Portland’s Green Loop

by sadia_badhon | December 20, 2019 12:34 pm

by Serena Vescoso, CSI, and Chris Bennett, CSI

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All of our childhood travels are filled with green days. When young, we play under a canopy of laurels, trees, and blue air. Unlike poor adults forced to drive to the staccato of stop-and-go traffic while breathing exhaust fumes during work commutes, children hop between yards, scale fences, and ride bicycles for hours each day to engage in the enterprise and adventures of youth. The City of Portland, Oregon, may just be able to bring some of that spirit back with the ambitious Green Loop.

The Green Loop[2] is a big new idea from Portland’s CC2035 Plan[3] seeking to reconnect the city and its denizens with their nature-loving youthful selves by creating natural spaces[4] and 10 km (6 mi) of exciting new routes to travel the City of Roses with or without an automobile. Being brought to life a section at a time, the Green Loop creates a series of public spaces and paths to promote more walking, jogging, and bike riding around Portland’s urban core, linking several places of learning, business, and entertainment as well as civic and cultural centers. The Green Loop will join existing parks and create new ones as it runs through the Rose Quarter, South Downtown and South Waterfront, Portland State University (PSU), and Lloyd and Cultural Districts, as well as the West End, Central Eastside, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), and the famed Pearl District.

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In 2016, the University of Oregon’s John Yeon Center[6] for Architecture and the Landscape, Portland Monthly contributor Randy Gragg, and Design Week Portland[7] announced Untitled Studio had won the Green Loop design competition.

Gina Ford, principal and co-founder of Agency Landscape + Planning and a member of the competition jury, said of Untitled Studio’s design, “It was at once both visionary and tangible – with a powerful graphic identity and memorable concept that could compel the community over the long road of implementation and a series of incremental actions the jury could see starting immediately and with little cost.”

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This kind of promise—visionary and immediate—is needed, she noted, for transportation projects, which are not often perceived as “sexy or quick.” Untitled Studio[9] wanted people to imagine the Green Loop as a “public celebration,” one in which all parts of the city influence their section of the project, but work toward the ideals of ‘green’ days when life was less regulated and time and paths of travel were free.

While this concept of an integrated Portland (PDX) is not new, the idea of fastening parks and places with a single promenade has gained momentum as traffic necessity and attitudes toward an urban experience change. Portland is considered the bike capital[10] of North America as seven percent of its population commute by bike[11]. The city also has nearly 2.4 million human beings with a density of around 4400 people per square mile[12], and that number is growing, thereby putting more pressure on an already congested urban travel. The city’s lofty target is at least 25 percent of Portlanders will be traveling on bikes by 2035, creating even more pressure to create seamless travel paths within the city in the next 20 years. This, of course, means drastically changing the way in which streets are being designed to better accommodate what studies refer to as the ‘interested-but-concerned cyclist[13].’ The Green Loop offers the opportunity for low-stress, park-like, physically separated walking and bike paths through Portland’s densest center to maximize the effectiveness of mass transit systems and relieve pressure on roads and highways. This is critical if the intention is going to be consuming less energy, driving fewer miles, and reducing carbon emissions outright.

Yet, the Green Loop is not just a response to the surfeit of automobile traffic or even changing attitudes toward alternative transportation in Portland. While a testament to the spirit of the ride, open spaces, and community connectivity, the Loop has another more specific purpose. The burgeoning Smart City PDX initiative and partners in the local tech community can help equip the Green Loop with the necessary infrastructure to improve safety[14] near schools, disaster resilience, and emergency preparedness by creating clear paths of travel, wayfinding, and designated alternative transportation ideas.

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Using the Loop alignment to centrally locate emergency beacons throughout the Central City ensures the highest concentration of residents, employees, and visitors will receive the necessary aid and information post disaster. Additionally, the pedestrianized public spaces created as part of the Green Loop can be quickly adapted to serve as gathering spaces and recovery centers. The Portland metro area[16] is expected to grow by 36,000 new households and 50,000 new jobs by 2035. The need for responsive emergency execution will become more important than ever. In the case of a natural disaster[17], it is paramount to have bridges that are up to city and state-required seismic standards as Portland is close to the Cascadia subduction zone. People are going to need to cross the Willamette River and freeways to get to their homes and loved ones. The Tilikum Crossing, which makes up the southern end of the Green Loop, is engineered to be up to these seismic standards and can accommodate emergency vehicles. Additionally, the future Sullivan’s Gulch Crossing over I-84 highway (completion is expected in 2020) and the proposed NE Clackamas pedestrian/bike bridge as part of the I-5 Broadway/Weidler interchange are all engineered to be up to current seismic standards. OMSI has partnered with Gerding Edlen to develop some of the largest sections of Portland’s Eastside land. With large open public spaces and the confluence of multiple bridges, roads, and public transportation paths, OMSI is a suitable place to incorporate wayfinding and place-making strategies. People can gather at this inclusive space to nurture social capital and interaction when needed the most, such as for information and resources related to disaster and other emergencies.

The living laboratory

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The design and construction of the Loop is an opportunity to encourage open spaces and eco-friendly transportation, while weaving together Portland’s cultural, open space, and educational assets. Portland Art Museum’s new Rothko Pavillion will include an open-air breezeway to allow pedestrians to walk through the expansion and directly connect museum-goers to the Loop and create a unique sense of community and culture in this area of the Park Blocks.

Museum director Brian Ferriso says, “The Portland Art Museum is honored to be considered as a key stop along the proposed Green Loop. Our institution’s mission of facilitating and creating community aligns with the Green Loop’s goal to bring residents, employees, students, and visitors together to experience and celebrate our beautiful city in a new and more exciting way.”

The Loop will also showcase innovative approaches both within the public realm and the adjacent private development to achieve a net-positive effect on the city’s environmental footprint.

The Green Loop will require new construction to provide for the pedestrian/bike promenade as well as new developments along the Loop’s path, but also incorporate existing elements for a new but recognizable downtown. Both material selection and construction technologies will be carefully considered to keep the Green Loop green. High-albedo concrete could be a viable option as well as hydro-cement curing admixtures that reduce the urban heat island affect and related carbon footprint. Fully cured concrete[19] reduces the need for additional coatings.

Lighting will also have environmental considerations for the selection of exterior street lights along the Loop. City policy will be to specify lights below 2727 C (3000 K) and the spectral composition of light-emitting diode (LED) streetlights will also be considered, as blue-rich white light varieties of LEDs have proven to disrupt circadian rhythm[20] in both humans and wildlife. Additionally, the lighting is intended to be designed to be sufficiently shielded to effectively direct light away from the sky, not wanting to further contribute to light pollution or fatal light attraction[21] for migratory birds. Solar and wind resources will be considered for powering street lighting and other points of experience.

Public utilities as well as bike parking accommodations would be inclusive for all user types along the Loop to promote non-car travel. The requirement and/or encouragement of these types of technologies as well as green setbacks, living walls, and green roofs will aid in making the Green Loop a cooling center for Portland’s urban core.

The Green Loop shapes development

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The Green Loop is set to not only change the dynamics of urban migration, but also reconfigure sidewalk and open space culture. Naturally, changes in diversifying transit options (expanding bike and pedestrian routes) and meeting the needs of concentrating urban density places new requirements on the streets and, in turn, those changes will necessitate a design response from the buildings and developments on the Green Loop. GBD architects and PLACE landscape architects along with the city’s design team are some of the first groups who have to solve these new challenges with BPM Real Estate Group’s Block 216 project[23]. From top to bottom, Block 216 has sustainability and open space culture in mind. In the spirit of the Green Loop, Block 216 will treat stormwater on each of its terraces down the building and also irrigate cascading greenery on each level. GBD and the planning and sustainability bureaus have also been exploring ways to allow for automobile traffic, but slow down the pace of travel by proposing trees outside of the curb line on 9^th Avenue to create a woonerf. By centrally locating the plants on the street, the area now allows for larger tree species that will make the immediate canopy of the area bigger and more natural. Festival lighting, communal seating for street retail, and abundant bike parking appropriate for Block 216’s parklets and open spaces will help create a destination with universal use. At street level, the design team has decided to change the profile of the street and go curb-less, thereby making it more bike and pedestrian friendly.

Bike parking, historically relegated to the realm of ‘design afterthought’ on a project has now moved front and center as buildings compete for tenants in North America’s number one bike city. Owners not only want to accommodate for riders of all ages, skill, and physical abilities, but also seek to create the ultimate user experience for the bike facilities themselves. Working for KBS Realty Advisors, LLC, Turner Construction has set new standards in Portland with the redevelopment of the Meier and Frank Building where bike parking is functional, highly aesthetic, and user friendly. Thus, KBS is able to provide user experience that goes beyond simply parking a bike.

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Another development influenced by the Green Loop is the Moxy Portland project. The 6618-m² (71,232-sf) hotel on 10^th Avenue was designed by DLR Group to meet the ground in an engaging way with an open base featuring large, operable glass walls that open the building to Portland as well as enhance the alternative transportation experience both on the outside and inside the building.

Steve Cavanaugh, design leader for DLR Group’s contribution on the Moxy Portland project says, “As part of our design, we have taken great care to provide adequate bicycle parking, both for hotel staff and for the guests who choose to use this mode of transportation during their stay.”

This will certainly be an important precedent for how other buildings will likely interact within the larger framework of the Green Loop.

Conclusion

The Green Loop will take many years to complete, but is set to be master planning and place-making at its finest. Embraced by developers, designers, local government, and the people of Portland, it seeks to create new standards in sustainable construction, emergency planning, and healthier urban experiences for the whole city—all of this while tailoring design solutions for the character of the many neighborhoods and districts the Loop will touch. Successful design creates places rooted in local culture, while acting as a catalyst for socially sustainable urban transformation. Portlanders take sustainability and connectivity seriously. The increase of riders turning Portland into North America’s number one bike city[25] and the love for outdoor spaces are manifesting in a greener, more sustainable downtown.

Portland Mayor[26] Ted Wheeler believes “the Green Loop will be a 21^st-century answer to these questions: how our community works, how it thrives, how we move through our city…to jobs, schools, activities, and back home – as well as for recreation and fun.”

Constructing the Green Loop will not always be smooth sailing. It will require emendations and adjustments of perspectives and sensitivities to the diverse cultural and practical needs, but it will likely be the precedent for future city planning connecting people with their youthful selves, to healthier, less restrained green days.

Serena Vescoso, CSI, is a construction consultant specializing in alternative transportation and sustainable, eco-friendly building technologies. She can be reached at serenavescoso@gmail.com[27].

Chris Bennett, CSI, is a construction consultant specializing in contractor training, specification writing, and building technology development for MasterFormat Divisions 03, 07, and 09. Bennett can be reached at chris@BennettBuild.US[28] or via Twitter @BennettBuild.

Source URL: https://www.constructionspecifier.com/portlands-green-loop/

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