Tanner Springs Park, Portland - pt. 2

Back again. So, you might be wondering: What the hell is all that?!
Well, it is in fact not some space-age Stone Henge, but rather a rainwater-culling apparatus. And the images are in chronological sequence. When rain falls, it hits the glass panels, it flows down the downspout/support, runs through the trench drain to the stairs, down the stairway runnel, and finally into the pond. A pump takes the pond water up through a UV filter, to the bubbler, where it trickles down the re-created spring, and returns to the pond. Lovely. =)

Tanner Springs Park, Portland - pt. 1

Wow, this park is pretty awesome. It's not too big, just the right intimate. Child friendly, sitting friendly, nature friendly. And what is really awesome - and you can see it in the last image here - how up close and personal one can get to water. Heck, you can touch the water, in the bubbler, in the recreated spring, or even in the murky-ish pond.

The one drawback of the place - from a planner's point of view, of course - is how vanilla, how whitebread the neighborhood feels. If you've ever walked around the neighborhood surrounding UIC in Chicago, you know the feeling I'm getting at. The whole place just feels too whitewashed. If you've read Jane Jacobs' The Death and Life of Great American Cities, you'd see the potential issues with having a neighborhood in which all the buildings are pretty much of the same age, same design, and same quality. In a nutshell, how do high-margin and low-margin enterprises co-exist peaceably when rents will be relatively constant? All in all, I do love Tanner Springs Park. Wish we had something comparable here in SF.

Enjoy.

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!