Westbound, for sale as Northeast Halsey Street becomes one-way Weidler Street at Northeast 112th Avenue, a perfect triangle forms at the split. Now, the Gateway community surrounding that unique island has stepped up to help landscape architects Nevue Ngan Associates design a new look for it.
Some features neighbors envision include a lush rain garden that collects storm water, a viewing bridge, a public plaza dotted with benches and giant letters spelling “Gateway.”
The architectural rendering shows the view of the triangle looking west. The proposed design for the triangle at Northeast 112th and Halsey Street triangle includes a rain garden, public plaza and identity sign.
COURTESY NEVUE NGAN ARCHITECTS
These design ideas flowed from public workshops held in May and June, along with two open houses. The Halsey-Weidler corridor work group received a $30,000 grant from the Portland Development Commission’s (PDC) Community Livability Grant Program in February to fund the planning and design process for the east triangle. The PDC grant named Nevue Ngan to spearhead the planning and design of the project. The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) is the lead agency for the project, with support from PDC and the Bureau of Environmental Services (BES), which is contributing approximately $80-90,000 toward design and construction of the rain garden through its 1% for Green program.
During those meetings, community members narrowed down the placement of the rain garden, a feature already part of the original grant proposal. Most people wanted it placed on the eastern tip of the triangle.
Some of the storm water that comes off both Northeast Halsey and Weidler streets at the tip of the triangle where it splits will be treated in the rain garden, which will function as a storm water facility.
Dispensing with the notion of an iconic arch as an identity image for the area—reminiscent of the large Gateway arch that graced the neighborhood from 1950 to the early ’90s—community members preferred the installation of a series of large, free-standing, three-dimensional block letters, possibly with solar strips on top, arranged to face Northeast Weidler Street. “So people driving into town who pass by the triangle will be able to see the word ‘Gateway’ in large letters,” said Jason Hirst, landscape architect with Nevue Ngan. “There would be some kind of lighting integrated so people could see them at night.”
The Halsey-Weidler triangle plan view. The rendering shows numbered design features proposed for the Halsey-Weidler corridor’s east triangle at Northeast 112th and Halsey Street.
COURTESY NEVUE NGAN ARCHITECTS
Hirst said most people like the old-fashioned arch but agreed the triangle is not the right place to install it. “It would be difficult to get the scale large enough to be the arch that it needs to be,” Hirst said. “That’s the feeling we got talking to people.”
Some people also envisioned a walking trail beginning at the bank property next to the triangle, possibly winding over to the rain garden. There might be a decking-type bridge going along the edge of the rain garden. “Some people like the idea of having a bridge over it, so there might be a small portion where there’s storm water under it,” Hirst explained.
If such a bridge is too expensive or complicated, architects might design it as a wall with decking on top for people to walk on, offering a viewpoint for walkers to observe the rain garden and participate in the educational experience. The garden will hold water in the winter, plus many varieties of plants in the summer.
BES plans to pinpoint appropriate plants to locate there. “They’ll be different than what’s planted in the upland water areas,” Hirst said.
Landscaping might include mature trees and dense shrubbery such as Limelight Hydrangea shrubs to provide a buffer for the apartment building across the street, but they will not be so tall as to block the view of drivers or pedestrians. “We’re very careful about that,” Hirst said.
A curb extension will also be constructed at the corner of Northeast 112th Avenue and Weidler Street. That extension, commissioned by PDC, was also part of the Nevue Ngan’s street design of the corridor last year. It helps pedestrians feel safer crossing the street as drivers turn left onto Northeast Weidler Street from 112th Avenue.
Ferns might be planted at the base of the Douglas fir tree in the center of the island to discourage public activities in the area covered by the tree’s root system. “It’s difficult to grow plants under Douglas firs,” Hirst said. “It will be a really shaded area, so we think ferns are probably going to be the best shot at getting something to grow there. There’s going to be walking paths around the edge of the tree, too.”
A public plaza for people to sit, covered with decking or pavers, will be created across from the bank on the west end of the triangle. Designers might choose some of the new ceramic pavers that are very porous.
“The permeable pavers won’t take any additional storm water,” Hirst said. “But any rain that falls onto them will just soak through them, rather than run off.”
Tom Badrick, a member of the Halsey-Weidler work group and writer of the PDC grant, said of the pavers, “We’re an eco-district and we should be doing that kind of thing. It’s more expensive than regular bricks, but I think it has a lot of advantages.”
The plaza will also contain a trashcan and some Americans with Disability Act seating, as well as lighting.
At the southern point, on the Northeast 112th Avenue and Halsey Street side, an informational kiosk will be built. That design might include solar or wind power and possibly a battery, similar to the new Tesla models, to store energy. “It buys energy at nighttime when energy is cheap, then it sells it back or you use the energy in your home during the day when energy is more expensive,” Hirst said of the battery. “The battery would power different elements within the plaza. Solar could be integrated to get power for that.”
The kiosk might contain a computer display that would show how much energy is being used, how fast the wind is blowing and other calculations. “It would be a symbol of the Gateway eco-district taking those types of steps and trying to be innovative and having things like that that people can see and use,” Hirst said.
Badrick noted that PBOT is a month behind in its schedule to survey the actual street. Once PBOT completes that chore, the architectural team will begin the final engineering design work on the island, he said. “The city’s talking over the design and how they’re going to deal with it, so we’re kind of just in a holding pattern right now,” Hirst said. “Once we get the go-ahead, we’ll take this plan and start doing the finer-grain design so we can actually figure out how it’s going to be constructed.”
The public outreach process was more condensed than expected, partly because the meetings were scheduled to fit into the work schedule of both PBOT and BES. “We jammed in the public process to meet their schedule and now they’re behind on their schedule,” said Badrick. “The reality is it probably wouldn’t have changed where we are today whether we did it over an extra month or not. It doesn’t really matter sometimes whether you condense the public process or spread it out. People tend to wander away during the summer and not pay much attention anyway.”
For more information on the project, contact tbadrick@aol.com.
