This past week we dug deep into developing and defining the community engagement process we think applies to our apartment type graphically. We created a pamphlet to bring to local businesses who we thought might want to contribute to our efforts:

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Creating temporary seating throughout downtown Portland action plan and research.

The goal is to let the public dictate where future public space and/or seating is needed throughout downtown by designing a seating system that is mobile. The community members can move the seating around as needed. The graphics below outline the potential for tracking the seats and sharing the locations with the public.

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Apartment type and city wide locations further identified:

midterm pages

This is a mock-up of how our gird system will dynamically represent the real time data that will be collected through our grid sensors. As individual commitment to awareness, the personal device will add to the real time data and create a new layer of information to inform design opportunities and constraints.

 

After our initial research with the animated topography, we have determined that our mapping database will be enhanced with visual representation through a gradient (see below). The top gradient topography is the most accurate representation of our data.

 

Last Monday we had the pleasure of meeting Jose for the first time and present our bibliographies as well as an update on our temporary seating project.

Below is the presentation material from the video and book about tactical urbanism. Our project has shifted to providing temporary public seating and allowing the public to move the furniture as needed around downtown Portland. Where the seating ends up can ultimately help the city determine where more permanent or public spaces are needed.

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Creating temporary pedestrian infrastructure and use within underutilized parking spaces
(Action Plan and Continued Research)

The goal is to bring the public together, so people have the potential to engage and learn. Eastport Plaza is already a heavily used consumer destination. Customers will walk, bike, take public transit and drive to Eastport plaza, but it lacks pedestrian accessibility and character. Of the businesses on site surveyed 10-50% of the customers walk or take public transit. The parking lots are designed for efficient movement and storage of the automobile, not the pedestrian. The space will be temporarily sculpted for the pedestrian without infringing on the automobile accessibility.

I propose to design a business plan for the businesses of Eastport Plaza. This will be in a brochure format.

This site plan shows connections to parks around the neighborhood and calls out certain areas that are underutilized. These parking areas will be temporarily filled with community related uses and special events.

Mapping of Amenities

Mapping of Parks and Connections

The parking lot has the potential for innumerable different uses. Initially implemented programs would be based upon educated speculation. Over time the community can suggestions as to what they would like to see in within their commercial center. Some uses would relate more to the neighborhood, and act as destinations whereas other would be more temporary with their engagement and therefore could interest both shopping commuters and the neighborhood.

The space will be temporarily redesigned for the pedestrian using cheap and accessible items such as hay bails, wooden pallets and paint. This temporary pedestrian development will connect the pedestrian throughout the site and beyond to amenities in the area.

Our project is at the stage of creating the network and beginning to test run our initiative in a case study. We created layers of awareness from which we will market our product. The three layers are the initial grid, website, and individual device (see above, bottom-right). Now, we are in the mist of creating the online database (see below) and gathering equipment, specifically the particulate sensor, to put our plan into action and see if our mock-up works with a trial run.
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February 15, 3:00 pm PDX time

At the end of this week, I am on the road towards the final project on the Bird Strike issue.  I will be focusing on a video that tells the story, reasons why we should care, and solutions.  I’ve decided to focus on the video because I am working with the City of Portland on getting the video shown at the planning review department’s waiting room.  I am focusing on professionalism, copyright issues, and making the video engaging.  The last couple of days, I’ve been researching how to make documentaries and videos and have reached out to the film department to see if there is a film student who would be interested in working on the video with me.  I have also been reaching out to all my contacts and working on getting copyright permissions.  I am now in contact with a post-BAC documentary film student who has a Bachelors and Master in Biology.  I’ll be discussing the project later today with her.  I’m optimistic that this will be a good fit.

Yesterday we had our mid-term review before Jose headed out for a week.  I presented the Story Board for my video to the class and talked about the current state of the project.  Even though I have been focusing on making the video for architects, the general consensus is that it should be engaging for a general audience and should be kept in the 7 minute range.  One thought to get it at the more professional level is to look into a film grant.  Once I have a better understanding of the skill set of the film student, I’ll determine if we need to be looking into the grant.  My biggest challenge now is how to distill all the information and create an interesting video.  Below is my first pass at the Story Board and timeline.

Story Board – Problem

Story Board – Why Care

Story Board – Solutions

On Monday, we finally met Jose, yeah! Most of us got the chance to present a little about our proposal and also got the chance to discuss the audio/visual and reading bibliographies.

Below are .pdf’s of my PowerPoint presentation.  The first section describes my proposals for the project and the second section is the bibliographies. I ended up splitting it up into two parts because of space limitations on this blog.  Also, there is a video clip and several audio portions that you would hear if you were at the actual PowerPoint presentation.  So, when you see magenta writing, you would normally have seen or heard something.

Bird Strikes Power Point Part 1

Bird Strikes Power Point Part 2

The small video that you would have seen on Part 1 is:

Because the NPR portion is copyrighted material, I have included links to the full interviews:

A Clear And Present Danger: How Glass Kills Birds

Building For Birds: Architects Aim For Safer Skies

What makes a “successful” community?

There are many answers to this. The people, the culture, the built environment, the local businesses, the public spaces, community centers, social engagement, neighborhood “branding”, ect… One could spend all day arguing how one aspect is more important than the others in the creation of the elusive capital c “Community”. My research has led me to explore several neighborhoods that, on the surface, appear to have all the required pieces for a successful Community. One such neighborhood, and the site of my proposed project, is the area immediately surrounding Elmonica Station in Beaverton, OR.

The surrounding area has many positive attributes. Proximity to major arterials, abundant available green space, mostly walkable streets, proximity to transit station, young and active resident demographic… But there are several issues that are preventing this area from being totally successful as a social community. They are:

-Lack of active public spaces
– Lack of casual dining/shopping
– No evening entertainment/Local affordable dining
-Baseline/Jenkins Rd Extremely wide, and speed limit is too high
-No active street front along nearby businesses

What this area is lacking is an active core development, and real public places. People inherently are driven to gather, and establish groups. However, with today’s car based culture keeping us in little bubbles whenever we leave the house, opportunities for casual social engagement are slim. A mixed use community/residential/business/retail development can be an active business center while providing active public spaces for people to use for social engagement within their neighborhood.

Moving Forward:
I need to complete several steps to determine exactly the blend of mixed use that is most appropriate for this site. Further analysis of local demographics and business mapping can show what specifically is lacking in the neighborhood. I also need to get in contact with Trimet to see what their current “vision” for the site is. Zoning is already set up for high density mixed use development, so there is no conflict in that area. After I complete these steps, I can begin to draft a development plan for the site.

 

Elmonica Station, near South corner of proposed site

South coner of proposed site, current buildings mostly consist of vacant light industrial warehouses

NE corner of proposed site, derelict structure borders arterial and sits across from small retail development

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