After researching several Portland metro areas that Portland Streetcar Inc. has proposed future alignments in, I’ve discovered that the Gateway neighborhood is being taken into consideration as a possible eco-district. The Urban Studies and Planning department has prepared a pilot study for the Portland Sustainability Institute.
http://www.ecogateway.net/uploads/3/8/0/8/3808789/gateway_ecodistrict_pilot_study_final_report.pdf
My current understanding of an eco-district is a collective of buildings and spaces organized in a manner that takes advantage of being able to share infrastructure. It considers the input and output required of building typologies and uses them to their advantages. If successfully executed, you end up with a complex network of buildings and natural systems working together to achieve and maintain stasis. This quarter Id like to get a better understanding of what an eco-district is and look for possible opportunities associated with the structuring neighborhoods.
Public transportation is another important layer to consider when designing stratum as complex as an eco-district. The Gateway neighborhood would lend itself to an urban plan structured along a streetcar alignment due to its existing healthy mix of both commercial and residential areas. The Gateway transit center, currently serving both bus and Light Rail, would be an ideal place to tie in a streetcar, further extending the branches of its effectiveness. A more illustrative T.C. would become the node necessary for nurturing future urban growth.
Lastly I see this project as an opportunity to aid with current social problems like homelessness, disposable attitudes, aging population and urban sprawl. Cognizant planning for buildings that demand special/unique building typologies will give a community the structure necessary not only for helping itself but others.
Conceptually speaking ‘sustainability’ should be scale-less, and modern refined strategies make this easier to apply at a district level rather than to single edifice. I am interested in looking at ecosystems as a way of understanding how a complex network of symbiosis’s function to keep their ‘neighborhoods’ on track.
Methodology
- Use the existing Gateway pilot study as one means of understanding the future neighborhood structure
- Look for ways to weave a streetcar alignment into that plan.
- Look for opportunities to structure the eco-district in ways that are conducive to as mentioned above.
- Develop an urban plan for the existing commercial center that structures new transit center.
- Identify a building within the new plan to develop for a quarter.
It's a big challenge to understand the social dynamics of an area and see connections to built form. I would take the Lents Eco-district plan with a grain of salt: look at it critically, walking the site and seeing where the proposed connections, nodes, districts, building types, etc. make sense. You could look up leading stakeholders and ask them where they see the plan looks good and where they see gaps. You will likely find areas of strong agreement and places of dissent, as it is impossible to please everyone. By talking to stakeholders, you could identify where the current services are not meeting needs. This could help you envision new hybrids. Brent Sturlaugson did a nice job with his idea of homeless services and a range of transitional to permanent housing in one place. http://issuu.com/brentsturlaugson/docs/20091105_portfolio
ReplyDeleteIf you can envision Gateway as a prototypical edge city looking for a center, then the literature about humanizing suburbia could be helpful (i.e. Ellen Dunham Jones on Retrofitting Suburbia, James Howard Kunstler's Geography of Nowhere).