Public Information | News • Park(ing) Day 2009 October 8, 2009 PORTLAND Many thanks to area businesses for sharing plants, tires, and coffee: Portland Nursery, Livingscape Nusery, Les Schwab Tires, and Morning Star Cafe. Thank you to the volunteers who worked together to meet and plan, obtain donations, build the park, plug the meter, interact with visitors, and disassemble the installation at the end of the day: Kaitlin Beatty, Annie Bergelin, Michael Porcelli, Brynn Reimann, Bethany Rydmark & Anneliese Sitterly.
BEND
October 8, 2009 Thank you to all who participated in the successful Annual UO Meeting on September 30th, in Eugene. Newly elected UO Liaison, Claire Maulhardt, and Bethany Rydmark, past UO Liaison and current Education Chair/Emerging Professionals co-chair made introductions at the Fall term department meeting. Many interested student members, emerging professionals, and local Willamette Valley Section leaders joined the ASLA Executive Committee in engaging discussions and planning efforts for the upcoming year, and the day’s events concluded with a well-attended pizza social co-hosted with the ASLA Student Chapter.
If you are interested in future events and connections with the University of Oregon, please contact Claire Maulhardt, ASLA. For Emerging Professionals connections, please contact Bethany Rydmark. October 8, 2009 The “San Mateo County Sustainable Green Streets and Parking Lots Design Guidebook” received the 2009 Award for Innovation in Green Community Planning from the American Planning Association, California Chapter (APA California). Kevin Robert Perry, ASLA, of Nevue Ngan Associates Landscape Architecture accepted the award on September 15th in Lake Tahoe, California on behalf of the project team. The APA California’s annual planning awards are the highest honors given by this organization of more than 6,500 practicing planners, citizens, and elected officials committed to urban, suburban, regional, and rural planning in California.
Published in January 2009 by the San Mateo Countywide Water Pollution Prevention Program, the guidebook illustrates how streets and parking lots can be designed to manage stormwater in a more sustainable and natural way. The guidebook has been praised by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency staff as having national significance, and it has already influenced the completion of two demonstration projects in San Mateo County. The guidebook is now being considered for a National American Planning Association award. More information about the San Mateo County Sustainable Green Streets and Parking Lots guidebook and program details can be found at www.flowstobay.org/greenstreets. September 15, 2009 It is transition time for the Chapter’s Executive Committee (ExCom) officers. Please welcome the 2009-2010 Oregon ASLA ExCom. Thank you to all who participated in the election, especially those offering service to Oregon's Chapter!
Also, a huge thank you to Melinda Graham, Karen Vitkay, Robin Wilcox and Matt Koehler for their service during the last ExCom biennium. These out-going officers will be missed on the board, but we look forward to their continued participation in committees and with their Sections. September 15, 2009 A committee has formed around the wording change of the Oregon Statutes by the Landscape Contractors Board (LCB) from "Plan and Install" to "Plan or Install". This happened in Spring and caused a bit of a stir with the OSLAB, generating a letter to the Landscape Contractors Board (LCB) and the Governor's office. You can find the letter through the OSLAB website. Currently the group consists of: Matt Triplett - LCB; Steve Carper - LCB; John Pellitier - OSLAB; John Galbraith, LA - representing himself; John Stone, Landscape Contractor - OLCA; Amy Whitworth, Garden Designer - APLD Oregon, ANLD. The committee has met twice in Eugene, and at the last meeting it was noted that no representatives from ASLA Oregon are part of the committee. Many ASLA members are not registered Landscape Architects, so this issue could be of particular interest to these members, as it would potentially affect their ability to work as landscape designers. The next committee meeting is not yet scheduled, but is supposed to occur in September. Please contact Amy Whitworth, Garden Designer, with questions at 503-239-0105. NOTE: It is the strong desire of the Oregon ASLA Chapter to establish a Legislative & Advocacy Committee so that our organization will be at the forefront of these discussions. However, we need a willing member to chair / lead the effort. Please contact Jenny Richmond with interest or questions. September 15, 2009 The City of Portland has been working on a major tree policy and regulatory improvement project. The City has been given the charge to "develop a clear, concise, and cohesive set of tree regulations" as well as "enhance the urban forest through development and redevelopment." A key piece of the regulatory framework is looking at trees in the development context as well as trees when no development is occurring. The idea is to have a system in place that prevents major tree loss prior to submittal of a development application, addresses trees in conscious site design approaches to optimize multiple development objectives, protects trees through the construction phase, and then returns them to the same system that applies to other similarly situated trees (and not preserve them with an unrealistic 'perpetuity' requirement after the development is complete. The City is examining development standards that establish a 'base' number of trees required on sites to achieve tree density standards varied by land use type and reflecting expected development intensities. There is a general focus on retaining "exceptional" trees (i.e., large trees, natives, and groves), and replacement of non-exceptional trees. Trees that are retained and protected count for more than trees that are planted, and the larger their size, the more credit is offered. The City is currently in the code drafting phase of this project and expects to bring it to the planning commission in late October. Learn more at the project website or contact Morgan Tracy. June 5 , 2009 Lauren Schwartz - President Welcome to the newest round of student leaders at the University of Oregon! [ return to top ] September 15, 2009 Earlier this summer, nine landscape architecture students from the University of Oregon presented analysis and design ideas to the Willamette Falls Heritage Area Coalition (WFHAC) including Alice Norris, mayor of Oregon City. Led by Rob Ribe, professor landscape architecture and director of the Institute of Sustainable Environment, the studio, entitled “Restoring the Magnetism of Willamette Falls,” studied existing conditions, traffic patterns, visual attractiveness issues and design ideas for revitalizing the historic landscape legacies for Willamette Falls, the horseshoe-shaped waterfall located between Oregon City and West Linn on the Willamette River. The studio produced maps regarding ports, plans and prescriptive design concepts for WFHAC. “Establishing a heritage area is one of West Linn’s priorities and the Coalition brings together representatives from Oregon City and West Linn as well as the county, state and other interested parties to make a National Heritage Area a reality,” said Jody Carson, West Linn City Council president. The course met several of Ribe’s goals, “I am always attracted to work on a complex problems with difficult institutional challenges when teaching. These projects engage my interest in the interaction of policy, planning, and design and they always teach my students a lot more by engaging in those interactions rather than just accepting a site, program, and existing constraints, normally set in defining a design problem.” Ribe’s studio was the final of three design studios offered by the UO’s Department of Landscape Architecture to examine design options for this unique area. WFHAC funded the studio to improve public access to the falls and eventually earn it special status as a national heritage area. The UO was approached by Oregon State Parks to assist the planning and design staff explore options for the volunteer organization spearheading the effort. Ribe said, “I very much appreciate and respect what the WFHAC coalition is trying to do as an ad-hoc group of volunteers. It’s fun to be able to assist these efforts and the members of the coalition provided a ready-made, engaged, diverse, and enthusiastic set of authoritative people to interact with the students and review their work.” “It was re-energizing to witness the students’ depth of understanding of the environment, the history, the design and the challenges of revitalizing this area,” said Norris. “Their work took us ‘outside the box’ and, I believe, will inspire us to think differently about pieces of our work.” “We are working on a feasibility study for the national heritage area that will eventually be presented to Congress. [Professor Ribe’s students’] work is vital and will be incorporated into this document,” said Mark Davison, the master planning coordinator for the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department.
|
[ return to top ]
|
|||