walkway arc will catalog the history of the Celilo site, beginning with Native Americans and concluding with the falls disappearing because of construction.

“This will be a journey – a kind of a journey and a memory,” Lin said.

The project acknowledges that although Celilo Falls no longer roars, it hasn’t been forgotten by the tribes, she said.

“Celilo Falls, I think it’s a symbol, but it’s not just a symbol,” she said. “It’s still one of the sacred places for the tribes. It’s still there, which I think is a fantastic fact that came out.”

Celilo Park Confluence Project

Location: Celilo Park, The Dalles

Estimated cost: $10.4 million

Anticipated construction completion date: 2017

Developer: Confluence

Architect: Maya Lin Studio

Landscape architect: GreenWorks

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The American Society of Landscape Architects’ Oregon chapter on Friday handed out its 2014 Design Awards. The awards recognize professional and student excellence by honoring firms, individuals and agencies for outstanding works of landscape architecture and environmental planning.

Among the firms that took top honors in the competition were 2.ink Studio, Lango Hansen Landscape Architects and GreenWorks.

Portland-based 2.ink Studio took home the Award of Excellence in the general design category for the city of Portland’s Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant Support Facility. The firm also received a merit award in the same category for improvements to Dawson Park in Northeast Portland. The Dawson Park project also was the people’s choice winner.

Portland-based Lango Hansen Landscape Architects received an honor award in the unbuilt work category for a conceptual design titled “Urban Play: Swing, Dunk, Pump,” created as part of a forum hosted by the Portland Art Museum on improving Portland parks. The design focused on building basketball courts, swing sets and bike courses in underused urban spaces.

The firm also received a merit award in the general design category for the Marriott Residence Inn in Portland’s Pearl District.

Portland-based GreenWorks earned an honor award in the general design category for the Westmoreland Park Nature Play playground in Southeast Portland.

In the same category, Portland-based Mayer/Reed earned a merit award for the Outdoor Adventure exhibit at the Portland Children’s Museum.

Oregon State Parks and Recreation received a general design merit award for creating a signature cattle brand to adorn fences, posts and other parts of Cottonwood Canyon State Park in Eastern Oregon.

Portland-based Walker Macy earned a merit award in the planning and analysis category for the Willamette Falls Legacy Project, a master planning effort for redevelopment of the former Blue Heron Paper Co. site in Oregon City.

In the research and communication category, the Society of Experimental Graphic Design won a merit award for the Revolution in the Landscape. The Design Week Portland event involved temporary installations along the Portland Open Space Sequence.

Also, four University of Oregon student projects received recognition in this year’s ASLA Oregon Design Awards.

The jury included Charles Anderson, a principal with Los Angeles-based landscape architecture and urban design firm �ѱ��é�Ի�����; Ben Kaiser, owner and principal of Portland-based Kaiser Group Inc.; Kimberlee Stryker, a member of the landscape architecture faculty at the University of California, Berkeley; and Nicolas Rader, head of the San Francisco office of architecture and landscape architecture firm Snohetta.

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Portland-based GreenWorks recently received national recognition for its contribution to the cleanup and redevelopment of a 33-acre brownfield in the South Waterfront District.

GreenWorks received from the American Society of Landscape Architects a 2014 Honor Award in the analysis and planning category for work on Zidell Marine Corp. property redevelopment completed in 2011. The award was among those given out by ASLA that honor top commercial, residential, institutional, planning, communications and research projects by landscape architects from across the U.S.

GreenWorks staffers developed a series of green stormwater management options for the redevelopment, principal Mike Faha said. The strategy avoided the challenges of installing pipes for managing stormwater on a brownfield.

The planning effort involved conceiving a network of “green stormwater solutions diffused throughout the site,” including bio-swales, eco-roofs and porous paving, Faha said.

“GreenWorks led the visioning process,” he said.

The Zidell site and adjacent river sediment had become contaminated from 100 years of continuous industrial use. The property owner, ZRZ Realty, in partnership with the city of Portland, received a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the cleanup.

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Construction is scheduled to start this week on a $9.7 million Bend Park & Recreation District project to renovate the Colorado Dam on the Deschutes River and build a new bridge for bicyclists and pedestrians.

Crews from Springfield-based Hamilton Construction are expected to begin site work on Wednesday, said Chelsea Schneider, project manager for the project. Over the next two weeks, work will involve trail construction; installation of trailers, fencing and signage; and preparation for detours around the work site.

The dam will be renovated to create three channels. One will allow recreational river floaters and fish to pass through the dam, a second will serve wildlife habitat and a third will be used by whitewater kayakers. Also, as part of the project, an existing pedestrian bridge will be removed and replaced, Schneider said.

When Farewell Bend Park opened up in 2005, it provided public access to a calm portion of the Deschutes River above the Colorado Dam that has become popular for river floating. Several accidents and one death have since occurred at the dam, Schneider said. After the renovation, floaters will no longer have to get out and walk around the dam.

“There is this structure, the Colorado Dam, that is very unsafe for people,” she said. “We want to provide a safe way for people to get through the dam.”

A $29 million bond measure approved by voters in November 2012 helped pay for the project. Also, the Bend Paddle Trail Alliance, a nonprofit that supports river and lake recreation in Deschutes County, contributed $1.1 million.

Portland-based Otak is the principal engineer for the project. Carbondale, Colo.-based RiverRestoration designed the whitewater and safe passage channels. Wilsonville-based Pacific Habitat Services is the environmental consultant and Portland-based GreenWorks is the landscape architect.

The project is scheduled to finish next year. In 2016, crews will begin a related $1.6 million project to improve nearby McKay Park, including construction of new restrooms and installation of river viewing platforms, Schneider said.

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