When we designed Daybreak Cohousing, the residents wanted to incorporate some art on the buildings.  However, as the project progressed, there was neither time or budget to create the pieces prior to move in so it was decided to wait until the residents moved in.  The railing system was designed to allow for replacement of wire mesh with art panels.  A concrete wall at the terrace stood ready to receive a mural or artwork.  Blocking was placed at key points on the building facades to receive large hanging pieces – these were structurally reinforced and fully flashed to integrate with the exterior siding.

After almost 2 years, the first piece has been installed.  Resident artist Scot Cameron-Bell created the design and oversaw the installation by numerous residents.  Click here to see photos of the process, including the inspiration for the piece.

Last Friday, Schemata Workshop was recognized by AARP and the National Association of Home Builders for thedesign of Daybreak Cohousing.  We received the Livable Communities Award in the Architect category and we are thrilled to receive this honor.

Daybreak is an intergenerational cohousing development of 30 homes in Portland, OR.  Construction was completed in late in 2009.  The 1, 2, and 3-bedroom homes are fully independent, but they also share 7,000sf of common area (called the Common House) that includes a commercial kitchen, large dining room, childrens play room, library, laundry facilities, workshop, indoor bike parking for 90 bikes, 2 guest rooms, yoga studio, and craft room.  From the window of each kitchen residents have direct sight lines to this Common House.  All the homes are connected to one another via an exterior walkway that allows the life of the community to be seen and experienced daily.  The walkway also serves as sun shading for the south facing windows.

A description of the project as well as photos and a video can be found at http://www.aarp.org/home-garden/livable-communities/info-12-2010/lca_portland_1.html

It is notable that 2 of the 5 awards were granted to cohousing projects.  I wonder if this is a tipping point for cohousing – will it truly inform a new paradigm for the American Dream?  One that is not defined by the single family house with 2-car garage and white picket fence, but instead a dream that is depicting seniors…

A nice diversion to my packed schedule at Rail-Volution was a visit the University of Oregon’s Portland Program (PP) design studios, located in the landmark White Stage/Made in Oregon Building, in the southeast corner of Portland’s Old Town. Allowing architecture and other design students (including a new product/industrial design program — nice!) an opportunity to learn their craft in the nation’s most livable city, the U of O’s Portland Program has been around for at least 20 years, during which time it has had many homes, including: the the former space of the long defunct Oregon School of Design, as well as space shared with Portland State University in their then-fledgling architecture studios, and some intervening spaces which I no doubt lost track of.

North Facing Skylights — Who Could Ask for Anything More?

The U of O’s PP Old Town digs are not really new. Despite the fact that I make the three hour trip several times a year from Seattle, I had yet to pay a visit; unfortunate on my part, because, quite frankly, their new space rocks. I could not envision a more apt place for architecture (or design) studios: a renovated, landmark building in a city’s historic core, in a city that (by the way) also happens to be a laboratory for the most exiting urban design (and increasingly architectural design) in North America. Located at the southern terminus of the great trifecta of Ecotopia’s other exceptional urban centers of Seattle and Vancouver  (both conveniently linked by Amtrak), the geographical setting of the PP could not be more advantageous for learning design.

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The very fact that Rail-Volution exists shows there is a growing understanding among transit advocates and agencies that the large investments in transit systems should leverage private enterprise to advance a community’s economic, social, and environmental agendas. This awareness between agencies of the need to coordinate policies is key to the successful Transit Oriented Development (TOD) around the Capitol Hill (Seattle) light rail station, and is in evidence by the unprecedented collaboration between Capitol Hill residents, advocacy groups, non-profits, and governmental organizations. Although such linkages seem obvious to many of us, the coordination of transportation and land use planning has been absent for quite some time. There is abundant evidence, however, that such coordination has a history. On a national scale, the construction of railroads was an imperative of the Federal Government’s during the nineteenth century. Railroads were the mechanism used to secure the unpopulated western states and territories within the foundling republic. The Federal government gave away millions of acres, in the form of rights-of-way, to rail pioneers with the expectation that the commercial development that followed and its subsequent population growth would create not only wealth, but also population centers, peopling and thereby securing the American west against foreign intrigues and interference. In the 20^th Century, the U.S. Interstate System was built and stands as the world’s largest construction enterprise. Expediting its execution were cold war polices centered on national defense, as well as the Federal Government’s desire to stimulate post war development. One need only to look at the growth of the post war suburbs with its ubiquitous shopping malls –centered along interstate corridors — to see the role transportation plays on land use, and the…

I am not much of a conference attendee. Preferring to immerse myself in books and lectures, conferences have seemed to me to be more about preaching to the converted, venues for vendors to hawk there wares, and a plethora of examples of how not to use PowerPoint; all coming at the expense of being a really useful way to become educated on a topic. Sloganeering and well rehearsed positions abound, unfortunately at the expense seeing a provocateur or hearing contrarian thinking. That being said, however, conference tours are usually a highlight, and, should one be fortunate enough, attending a presentation with an impassioned malcontent can add spice to otherwise banal fare. I must admit, however, that after attending Rail-Volution 2010 in Portland last week, my cynicism has abated; or, perhaps I am gaining a critical eye and am better at divining what the  larger lessons are.

The sessions I attended seemed to be predominantly peopled by land use and transportation planners, transit agency staff and directors, and transit advocates – architects (and urban designers) – were in the minority. Regardless of background, all attendees shared a passion for transit and transit oriented development (TOD), with presentations sharing strategies on how to best plan, design, and finance transit to increase our quality of life, be that reducing CO2 emissions or lessening our reliance on the automobile and its negative impacts on the public realm. To achieve these goals, the sessions approached transit from a compelling number of perspectives, including public health and safety, the role grant writing effects route planning, and just which parameters really should define a…