This is tough, in the typical design studio you’re given a site and program and off you go; some personal desires and “style” make their way in but your design process is a small slice in the overall set of decisions that shape this landscape. In contrast is our thesis which ideally should serve as a platform to develop and display a student’s unique set of skills and interests. In this thesis process I’ll ideally choose a site and program that will serve as the ideal canvas to develop these skills and interests.
This is a concept map that attempted to find the places where my interests in architecture and our thesis topic had some overlap. The highlights here were Ecosystem, Greenspaces, and Identity. At the U of O I’ve been developing a focus on the technical side of green building. I’ve become a Certified Passive House Consultant and been part of the teaching team for Alison Kwok’s Environmental Control Systems class. My initial move to Portland from the East was in large part driven by my interest as an outdoors person and cyclist in the transportation infrastructure and urban planning Portland is famous for.
Of the pilot Ecodistrict programs I’ve been drawn to the Foster Green project. It offers an almost universal problem found in the U.S. of a once independent town that has been swallowed by urban sprawl and highway building with large parts of its original urban fabric having been destroyed by these forces of change.
Two sites in what is left of the historic Lents Town Center are of particular interest; the Architectural Ironworks Site on the very busy Foster corridor and the former Little League ballfield site which is adjacent to the more neighborhood scale 92nd Ave. Both are adjacent to the I-205 mixed use path and of varying proximities to the Foster MAX light-rail stop. Lents is in need of a catalyst development to bring back an urban core to what is otherwise a neighborhood of very diverse landscape and development. Combining my interest with the opportunities these sites provide I’ve decided that my thesis project will focus on the topics of transportation connections, placemaking, economic catalysts, and resource efficiency.