For this weeks assignment we were commissioned to do two different approaches that would help us understand our site while also being able to relate to each other in a way that will help enhance our understanding.  The first part was to create 6 story board elements about the space and how it is perceived   It was a very borad assignment so I decided to do something that I thought would be fun to make and would help me (and other people) easily understand the history of the site.  I decided to Photoshop images of what the South Waterfront looked like at various stages in it’s history.  It is done in the perspective of viewing from Ross Island as if you were in a time machine and pressed the play button.  I had a lot of fun creating these images and learned a lot about the different prominent time periods.  I also added some small joke sin the pictures just for fun, see if you can find them!

1800: Settler first arrive in Portland Territory.

1845: Portland is founded.

1917: Zidell is founded and begins constructing ships in the South Waterfront for World War 1.

1940: Zidell begins breaking down ships after World War 2.

2003: South Waterfront begins reconstruction and plans on becoming a major ecodistrict in Portland.

20??: South Waterfront connects to Portland and enhances the cities cultural feel, while unifying southern Portland to the major downtown area.

The second part of the assignment was to diagram the South Waterfront in a way that would help me understand the area better and help aid in my program development.  So when diagraming I decided to look further into the nature, paths, sounds and traces.

For the nature of the space I decided to diagram the added natural elements because (due to the poor soil quality) is very evident. I show the Green Roofs, Bio-Soils, Community Parks and Community Gardens. As seen in the diagram you can tell that the South Waterfront is very serious about being an ecodistrict.

This diagram shows the various ways to move about the South Waterfront. It ranges from pedestrian to air gondola. All in all this diagram shows that the South Waterfront was designed with every possible motive of transportation taken care of. But it is especially oriented towards pedestrians and bikes due to specified corridors and the lack of parking located on the streets.

This diagram shows the various sources of sound around the South Waterfront area. The biggest source of sound is the I-5 freeway. You can hear it from just about everywhere in the area. Next is Zidell’s manufacturing noise which is actually welcomed my the residents rather than shunned. Next would be the waterfront reconstruction, the park when people are playing games and least of all is the view to Ross Island.

This diagram was by far the hardest to represent. I tried looking at old photos of the waterfront and referencing them with photos of the site but all I could find where empty lots that referenced where structures once were and old structures towards the west sid eo fthe site waiting to be torn down. The area that had the most race of the past however was the riverfront. Just walking along the current path and looking into the construction you can see chains and scraps of wood that have been there for many years.