Architects to lead EWEB project.Byline: Susan Palmer The Register-Guard A mix of local, national and international pros will help community volunteers create a waterfront development plan for key acres along the Willamette River Willamette River River, northwestern Oregon, U.S. It flows north for 300 mi (485 km) into the Columbia River near Portland. Oregon's most populous cities are in its valley. The Fremont Bridge, a steel arch with a main span of 1,225 ft (373 m), crosses the river at Portland. owned by the Eugene Water & Electric Board. The Community Advisory Team directing the process selected local firm Rowell Brokaw Architects to lead it through the public phase and final development design. Rowell Brokaw, chosen from among 15 applicants, brings with it a group of outside experts to help EWEB EWEB Eugene Water and Electric Board (Oregon) figure out the most appropriate use of the land once it moves operations to a new site under construction in west Eugene. The Community Advisory Team - nine volunteers guiding the planning effort - developed an evaluation criteria and assigned points to each of the five finalists, said team co-chairwoman Pat Johnston, who is West Eugene Wetlands project manager for the Bureau of Land Management. "The highest-ranking team got the job," she said. "It was a hard process because there were so many qualified teams," said Mary Unruh, team member and executive director of the Downtown Initiative for the Visual Arts visual arts npl → artes fpl plásticas visual arts npl → arts mpl plastiques visual arts npl → . But once they'd agreed on the top three applicants, Unruh was satisfied. "I feel like any one of the top three would have been fine," she said. Business attorney and team member Thomas Hoyt said he was pleased with the result. "We proved that the team can work by consensus with mutual respect for each person's position, and we came up with a very good selection," he said. EWEB staff will finalize a contract with Rowell Brokaw in the coming weeks, said project manager Mark Oberle. It will be reviewed and signed by EWEB commissioners in February. Then the consultants, with direction from the Community Advisory Team, will come up with a way to engage interested community members in the planning process. At least four public hearings on the development proposals are scheduled in coming months. Rowell Brokaw will lead a team that includes experts not only in urban design and landscape architecture but engineers, transportation planners, a fisheries biologist and a historic preservationist pres·er·va·tion·ist n. One who advocates preservation, especially of natural areas, historical sites, or endangered species. pres . Margo Long, a landscape architect at PWL PWL Password List (Windows System File Extension .pwl) PWL Piece-Wise Linear PWL Power Watt Level (acoustic units of measurement) PWL Proposed Well Location PWL Petroleum and Water Logistics Partnership in British Columbia British Columbia, province (2001 pop. 3,907,738), 366,255 sq mi (948,600 sq km), including 6,976 sq mi (18,068 sq km) of water surface, W Canada. Geography , has lengthy experience in waterfront projects in Vancouver, said Greg Brokaw, managing partner at Rowell Brokaw. Local architects also will rely on the urban design expertise of John Ellis John Ellis may refer to:
"We're absolutely thrilled," Brokaw said. "It is a very, very difficult project, but we also know it's an awesome site." EWEB's 27 acres lacks easy street access; is bound on one side by the Willamette River, which has state greenway requirements, and on the other by railroad tracks with many trains passing daily. Eugene also has expectations for the site written into the downtown plan. The city requires that the development have an educational aspect, be a "people place" as well as include open space and mixed uses. Among Rowell Brokaw's local projects is Crescent Village just east of Coburg Road on Crescent Avenue. The retail, restaurant and apartment development has garnered regional awards. Rowell Brokaw just completed a master plan for the West Eugene Wetlands Environmental Education Center, a process that involved convening focus groups to help guide the vision, Brokaw said. He expects such focus groups, open to the public but with invitations to people with specific expertise to be part of this project, too. Topics would range from river ecology to transportation to development. "It gets people talking to Noun 1. talking to - a lengthy rebuke; "a good lecture was my father's idea of discipline"; "the teacher gave him a talking to" lecture, speech rebuke, reprehension, reprimand, reproof, reproval - an act or expression of criticism and censure; "he had to each other, and because they have expertise, you can really get somewhere in the conversation," he said. After several weeks of reviewing applications, interviewing applicants and coming to a decision, the Community Advisory Team will take the rest of the month off, not meeting again until Feb. 11. CLOSE-UP ON CONSULTANTS Learn more about the team on their Web sites Local leaders: Rowell Brokaw Architects. See their Crescent Village project at www.rowellbrokaw.com Urban design: WRT WRT - with regard to, with respect to. Solomon E.T.C. See their Seawall seawall: see coast protection. Lot 337, a residential development in San Francisco with open space and a small performance pavilion at www.solomonetc-wrt.com Landscape Architect: PWL Partnership: Check out their multifamily residential project along False Creek False Creek is a short inlet in the heart of Vancouver. It separates downtown from the rest of the city. It was named by George Henry Richards during his Hydrographic survey of 1856-63. in downtown Vancouver at www.pwlpartnership.com/home |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion