Portland, Firsthand

So, I finally made it out to Portland, aka Heaven on Earth for Planners. The city also happens to be ground zero for LID stormwater management. The LID interventions - planters, rain gardens, artistic downspouts - were so prevalent that they just seemed to be part of the urban fabric. They were at once beautiful and par for the course. As San Francisco is still in the demonstration/novelty phase, Portland has advanced to the integrate-LID-into-the-urban-design-fabric phase. Here are a few photos to whet your whistle. More to come soon, I promise.

Coming Very Soon - Resources Page

In the coming days, I will be putting together a "Resources" page for all kinds of stormwater reference materials, including fact sheets, design/technical manuals, and whatever other interesting things of which I catch wind. Hold tight, it's a'comin!

Sunset Circle in the Rain (Yay!)

I made it out to Sunset Circle (intersection of Sunset Blvd and Lake Merced Blvd) at about 3 PM on 12/17/10 to get some live-action pics in the rain. The rainfall was a constant drizzle.
You can see Juncus patens and Ribes sanguineum in all their glory.

Glen Park and Islais Creek

A little bird chirped in my ear...

Community planning and stormwater management enthusiasts - don't look now, but we might see creek daylighting resurface in the public conscious in the Glen Park community. The opportunities there - with a free-flowing creek still partially surviving - are endless. If community interest remains strong in support of daylighting and the concerns of a minority of residents can be alleviated, we could really have something, right here in San Francisco.

To find a creek daylighting FAQ and remain abreast of the community planning process in Glen Park, check out this LINK.

Beautiful Day for a Stormwater Aficionado

With the light and steady rain, today is a beautiful day for stormwater enthusiasts. I'm sure San Pablo Avenue (El Cerrito), Brisbane City Hall, Mint Plaza (San Francisco), and the Sunset Circle (SF) are all loving it. The stormwater flows entering our streetside storm drains are reduced just a bit because of them. I've got to get some wet weather photos of these local sites. When I do, I will be sure to post them.

Great LA Times Article: Eco-living, What Works and What Doesn't

Here is a well-written article detailing one eco-conscious LA Times' writer's revelations after two years of incorporating green. Written from the every-person's perspective, this is a must read!
Read the article HERE.

Bay Area LID Tour, part I: Brisbane City Hall

This is the first installment in a series of visits to some of the Bay Area's most prominent LID projects.

Today's stop takes us to Brisbane's City Hall. Finished in early 2009, this project includes both a rain garden and a bioswale. The designer was none other than Kevin Perry from Portland fame. Mr. Perry did the project as a member of Nevue | Ngan, the Portland-based landscape architecture outfit.

Of the two best management practices (BMPs) here, the rain garden is probably the more prominent. Situated on the parking lot-side of City Hall, the rain garden most likely receives more attention from those entering/exiting the building. Also, the interpretive sign sits right by the rain garden. My discussion will thus focus mostly on the rain garden.

The plantings are filling in nicely; the colors and textures blend well, too. What I really like to look at when I check out LID projects is the inlets into the BMP, whether from the street, parking lot, or rooftop. The rain garden has inlets from two locations: the City Hall roof and the adjacent parking lot. In the below images, you can see the downspout, which brings stormwater from the roof and through a decorative trench drain and into the rain garden. Also below, you can see a slot, through which stormwater passes to enter from the parking lot.




The bioswale sits on the streetside of City Hall. The plants here are doing well, too. The bioswale has a "wild" look to it. It receives stormwater from the parking lot via a trench drain. A good amount of debris - leaves, dirt, sediment - has found its way into the trench drain. Maintenance on the trench drains is rather simple - just pick up the covers and remove the gunk. On a previous visit, I actually picked up one of the covers - it was a piece of cake that any slouch can do. Here are a couple of images of the bioswale:


I hope to make it out to El Cerrito's "Green Street" project, San Pablo Avenue. I visited a few weeks ago, and it was a darn shame I didn't have my camera with me. The maples were showing their brilliant fall color, and the planters looked good. Until the next installment!

EPA Webcast, 12/09/10 - LID, Live from North Carolina!

Webcast on Thursday, December 9, 2010
"Designing LID to Work: Lessons Learned from North Carolina"
by Dwane Jones, Extension Associate, North Carolina State University, Cooperative Extension and Heather Burkert, RLA, LEEP-AP, H. Burkert & Co., Landscape Architect

Register at: www.epa.gov/watershedwebcasts

Join us for the webcast “Designing LID to Work: Lessons Learned from North Carolina.” North Carolina is a geographically diverse state spanning mountain, piedmont and coastal regions, making its low impact development (LID) implementation progress a model for many states across the country. North Carolina State University is a national leader in the study of LID and has advanced LID research and implementation, including the development of the state’s LID guidance, the “North Carolina LID Guidebook.” The NC State Cooperative Extension’s LID certification program also has the potential to be replicated nationally. This webcast will feature a discussion of barriers to LID implementation and the progress that is being made to address them from a “boots on the ground” perspective of the NC State Cooperative Extension, as well as a landscape architect who is making LID a reality. Webcast participants are eligible to receive a certificate for their attendance. The webcast presentation is posted in advance at www.epa.gov/watershedwebcasts and participants are encouraged to download it prior to the webcast.

Continuing Education Credits in Oregon

As of Oct, residential contractors are required to obtain 16 continuing education credits per year. Commercial contractors have already had continuing education credits for some time.

Registration is now open for the following classes that fulfill the requirements for either residential or commercial contractors and may interest other low impact development practitioners (public works staff; landscape architects, designers, and contractors; planners; architects; engineers; natural resource managers; builders; developers):

➤ Sustainable Site Planning

This course serves as an upper level in-depth study of site planning so that contractors can apply best management practices to improve the short and long-term sustainability of new and remodeled sites. Students will get immediate hands-on experience in applying the learning outcomes. This course fulfills the CCB’s requirement for two hours of Sustainable Building Practices, plus one elective hour. Jan. 26, 1 - 4 p.m. , $149

➤ Best Practices for Sustainable Sites Under Construction

This course serves as an upper level in-depth study of how contractors can apply best management practices to protect natural resources. The important of sediment prevention and erosion control as well as limiting disturbance during construction will be emphasized. This course fulfills the CCB’s requirement for two hours of Sustainable Building Practices. Jan. 27, 10 a.m. - Noon, $99

➤ Site Strategies for Energy & Fuel Efficiency

(Included on this listserv because it deals with vegetation, pavements, and roofs, which are all part of the stormwater infrastructure system, but we’ll be looking at them through the lens of how they affect energy demand and fuel consumption.) This course serves as an upper level in-depth study of best management practices that can reduce demand for energy inside and outside the building through sustainable landscape design, construction and operations and maintenance. This course fulfills the CCB’s requirement for two hours of Sustainable Building Practices. Feb. 2, 10 a.m. - Noon, $99

➤ Rain Gardens 201 Technical Field

Learn how the sum of the parts (inlets, outlets, check dams, etc.) in a variety of vegetated stormwater facilities (rain gardens, bioswales, infiltration basins, green streets, planters) can be designed, constructed and maintained to improve or impact the watersheds in which we build them. This course fulfills the CCB’s requirement for two hours of Sustainable Building Practices, plus three elective hours. Feb. 16, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. , $249

Visit mhcc.edu/training for more information.

Call 503 491-7235 to reserve your space now.

Gardens, Parks, and Urban Open Spaces I

A sneak preview of one element of my historic precedent site project for my Gardens, Parks, and Urban Open Spaces I class. Compare the plan view graphic with the bird's eye image.

Easter Weekend Volunteer Day at Sunset Circle

All the people who mattered came out en force on this Easter Sunday to help make San Francisco a greener city, one parking lot at a time. The all-stars included Lisa Mei, Alex, Ant, Stacey, Henry, Derrick, Lisa Kwan, Peter, Jeanette, Rosey Jencks (my boss) and Sarah Minick.

We had a blast planting about 150 San Francisco Bay Area-native plants before a wicked rain rumbled through. The volunteer planting day was in the name of Low Impact Design (LID). We restored the vegetation at Sunset Circle, an LID demonstration project. The parking lot, prior to its makeover, was a 4-acre asphalt carpet that on rainy days just bled all kinds of pollutants into Lake Merced. With the native vegetation in place, the soil and plants take up much of the pollutants, thus filtering the stormwater runoff before it reaches the beautiful lake.

Some of my work

In case you were interested, here are a few of my class work assignments from my Landscape Graphics class. All are to-scale drafting exercises. I'm just getting started, so please forgive my rudimentary graphics skills. :)
These images were all done with pencil (using either F or HB) and scanned in.

Paul's Capstone Report - Creek Daylighting Outreach Effort

In the summer of 2009, I began my capstone project in partial fulfillment of my Masters degree in Urban & Regional Planning at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (compare to San Francisco, Urbana is one cold place!). My clients for the project were the SF Public Utilities Commission and SF Planning Department. I worked with them as well as my University advisor, Professor Brian Deal, to develop public outreach materials in the hope that we would create a running community dialog in regards to Islais Creek in the Glen Park neighborhood.

As the project team saw it, Islais Creek - buried under Glen Park streets - is a huge natural asset in the neighborhood. If daylighted, an urban planning/design project could bring out a number of benefits to not only the Glen Park community, but the City community at large. These benefits include: on-site stormwater management, neighborhood beautification and greening, an increase in recreation opportunities, improved wildlife habitat, creation of a retail "destination" for downtown Glen Park, and of course, an increase in local real estate values.

Below is a picture of my report cover, and click HERE to download the PDF file.

One of the Pioneers of Conservation Design

Conservation Design Forum Inc. (CDF) does some of the best LID and conservation-based design and water resources engineering out there. CDF is based in Chicagoland, with offices in Elmhurst, IL and Ann Arbor, MI. I had the great opportunity to intern with them in the summer of 2009, and I had a blast. Too bad they don't have more work for burgeoning urban planners like myself!
Here's one sample graphic, but you can find many more at their website, cdfinc.com.

Graphic Styles I Like

Ever since coming across the 2005 LID Technical Guidance Manual for Puget Sound, I've fallen for the graphic style of AHBL Engineering up in Washington. Check out this sample from the Low Impact Development Design Guidelines for the Nisqually Watershed document:




And how about this one from JJR? I find it simple and elegant. It comes from the Paducah (KY) Riverfront Plan:



And of course, there's Portland Metro and its Safe and Healthy Streets handbook series. Unfortunately, I don't have any of the graphics, but you can order the very affordable handbooks HERE.

About this Blog

The title says it all. OK, well, maybe I left myself a little (plentiful) wiggle room. My interests are varied, from Low Impact Design (aka Low Impact Development) stormwater management practices to city and regional planning in general to beautiful landscape graphics to basketball to whatever else crosses the mind. First and foremost, though, I will focus on water - how we utilize it, manage it, and of course, how we plan for it.

So, without further ado, here we go....