People and Climate at Center of Updates to Influential Transportation Guidelines

People and Climate at Center of Updates to Influential Transportation Guidelines

On October 24th, 2019, Metro, our Portland metropolitan area regional government, released an updated version of their “Designing Livable Streets and Trails Guide.” GreenWorks was part of the team that contributed updates to it.

It’s a set of design guidelines that require transportation infrastructure to be designed to serve the people and environments they’re built in, not just the vehicles that use it. The updates refresh the well-known guide and provide some important updates, prioritizing livability, safety, and reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.

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Festival Street Attracts Business and Awards to Downtown Hermiston

Festival Street Attracts Business and Awards to Downtown Hermiston

Recently, the Oregon Economic Development Association awarded the City of Hermiston its Urban Renewal Project of the year. “These projects have changed the face of downtown Hermiston for the better,” the East Oregonian quoted Hermiston Mayor Dave Drotzmann saying, “combining public planning and private investment to create a more attractive and cohesive core.”

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GreenWorks Sponsors Event: The urgent new role public gardens can play.

GreenWorks Sponsors Event: The urgent new role public gardens can play.

“Can our public gardens preserve threatened plant species as the climate changes? Can they be places of beauty and psychological health that are more inviting to communities our public gardens have not typically engaged? Can public gardens transition from traditional ornamental collections to becoming critical societal infrastructure?”

‘There is an urgent new role public gardens can play,’ says Sclar. ‘We must get it right.’”

- Portland Parks Foundation

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The Story of the new Inclusive Playground at Couch Park

The Story of the new Inclusive Playground at Couch Park

Northwest Portland came together to build a new, inclusive playground when the old one become unsafe. GreenWorks was honored to work with great partners like Portland Parks & Recreation, students from the adjacent Metropolitan Learning CenterFriends of Couch Playground and Harper's Playground to come up with a design that allows kids of all abilities to play together.

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Design Detail: Reclaimed Concrete Benches for NCSD’s New Urban High School

Design Detail: Reclaimed Concrete Benches for NCSD’s New Urban High School

North Clackamas School District’s magnet school, New Urban High School, was built in 1924. Thanks to a 2016 bond Clackamas County voters approved, New Urban High School (NUHS) will soon receive long-awaited renovations—a complete remodel, seismic upgrades, fire safety and technology improvements, and many others. Opsis Architecture is leading the design team on the project and GreenWorks is excited to be doing the site design, which includes two courtyards, benches, surrounding landscaping, and stormwater management. GreenWorks Landscape Designer Nadja Quiroz explained more:

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Portland City Council Approves the next Construction Phase of Gateway Green

Portland City Council Approves the next Construction Phase of Gateway Green

On Wednesday, September 11th, Portland City Council gave the Gateway Green project permission to bid for a construction contract. This is routine business at the City, but to the project team and park supporters, it’s thrilling. It means the many years of advocacy, public engagement, and design work will take one more step towards becoming a reality.

Gateway Green is a 25-acre site located at the confluence of two major freeways in East Portland, a historically park-deficient area of the Portland Metro Area. Since 2012 GreenWorks has been involved in the project and most recently produced a master plan to guide future work centered around restoring habitat, improving access, and enhancing recreational opportunities, specifically off-road cycling. We asked landscape designer Kelly Stoecklein, who has been spending a lot of time on the project over the past two years, about the significance of last week’s events.

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Park(ing) Day 2019: Our Pop-up Park at Couch and 2nd

Park(ing) Day 2019: Our Pop-up Park at Couch and 2nd

We really enjoyed turning our local parking spot into a tiny park for #PBOTparkingday today. What is Park(ing) day?

PARK(ing) Day happens across the world in September and gives people the opportunity to re-envision how we use our public spaces. The City of Portland has been participating in this international event since 2006. - Portland Bureau of Transportation

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The Volunteers of GreenWorks

The Volunteers of GreenWorks

Every Monday morning at GreenWorks we have a meeting to kick off the week. A portion of this meeting is dedicated to ‘sharing’ which can include anything from photos people have taken while on vacation, family and personal updates, images of projects through the phases of design and construction, events and conferences attended, or stories of how people spend their time volunteering. This last part is something special at GreenWorks; as individuals and as GreenWorks employees, we are dedicated to our communities and the environment in so many unique ways. Here are a few ways people at GreenWorks volunteer their time:

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GreenWorks Helps Visualize a new Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Oregon's Capitol

GreenWorks Helps Visualize a new Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Oregon's Capitol

GreenWorks was honored to assist landscape architect firm Abbaté Designs by using their two-dimensional design drawings to create immersive, 3D visualizations of a proposed Vietnam War Memorial on the Oregon State Capitol grounds. The memorial is a tribute to Vietnam veterans, and a place to remember the hard lessons and the immense costs of that war.

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The Non-designer's Guide to the Landscape Architecture Workplace

The Non-designer's Guide to the Landscape Architecture Workplace

When I applied to be the office coordinator at GreenWorks, I figured I had the upper hand. I’d been around landscape architecture since I was fifteen (my brother’s a landscape architect). After starting at GreenWorks, however, I quickly learned I was not much further along than people who think landscape architecture is the same as landscaping maintenance. I found myself listening to conversations around the office feeling like that scene in Stranger Things where Winona Ryder’s character is trying to decipher messages through holiday lights strung up on her wall.

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