Metro announces winners of "Integrating Habitats. A Design Competition"
Metro news release: Feb. 26, 2008
Contact: Karen Kane, 503-797-1942
International jury deliberates eight hours over 107 designs, chooses top 13
Two design groups from Portland and one from Tempe, Arizona took top honors today in Metro's Integrating Habitats design competition. The international competition, which sought building designs that made waterways, trees and wildlife habitat the focus of development instead of an impediment to it, drew 107 submissions from as far as Australia, Italy and Japan.
Metro encouraged multi-disciplinary teams to enter. Groups included professionals and students in landscape design, urban planning, stormwater management, architecture, engineering, water quality, ecology and wildlife biology.
The competition described three composite sites typically found in the metropolitan Portland region in regard to natural resource value, function and service. The categories were:
- mixed use development in a riparian forest habitat
- commercial development in a lowland hardwood forest
- neighborhood infill with a remnant oak woodland/savannah habitat interface.
A group of students from Arizona State University in Tempe won first place in the mixed use category for their submission entitled "Nature in Neighborhoods - Development as a Catalyst for Restoration." The apartment homes feature roof gardens, permeable paving, and vegetated bioswales and basins to manage stormwater on site. The development uses a prefabricated modular construction method in a compact arrangement of both residential and commercial space. The student winners are Benjamin McDowell,Tyler Stradling, Michael Nicoli and Todd Severson.
Jury member David Yocca, director of the Conservation Design Forum in Elmhurst, Illinois, noted the number of student submissions to the competition. "Restorative design is not just a wave of the future, it's a necessity," he said. "Training design professionals at the student level is important - the one-designer model is making way to teams, and academics can promote that."
A collaborative group from Portland won first place in the commercial development category for its design,"Urban Ecotones - Transitional Spaces for Commerce and Culture." The design illustrates how innovative home building centers can thrive economically, adapt to anticipated urban growth and provide a model for restoring habitat corridors. The group consists of GreenWorks PC, Bruce Rodgers Design Illustration, Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects, ESA Adolphson and SWCA Environmental Consultants.
First place in the neighborhood infill category went to Portland's Constructive Form Architecture and Design, LLC for its "Urban Savannah, Alley Midlands, Understory Dwellings" submission. The design considers habitat preservation and restoration, main streets and alleys of varying width holding homes, studios and workshops, shared semi-public open spaces, and landscape design that provides wildlife with areas for shelter and food as well as corridors between them.
"The Portland metropolitan region has an amazing amount of ideas and possibilities - we saw that in the designs that were submitted," said Metropolis magazine editor-in-chief Susan Szenasy, a member of the jury. "Metro should use this moment to create further dialog about this environmental initiative. It's not about choosing winners, it's about the future."
Other members of the prestigious jury include Stefan Behnisch, principal, Behnisch Architects in Stuttgart, Germany and Venice, California; Joan Nassauer, professor of landscape architecture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Tom Schueler, founder, Center for Watershed Protection in Ellicott City, Maryland; and Jim Winkler, president, Winkler Development Corporation, Portland.
Competition co-hosts are the City of Portland Bureau of Environmental Services, Washington County Clean Water Services, Clackamas County Water Environment Services and the City of Gresham. Sponsors are Uncage the Soul Productions, the Daily Journal of Commerce, Metropolitan Land Group, Newland Communities, PB, Otak, KPFF and ESA Adolphson. Advisors to the competition are Herrera Inc. and the University of Oregon School of Architecture.
The complete list of winners follows. High resolution images are available on a Metro ftp site at: ftp://ftp.metro-region.org/pub/communications/integrating_habitats/.
"Integrating Habitats. A Design Competition." is part of Metro's Nature in Neighborhoods initiative, a region wide conservation effort that brings people and government together to ensure a healthy urban ecosystem.
Metro, the regional government that serves 1.4 million people who live in the 25 cities and three counties of the Portland metropolitan area, provides planning and other services that protect the nature and livability of our region.
Category 1
First Place
Nature in Neighborhoods- Development as a Catalyst for Restoration
Arizona State University
Tempe, Ariz.
Benjamin McDowell
Tyler Stradling
Michael Nicoli
Todd Severson
Second Place
Living Graft
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, Ga.
Jerry Page
Christopher Van Kley
Third Place
Daily Migrations
University of Arizona
Tucson, Ariz.
Melisa Kennedy
Brent Jacobsen
Sarah Kosir
Kate Dinsmore
Roby Babcock
Honorable Mention
Terra+Scapes
Pennsylvania State University
State College, Pa.
Matt Zambelli
Honorable Mention
Green Village
Arizona State University
Tempe, Ariz.
Ashley Poulton
Juan A. Rodriguez Martin
Josh Trommler
Valeria Bravo
Brett Gehr
Category 2
First Place
Urban Ecotones
GreenWorks PC
Bruce Rodgers Design Illustration
Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects
ESA Adolphson
SWCA Environmental Consultants
Portland, Ore.
Jason King
Brett Milligan
Bruce Rodgers
Scott E. Thayer
Michael S. Great
Justin C. Hunt
John Gordon
Christie Galen
Coral Mirth Walker
Kim Gould
Second Place
Landscape Decompression- Habitat Rebound
Pennsylvania State University
State College, Pa.
Ken Hendrickson
Honorable Mention
Re-thinking the Big Box
University of Idaho
Moscow, Idaho
Patrick Sullivan
Jeff Brajcich
Bryan Ferguson
Category 3
First Place
Urban Savannah, Alley Midlands, Understory Dwellings
Constructive Form Architecture & Design LLC
Portland, Ore.
Simone Goldfeder
Kina Voelz
Brent Hinrichs
Jason Carlisle
Second Place
Growing Together
EDAW
Yost Grube Hall Architects
Seattle, Wash.
Marilee Stander
Sandy Fischer
Bonnie McDonald
Nancy Bird
Kerry McWalter
Linda Howard
Erika Matthias
Lauren Hauck
Todd Bronk
Jeff Bouma
Isaac Brown
Charles Everett
Jim Keany
Karen Strupp
Jan Mulder
Sarah Daniels
Dave Morris
Edward Running
Miles Woofter
Nicole De Jong
Phillip Lopez
Curtis Alling
Ron Unger
Alex Felson
Third Place (tie)
Roots, Nests & Canopies
Tulane University
Futureproof
Wisznia Associates
Concordia Architecture & Planning
Thalweg Studio
New Orleans, La.
Michael Blum
Molly Buchenberger
Megan Cook
Ross Karsen
Ritchie Katko
Max Goldstein
Jakob Rosenzweig
Third Place (tie)
Symbiotic Existence Through Transactional Awareness
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, Ga.
Amanda Cook
Katherine Creason
Shraddha Srivastav
Honorable Mention
re-STORY- reSTORE
Portland, Ore.
Nicholas Papaefthimiou
Jonna Papaefthimi