Portland Parks & Recreation News

[2oh1]

I'm still blown away by the fact that the city is so short of money for roads that they've proposed plan after plan with no success... gas tax, street fees, income tax, even floating the idea of a sales tax... yet out of nowhere they find a huge increase for... parks? Something about it just feels dirty to me. The city is so broke that they tried raising taxes - even proposing a sales tax - to pay for roads... but, hang on, out of nowhere they find half a billion dollars of new money for parks. How does that even happen? Shouldn't the new money have been used for roads?

[downtownpdx]

I think they're just 2 different pots of $$. The city is definitely not broke, we're running like a $60 milion surplus thanks to booming development. But the streets don't run off that revenue, it's gas taxes and state transportation $$ I think. Portland has poured lots of $$ into mass transit so maybe there's not much left for basic street maintenance ? Not sure what parks $$ source is...

[maccoinnich]

New park for Central Eastside? City Liquidators owners have a plan



Portland's Central Eastside Industrial District has few parks or open spaces, but one family hopes to change that.

The Peletts own and operate the Central Eastside's City Liquidators, a store that sells everything from lawn decorations and kitchen knickknacks to all types of furniture. They also own other properties in the neighborhood: seven buildings totaling 420,000 square feet, parking lots and a gravel lot that's been vacant for years.

Emma Pelett, daughter of City Liquidators founder Walt Pelett, said she's been working with city planners for months on a concept to turn the 10,000-square-foot gravel lot into a privately funded park.

...continues at the Oregonian.

[maccoinnich]

Kengo Kuma discusses his Portland Japanese Garden expansion designs

BY BRIAN LIBBY



When acclaimed Japanese architect Kengo Kuma was announced last year as the architect of a major expansion to the Portland Japanese Garden, it was a major coup for the city. Although we enjoy an impressive roster of home grown design talent, this is not a city that often brings in the most famous architects to contribute. But then again, the city has a more impressive list of projects by acclaimed landscape architects like Lawrence Halprin and Peter Walker working here than it does architects. Even if Kengo is a building designer and not a landscape designer, his new structures at the Japanese Garden will exist in the context of, well, a Japanese garden, and that is fitting well beyond the notion of his happening to be Japanese.

Recently, the Japanese Garden unveiled it $33.5 million Kuma-designed plan (for which approximately 60 percent of funds has been raised) that, while only increasing its footprint by 11,328 square feet, will include adding three new LEED certified buildings as part of what's called a Cultural Village, and seven new garden spaces.

...continues at Portland Architecture.

[maccoinnich]

Portland Japanese Garden expansion groundbreaking (photos)



What a way to start a transformation. The groundbreaking ceremony for the $33.5-million expansion of the Portland Japanese Garden on Monday, Aug. 31, was more than the typical hard hat and shovel tradition.

Instead, the launch was fitting to the garden's mission of bringing Japanese culture to a corner of Washington Park.

Priests, musicians and an altar maiden from the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine in Kamakura, Japan, flew in to bless the new Cultural Crossing project and expansion that will include a new entrance, art gallery and cafe.

The six shrine members clapped, chanted and danced under a tent on the construction site outside the existing entrance of the garden. An excavator was parked in the background, near a maintenance building that will soon be demolished.

Architect Kengo Kuma of Japan flew in, too, from Tokyo to launch the project that was first offered to him in 2008 and will be his first public commission in North America.

...continues at the Oregonian.

[maccoinnich]

Building permits were issued to THA Architecture for the Japanese Garden Expansion:

Japanese Gardens Expansion New Village House and Site Grading and Retaining Walls

New ticketing pavilion for cultural village expansion

New Garden House

New cafe to be built as part of new cultural village expansion

[maccoinnich]

Portland City Council looks at Pioneer Courthouse Square, parks updates

Portland's City Council will hit the meeting room today with a relatively light agenda.

The highlights on Wednesday include the consideration of an $875,150 contract with SRG Partnership Inc. "to provide planning, design, and construction administration services for renovations and improvements to Pioneer Courthouse Square."

...continues at the Portland Business Journal.

[MarkDaMan]

Director Park repairs begin Wednesday, will close Elephants Deli for several months
Sep 22, 2015, 11:37am PDT
Mason Walker
Interactive Editor
Portland Business Journal

http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/...T&t=1442949926

"Emergency" repairs on the canopy at downtown's Director Park will begin Wednesday. Most of the work is expected to conclude by December.

The park will remain open during repairs except for the area under the canopy. The Elephants Deli in the park will also close to make way for construction crews.

In June, the city announced that the wood support beams for the sweeping glass canopy have suffered water damage and must be replaced, costing $790,000.

ZGF Architects, which did design work on the park, will pay $602,000 of the costs. The Portland Parks and Recreation Department will pay the rest as the city upgrades to steel beams.

The park cost nearly $9.5 million to build. Late developer Tom Moyer donated the site, valued at the time at $6 million.

Construction costs were funded with $4.5 million from the Portland Development Commission, $1.9 million from the city of Portland and $2.9 million in private donations, chiefly from the Schnitzer family and Moyer.

R&H Construction will perform the repairs.

[MarkDaMan]

Portland Parks gets 2 more acres of Ross Island
Oct 21, 2015, 11:00am PDT
Jon Bell
Staff Reporter
Portland Business Journal

http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/...T&t=1445463274

The northern tip of Ross Island out in the Willamette River is now in the hands of the city of Portland.

The Port of Portland has donated the two acres of the island that it owns to the city as part of a larger restoration and preservation effort. That work has been under way since 2007, when Ross Island Sand & Gravel donated 45 acres of the island to the city.

The company had for decades mined and extracted gravel from the island and three others nearby.

According to Melanie Mesaros, media relations manger for the Port of Portland, the Port-owned land at the northern tip of the island encompassed almost five acres in 1947. Since then, however, erosion and changes in the water table have reduced the acreage to its current size.

She also said the Port has largely managed the land as a natural space.

Portland Parks & Recreation, which already owns and manages much of Ross Island, will care for the newly donated land. Other partners involved in the restoration efforts include Willamette Riverkeepers, Audubon Society of Portland, Urban Greenspaces Institute and Portland Bureau of Environmental Services.

(continues)...

[maccoinnich]

Two new parks to break ground in East Portland



East Portland residents will soon have two new places to gather, play, walk, bike, garden, take their children and dogs and otherwise find peace in nature.

Portland Parks & Recreation announced this week that construction will kick off this spring for two long-awaited green spaces in park-deficient areas: Gateway Discovery Park and Loowit View Park.

The first will be a new gateway into Northeast Portland's Gateway neighborhood, east of Interstate 205; the second is 2.5 miles away, adjacent to Shaver Elementary School in Northeast Portland's Argay neighborhood.

Together, the newly named parks will serve about 1,800 households that don't currently have ready access to a park or natural area.

"These two new parks represent a significant step in addressing historic inequities in park facilities in east Portland,” says parks Commissioner Amanda Fritz. “All over Portland, people are telling me, ‘Provide parks for people who don’t have one.’ There are inequities in every neighborhood, and insufficient resources to correct them all. Loowit View Park and Gateway Discovery Park continue the city’s determination to correct the disparities in east Portland."

...continues at the Portland Tribune.

[maccoinnich]

Indirectly paid for by renters moving into new buildings in inner Portland neighborhoods.

Budget for two east Portland parks swells by $6.6 million



Portland's budget for building two new parks in east Portland has jumped from $12.4 million to $19 million – a 53 percent increase – financial documents show.

In 2014, Commissioner Amanda Fritz announced that the Portland Parks Bureau would build projects in two underserved areas, the Argay neighborhood and the Gateway district.

Last month, the city sent out a 1,400-word press release announcing names for the new projects – Loowit View Park and Gateway Discovery Park. But nowhere did parks officials mention that the budget had grown by $6.6 million from initial projections.

Instead, parks officials included only estimated construction costs of $7.8 million and $5.2 million – numbers that are very similar to the full project costs originally estimated in 2014.

...continues at the Oregonian.

[maccoinnich]

Parks recently issued an RFP for the Forest Park Entrance and Nature Center, which was apparently looking for "superlative contemporary design" and an "iconic structure". I've been told the following firms responded:

Skylab
Propel Studio
Hacker
Opsis
Allied Works
Architecture Building Culture
Lake Flato
Dangermond Keane
Lever

Pretty cool list.

[maccoinnich]

Browsing through the Parks website I also came across this: Ankeny Square Request for Interest.

[maccoinnich]

Portland Parks and Recreation held a groundbreaking for Gateway Discover Park yesterday. Landscape architecture by PLACE, who are consistently doing excellent work. Some images from the PP&R site:

[maccoinnich]

Also, this analysis of the state of Parks' finances by the City Budget Office is staggering.

System Development Charges and Parks’ System Expansion

SDCs continue to provide both an opportunity and a liability. With access to recreation centers and parks being proportionally less in East Portland, SDC resources provide an opportunity to build assets that will serve a greater portion of Portlanders while also positively impacting the City’s equity goals. However, the expansion of parks services will necessarily require a shift of General Fund resources away from other City priorities, such as public safety and housing, in order to fund the operations and maintenance of new park facilities. The City needs to take into account the negative impact of reducing these other services – along with the equity impact this may have on specific communities – when making decisions about expanding Parks’ services.

Due to the economic recovery over the past four years, the bureau has experienced a steady increase in system development charge revenues. Last year the bureau collected $24.0 million in residential and commercial revenues, and ended the year with a balance of $41.7 million. To date, the bureau has collected $16.1 million in SDC revenues in FY 2015-16, indicating that total year revenues are likely to exceed $20 million. The following chart shows the growth of SDCs over the last several years.



Projects confirmed to be funded with SDCs in the five-year plan include:

• Beech Park ($11.0 million total)
• Gateway Urban Plaza ($9.0 million)
• Spring Garden Development ($1.5 million)
• Portland Tennis Bubble ($1.1 million)

Over the next five-years the bureau has plans to allocate the balance and forecasted revenues of $76.0 million to development of other parks and facilities, and $10.7 million allocated for property acquisition. Remaining is $15.0 million that has not been planned or allocated to a project. Based on current SDC resources, the bureau estimates that new, SDC-funded parks may result in the need for $500,000 to $1.5 million annually to support operating costs over the next five years.

[maccoinnich]

On City Council agenda for next week:

526 Amend Park System Development Charge Capital Improvements Plan to update the project list (Ordinance; amend Ordinance No. 187150)

A few things that caught my eye:

• Funding is proposed for both the Sullivan's Gulch Trail and North Portland Greenway in years 6-10.
• There's $62,688,000 allocated for "Build New Central City / NW CC & Aquatics Facility". I assume that's the Washington High Community Center?
• Slabtown Park Development is 6-10 years out and budgeted at $3,000,000. During the masterplan process it was known that the park would have to wait until enough SDCs had been generated by the development, but with the imminent construction of Blocks 294E and 295E, I'd amazed if that hasn't already happened.
• Closing the Sellwood Gap is in years 1-5

[pdxtraveler]

Originally Posted by maccoinnich

On City Council agenda for next week:



A few things that caught my eye:

• Funding is proposed for both the Sullivan's Gulch Trail and North Portland Greenway in years 6-10.
• There's $62,688,000 allocated for "Build New Central City / NW CC & Aquatics Facility". I assume that's the Washington High Community Center?
• Slabtown Park Development is 6-10 years out and budgeted at $3,000,000. During the masterplan process it was known that the park would have to wait until enough SDCs had been generated by the development, but with the imminent construction of Blocks 294E and 295E, I'd amazed if that hasn't already happened.
• Closing the Sellwood Gap is in years 1-5

Some good stuff there! Especially the Sullivan's Gulch Trail.

[zilfondel]

Holy shit, $758 million worth of parks!?

Thats ambitious!

[pdxdave]

Progress at the Japanese Garden Expansion:



[url=https://flic.kr/p/GGpRs4[/url]

[maccoinnich]

DJC reporting ($) that Parks are planning on spending $6 million on building out Parklane Park.