TEDx Portland: A Centre for the Fostering, Developing, and Spreading of Ideas.
What is TED? It started out as an annual conference that brought together leaders from the technology, entertainment, and design industries. Over the years its content has become more broader and now great thinkers, creators and visionaries from all areas of thought, work, and life are being asked to participate. This is with the realization that all knowledge is connected in some way, you can get unexpected insight or inspiration when you listen to people who are outside your normal line of work.
TEDx PORTLAND is a building program designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences, but at a local level. Additional support spaces will allow for people to actively engage on any current or future issues that hold value to them.
This is a place for community members of all ages, and to be utilized not only the adjacent neighborhoods but by all Portland. Situating this building at an intersection with several viable public transit options maximizes it connection with the city allowing for the exposure of new cutting edge ideas, issues, and the appropriate support facilities to make this a successful intellectual node.
The addition of a Streetcar alignment will enhance this dissemination providing easy access to the Centre for the community working as a co-catalyst. Its documented abilities to move people and structure new development will provide the essential connectivity the gateway district currently lacks.
List of possible Program and first attempt at uses and relations
Main Event spaces: (30,000)
This portion of the program will receive and be responsible for the largest volumes of visitors directly related to guest lectures/events. This portion of the program is expected to receive the most “walk-in” use from people directly in the community or from people taking their time to transfer.
Large Lecture Hall/Main Event Room (8,500)
This will support the guest lectures primarily from Portland, but with the intent
that guest speakers nationally and internationally will find this as a useful venue. The lecture hall should be able to support numbers anywhere from 350-500 seats, stage, and projection.
Small Lecture Hall (2,500)
This event space will be used for smaller presentation and for community meetings reliant on a lecture type setting. Should be able to support 100-150 seats and a stage.
Exhibition space/ Galleries (10,000)
Exhibition space will be used to display works produced within the Centre and from the community. The main purpose of the exhibition space is to become a visual aid used to support, stimulate and evoke conversation and questions in regards to up-coming, current, and future presentation. Works from the local community are strongly encouraged for displayed if not in these main areas then smaller galleries.
Reception (3,000)
This space’s main intent is to support the function of the event space by providing a place for people to continue to have discussions and add input based on the lectures topics. This space should be able to contain flexible seating and catered services. A prep room with a functioning kitchen adjacent to this space will be necessary for food service to work from.
Lobby/Entry (1,500)
Used as the transitional space for people coming in from either a public transit or vehicular approach. Main circulation to all other parts of the building should be accessed through this space.
Mixed-Media Centre (89,000)
Main purpose is to provide the public with access to materials, instruction, and tools that will help them explore and generate new ideas. Resources and courses are provided to get the community involved and educated on the current and future ways of exercising creativity.
Resource Library (15,000)
Resources in the form of books, periodicals, film, microfilm, can be accessed in
this space. A large portion of the materials will be in the form of digital reproduction utilizing the space saving abilities technology provides us and recognizes that books are becoming more and more obsolete.
Class Rooms (8,000-16,000)
10-20 classrooms allow space for subject based classes and workshops (ranging from Arts to Science) to be taught. Classes will range in variety, attempting to reach all age ranges.
Faculty offices(2,000)
1 per classroom, allow for prep space and storing of faculty’s materials used for their courses/ workshops. These rooms will be generous enough to support use by multiple faculty.
Meeting Rooms (2,000)
Meeting rooms will be for the public use. They will range in size from supporting the occupancy of 1-8 and 10-20. These spaces will provide place for student, community, or other groups to productively work in larger groups without disturbing others in the main Mixed-Media Centre.
Computer Pod (3,500)
There will be access to both public computers as well as computers in a separate room for computer based classes. These computers will provide software (post processing, drafting, film editing, 3-d modeling, music editing, performance modeling software, etc) that will provide the tools necessary for executing a variety of forms of media that supports the creativity of the community.
Commons (2,000)
An adjacent or contained space within the media centre will provide place for socialization and sharing of current work. This space is flexible in use is a more laid back space used to get work done not necessary dependent upon the media centre i.e. reading, eating food, drawing, socializing, searching the internet from your own computer.
Support Spaces (23,000)
The laboratory aspect provides space for small scale experiments to take place that explore opportunities with sustainability in-mind. This space will be used to monitor the performance of the building along with future edifices that get added to the eco-district master plan. The majority of these spaces will be accessible by the public.
Output room (1,500)
Used to output any materials that may further increase the productivity of the work being done at the centre. Posters needed for advertisement, base maps, flyers, exhibition materials, can all be taken care of within the Centre itself.
Fabrication, Testing, and Research Laboratories (20,000)
Very similar to the output room but used to provide the community access to tools/materials that they may not have access to otherwise. Models, Materials testing, rapid prototyping and other forms of outputting arts and science will be taken care of from within the facilities.
Materials storage (1,500)
Space for storing equipment, tools and materials used in both the Output room and Fabrications laboratory.
Lease-able Space: (20,000-40,000)
Non-profit Offices located in this facility provides a great opportunity as acting like a venue to gain extra support from the issues they deal with day in and day out. Adding adjacent Profit business will add for an interesting dialogue between each other’s business models. Both could share resource and learn to work together. A percentage of this program will pay for the operational cost of the Centre.
Non-Profit/ For Profit business spaces
Flexible office space will be provided to house both profit and non-profit businesses. These spaces should be an open floor plan allowing for the incoming and out going of business and keeps mindful of future growth. These spaces should be easily accessible by the public.
Cafeteria/ Retail (3,000)
A dinning component will be used to provide sustenance options to both primary/repeat users of the Centre as well as those enroute from different parts of the city. This should be located at grade, possibly adjacent to a public plaza and allow for both indoor and outdoor seating.
Public Amenities (104,000 exterior spaces)
Although the entire building in conception is an amenity to the public, spaces that promote the use of public transportation and active urban space, become public amenities when considering the future development of gateway as a whole. These addition programmatic features will reinforce the success of this project.
Max, Bus, and Streetcar platform modification (16,500)
With the addition of an addition Streetcar alignment, the organization of multi modal transit option will be key, especially being adjacent to this structure. The new centre will not only improve, but also provide a platform that makes transfers almost effortless. Entry to both the building and into the neighborhood from these platforms must be clear and direct. Public safety is a concern and platform must be large enough to handle peak loads of people waiting and transferring. An unobstructed view to the platform from the building is also a strategy for increasing safety.
Parking structure (80,000)
A below grade parking structure (450 spots) will function to serve as a park and ride catalyst and become parking during larger events. Parking fees will pay for a percentage of the Centre’s operational costs.
Adjacent public plaza (7,500)
Is an amenity to the community that can be used in a variety of ways. It will
Function as the main pedestrian entry to the Centre. It will also function to demonstrate the sustainable strategies and functions contained within the building. Most likely the seating from the dinning component will use this space.
Sustainability Program:
Due to this site being situated in a proposed eco-District and adjacent to several large public transportation arteries, it only fitting that this building strives to achieve either L.E.E.D certified (ideally platinum) or fulfill the Living Building Challenge. Centered around education and the spreading of ideas as this facility’s main focus, its appropriate that it would take on this responsibility/challenge as a way to demonstrate to the public what is possible when great ideas come together into one manifested design. The Oregon Sustainability Center will provide precedent for approaching and achieving Living Building status.
Three major components to meet net-Zero
- Reduce energy use by design
- Reduce energy use through building conservation measures and tenant behaviors
- Produce energy on site
Cisterns
Provides water storage necessary for storing rain water, treated water, and grey water. This water will be used for potable water, flushing of toilets, and watering on site vegetation overflow water/storm water management will utilize a retention pond for the safe return of water back to the water table.
Living Machine
Will support in the filtering process of black water. Natural daylight is important to the success of its filtering processes. The location of this will need to be either south facing or in a place where it receives a lot of day light.
Connection and Creation of New Habitat
A retention pond will be used to deal with storm water management. This will become a place that will potentially provide a home to new habitat. This retention pond will be supplied by all of the building in the area. A central location to the overall master plan is key. This building will explore bringing nature indoors, not only for its numerous environmental benefits, but to reinforce our strong connection with nature.
Bike Storage and Showers
Provide bicycle parking space (up to 100 spots) accessed either at grade or through parking structure. Showers and lockers will be adjacent to this storage.
End notes: A similar project of this program type used approximately 460,000 sqft. With half of that square footage being allocated to a hotel. To fit a program on this site (footprint approx: 100,000) it would generate a building about 5 stories. This is in keeping with the new additions to gateway over the last 5 years. Large portion of the area are residential and about 1-3 stories. Transitioning from a larger building height might be easily executed using a periphery of open and public spaces allowing for a gradual height change.
I am still working on updating my previous thesis statement and will have that posted as soon as I get a chance.
