I found the review to be really helpful at this stage in the term because by the end of the third week we have just gotten to the building scale, and the choices made now will have many implications down the line.  The most prevalent comment that I heard was in addressing the urban scale.  Critics asked us how each scheme interfaces with its surrounding context.  In my case in particular, it was really more of a question of defining what the context is.  A round of urban design schemes and some basic master planning would help everyone clarify the site design intent and identify which parts they will be developing further.

The critique of my project that I found most helpful was in relation to the building’s program.  Defining an appropriate program in terms of scale, building typology and user group has been a big issue for me throughout this term and it helped to get some fresh eyes on the problem.  The critique of a K-8 school on the island is that the island community does not have the student population to support a school right away, and even with the density that would come from the development spurred from the creation of an Eco-district, there would still likely be a shortage of students.

One of the suggestions was to look at the outdoor school model that already exists in Portland.  Students would come from the surrounding school districts for a brief period [a week or two] and learn about the natural ecology in more of a camp environment.  This would have the added benefit of adding a housing component to the program, both dormitories for the visiting students as well as the potential for long term housing for the instructors.  It would also introduce the idea of living along the water to the project.  What has it meant in the past to live on the working rivers of Oregon? How is the resource of the river best utilized?

The Outdoor School program is currently operated by the Multnomah Education Service District [MESD] which works with several school districts to provide supplemental services that would be difficult to implement at the smaller single district scale.  It would be easy to adopt this multidistrict approach which would also allow the project to serve Washington schools and begin to break down the boundaries created by the state line.

The other comments were more architectural in nature, which were helpful because they provided new avenues of exploration.  These ideas included:

• Deciding which portions of the site should be preserved vs. improved
• Deciding which programmatic elements need public access and locate them accordingly
• Where is the landscape pulled through the project?
• How does the bank of the bay interact with the built form?
• What is the story that I am trying to tell? If salmon habitat restoration is a major focus, then make their interaction with the project clear.  Map the migration patterns, diagram in plan and section how they make use of the “pit stop”

Next Steps:

It became clear that the next step is to develop a strong concept for the Eco-district. This will give the project an immediate context for the built form and allow me to investigate issues of district scale, resource streams, and other challenges that shape the surrounding community.

Further exploration and diagramming of the migration patterns of the specific salmon species will help to focus the project and provide a better understanding of the needs of the bay restoration efforts.

It is also critical to continue with investigations of built form.  Since I am interested in heavily integrated systems both in terms of building envelope and structure, investigations of form should be emphasized in the coming weeks.