Columbia Knoll is a mixed-income redevelopment project located on the ten-acre historic Shriners Hospital site in northeast Portland. The redevelopment includes affordable, senior and congregate housing.
Affordable Housing for Mixed-Income Redevelopment
In addition to affordable family housing, a day-care facility, community center, and market rate for-sale townhomes are included in the design. The 334 housing units are distributed between four buildings. Those two, three, and four-story structures are carefully sited to preserve mature, existing trees and the historic Shriners front lawn on Sandy Boulevard. The project required detailed coordination with the State Housing Office, the Portland Development Commission, the Historic Landmarks Commission, as well as five neighborhood associations with an extensive public outreach program. Otak also worked closely with the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods throughout the process.
What began as an underutilized quasi-industrial site in Portland’s Pearl District neighborhood was transformed into a nationally-recognized example of successful urban redevelopment. The Yards at Union Station would mark the district’s first housing project, and it set the tone for subsequent redevelopment in the area. An existing development of four and five-story buildings would grow to include turning 7.5 acres of decommissioned rail yards into a vibrant addition to the newly minted residential community with an emphasis on affordable housing, altogether offering a total of 724 rental and for-sale units for tenants of varying income ranges.
Brownfield Site Development to Revitalize Portland’s Historic Union Station Railyards
Constructed in 1896, Portland Union Station is an established landmark for the city that’s easily recognizable for both it’s Romanesque and Queen Anne architecture as well as its 150-foot clock tower. Sitting adjacent to the Yards at Union Station project site, terra cotta and molded brick of the Union Station building – which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 – provides the basis for a cohesive motif in the neighborhood. Use of the rail yards contaminated the soil meaning The Yards at Union Station would be developed on a brownfield site. The opportunity to clean up the site for redevelopment allows for the space to be safely reinvested in the community. This sustainable design also includes stormwater planters, energy-efficient lighting and native plantings among other features. With a priority on equity the city of Portland emphasizes that its investment make sure projects address the community’s greatest unmet community needs not only in housing but in economic equity. With over 200 jobs created, this project also exceeds the City’s MWESB goals for diversity in contracting on its way to becoming a viable residential neighborhood in the heart of the city.
Located on Block 77, between East 16th and 17th Streets and East D and E Streets, in the downtown area of the City of Vancouver is an addition of affordable housing in the commercial city center.
Adding Affordable Housing to the Commercial City Center
Consisting of 83 dwelling units in 2 buildings with 56 parking spaces provided through planning adjustments such as additional secure bike storage. The project includes live/work units on the ground floor and a multiple of unit types that will be designed for a mixture of 50% median income and market rate clientele. The buildings are designed to be a three-story wood framed building with tuck under parking and ground floor Live Work units and an amenity space, and a four-story wood-framed building with an elevator as well as ground floor Live Work units with tuck under parking and amenity spaces such as community kitchen, exercise facility and leasing office. Otak provided earlier phases of development including land use, preliminary design, Civil Engineering, Landscape Architecture and traffic study.
Master planning, including the reclamation of a 98-acre quarry, and layout design for numerous residential and mixed-use buildings form HQ Plaza. In leading the planning and refinement of the quarry, Otak also prepared building concepts and site renderings to be consistent with the envisioned redevelopment of the site.
Master Planning and Building Design for a Reclaimed Site
The HQ Plaza master plan includes over 2,000 multi-family residential homes, numerous mixed-use buildings of office, retail, hospitality, residential, and light industrial uses. Due diligence in the refinement and reclamation plan for the quarry involved a number of teams, including planning, urban design, civil design, and landscape architect team members. The architecture team contributed to the site plan and roadway layout from a building layout and design perspective, and prepared concept building and site renderings.
With more than 300 million visitors annually, protecting and preserving the423 national parks, monuments, and scenic lands that make up the US National Park System is no small undertaking. It is a balancing act between providing an enjoyable experience for visitors today and preserving the natural environment and cultural heritage for generations to come. This is the primary mission of the National Parks Service (NPS). It is also at the core of what Chad Weiser, PLA does every day at Otak as the firm’s Federal Practice Leader.
A professional landscape architect by trade, Chad was drawn to Otak’s interdisciplinary approach to working with clients when he joined the firm in 1999. “When I first came to Otak, I was a project manager in the Planning and Landscape Group. Over time, my role grew and eventually ventured into working on a lot of federal work,” Chad states. “I have enjoyed the evolution, but being able to work with all the disciplines at Otak has made my work that much more interesting. To be able to work with civil engineers, structural engineers, and architects and bring all of those pieces together to do great work for our clients has been very rewarding,” he adds.
His longevity at Otak has not only allowed Chad to work with all of the different disciplines, but has given him a broad knowledge base and the ability to translate structural, architectural, and civil engineering data for clients. He explains that “the key is being able to understand the important elements of all of the different disciplines and how they come together, and distilling it down for a client so they can make the decisions that will make their project successful.”
Early in his career, Chad had the opportunity to work directly for the NPS, overseeing construction on various projects and acting as a liaison between contractors and NPS design teams. His background and familiarity with the challenges faced by the NPS have been an asset as Chad and other leaders at Otak have been helping the NPS withvisitor use studies and restoration projects at a number of sites. “The challenge we have on every project,” Chad explains “is to find the right balance between the visitor experience and preservation. Sometimes we’re needing to think about expanding a footprint of a developed area, but doing it in a way that will have minimal impacts, both to cultural and natural resources.”
Mount Rushmore Facilities Improvements ProjectNOCA Stehekin Fire Facilities
Notable projects Chad and his team have been working on include facilities improvements and renovations at the Mount Rushmore National Memorial, campground rehabilitation at Yosemite National Park, and new wildland fire facilities in North Cascades National Park. Chad cites the Yosemite campground project as a prime example of balancing the user experience with the need to preserve and protect the environment. “This was a 300-unit historic campground that was very tired and in need of a lot of updates. We provided the design for the campground renovation, which included updating the amenities at each campsite, as well relocating twenty of the campsites away from a sensitive river corridor and building a new access road to those sites,” Chad explains.
Chad is also spearheading projects in coordination with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, The US Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management. He sums up working with the NPS and other federal agencies as a process of finding creative solutions to challenging problems and doing it in a way that everyone feels heard and understood. “We are often working with teams from multiple departments—from cultural interpreters and rangers to operations, maintenance, and law enforcement—and they all come with a different perspective and a different area of focus. They all need to be heard and they all need to feel the solution we’re coming up with meets their needs and expectations.” He adds that “it can be challenging at times, but we’ve become very good at putting all the pieces together, balancing all the different demanding needs, finding solutions and getting them implemented.”
Looking to the future, Chad and the rest of the team are most excited about theGreat American Outdoors Act. Passed in 2020, the Act provides critical funding to address the significantmaintenance backlog of deteriorating facilities within the National Park Service as well as other federal land management agencies. “There’s going to be a lot of work for us to help the NPS implement projects, and it will be a lasting legacy for the next 50 to 100 years and we get to be part of it,” Chad says enthusiastically.
DuBois Park is a mature residential neighborhood filled with single-family homes that date between the 1950s and 1970s. The neighborhood was named for the 3.5 acre DuBois Park that is an integral part of the community. The City of Vancouver Parks and Recreation Department, as part of its Master Plan, identified the need to renovate the park for safer and better use by the residents. In early 2019, the City contracted with Otak to participate in the public engagement sessions to gain insight into priorities for the residents and then to design the park, and oversee construction.
David Haynes took on the dual role of landscape architect and project manager and said while he worked closely with the project manager for the City, Otak was given free rein for the design. “We were very cognizant that the ideas we developed needed to work with the City’s long-term maintenance capabilities,” David said.
Otak and the City hosted two public meetings as open houses at the park site. The City and Otak’s project managers co-led the events with the City discussing background processes and funding sources, while David introduced design concepts and implementation. The first meeting was to gather ideas from the residents and the second was to show them the design concepts that came out of the meeting. “We developed options of how the park could be laid out and talked about the pros and cons of each. Residents chose to mix and match different aspects that they were shown and we put those results into a final plan,” David said.
David added that Otak was committed to addressing comments and concerns, which, in one case, resulted in setting the basketball court a couple of feet below the surrounding grade to help attenuate the noise of bouncing basketballs.
In the final version, Otak designed an improved playground, a loop trail around the perimeter of the park, an irrigation system to feed the new lawn areas, and a trellis as a gateway attraction. One distinctive feature is an embankment around the swingsets consisting of large boulders that kids can climb over. “The City project manager relied on us to select and place boulders. He was uncertain about how it would come together but was pleased with the result,” David said.
The Otak team has a fondness for park projects because they are viewed as foundational to a strong community and allow for plenty of creativity that a design team relishes. “That’s what planning and design are about—creating neighborhoods that people enjoy living in. Park projects are powerful in creating a sense of community,” David reflected.
The park had a soft opening in December 2020 and there are plans for an official ribbon-cutting this spring.
A 11.5-mile trail corridor, the St. Vrain Greenway extends from North 75th Street to Weld County Road 7 in Longmont, Colorado. The initial design included six pedestrian bridges along with trail segments adjacent to these bridges, beneath the existing vehicular bridge at Main Street (State Highway 119), and other segments where slopes or site grading was critical.
Extending a Trail Corridor While Minimizing Impact to Habitat
The initial 9.5-mile trail was followed by a two-mile segment of path designed through a riparian corridor and included a 140-foot span pedestrian bridge over St. Vrain Creek while designing for erosion control beneath the existing SH 119 bridge. Ramp connections to bike lanes along the highway, modification to an existing field access bridge, and a new pedestrian underpass structure at 119th Street and East County Line Road were also included as part of the complete St. Vrain Greenway design. Spanning from 25 to 140 feet in crossing St. Vrain Creek, Lefthand Creek, Old Dry Creek, and the Bonus Ditch, the pedestrian bridges used break-away bridge designs – from Design Concepts – in order to reduce construction costs and minimize site impacts. Several alternative path alignments were considered in the conceptual design phase to minimizing impacts to wetlands, wildlife habitat, nesting bald eagles, and other sensitive areas. Otak was involved throughout the project’s phases, from subconsultant on landscape architecture for the six pedestrian bridges to prime for the St. Vrain Greenway path design.
This past summer saw a rise in the awareness of and action towards racial justice as streets filled with Black Lives Matter protestors, recognition was raised on events such as Juneteenth and the country began the long struggle to take action against decades of what is perceived as systemic racism.
The Otak staff has embraced the need for change in various ways. Landscape architect and planner Ann Nguyen from our Denver, Colorado office, participated in the inaugural Ride for Racial Justice created by two long-time cyclists who believe a bicycle represents freedom and that everyone has the right to feel safe, free, and empowered to ride.
As a minority and avid bicyclist, Ann saw an opportunity to join a cause that shares her passion for working in communities to achieve deep-rooted and sustainable transformation. Ann has been working to understand and communicate the gap between minority and majority cultures. “We all carry multiple identities and race has very little to do with who we actually are,” she said.
Ann rode in the City of Denver with about 150 other people on a 10-mile loop to build community while bringing recognition to the issue of racial justice. On other fronts, the group is working to encourage BIPOC cyclists and coaches to become leaders and mentors cyclists under the banner Tomorrow’s Cycling World. They are also using programming and partnerships to help those that need bikes, gear, and even safe riding education get access.
Ann has continued her support for the goals of Ride for Racial Justice, by signing onto the RIDE (Respect, Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity) Advisory Board with Bicycle Colorado. Along with championing the cause in her community, she is also hoping to encourage more representation from her colleagues at Otak.
The passion for building community awareness, along with providing safer streets, is something Ann takes to her work as well. Having been car-free for more than a decade she works to provide safer streets, as she did recently working with the Denver Department of Transportation & Infrastructure to establish transportation priorities for a safer main street in the La Alma Lincoln Park Neighborhood and Art District. She also leads public interest-based projects that create accessible design solutions for open spaces like her work with Denver Streetscape Partnership to design patio expansions as a solution for small businesses to comply with COVID-19 indoor gathering restrictions. “I understand that bringing equity through design instigates positive change and uplifts marginalized communities when it is deeply rooted in the stories of people and place,” she said.
The Organic Act requires the National Park Service (NPS) to provide for the enjoyment of current and future generations. The NPS Social Science Program supports research to gain an understanding of dimensions of enjoyment and public appreciation through the study of humans and their interactions with NPS services, sites and facilities. An interdisciplinary team led by Otak, Inc. was recently awarded a nationwide contract with the NPS Social Science Program to provide visitor surveys, visitor use and transportation studies, and other socioeconomic research and analytic task orders that will assist parks with ongoing planning and management to serve visitors’ needs. With key partners RRC Associates of Boulder, CO, and the Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research (ITRR) in the College of Forestry and Conservation at the University of Montana, along with multiple other subcontracting partners, the team will be on-call to the NPS for the next five years to a maximum contract level of $40 million.
“Our team is honored and excited to be selected to support the NPS in its ongoing mission to preserve the natural and cultural resources and values of the national park system for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations,” said Mandi Roberts. Mandi will serve as the overall contract manager for the team, and she brings a strong commitment to stewardship and supporting America’s treasured National Park System, with more than 20 years of working with the NPS on a wide variety of task orders across the US. “One of our first assignments under this new contract will be conducting a visitor survey for Zion National Park, where I have worked on previous transportation-related studies. Zion continues to experience heavy visitor use, particularly related to the popular shuttle through Zion Canyon. The results of the visitor survey work at Zion will help inform core issues of visitor use management, management solutions, and to develop a current and deeper understanding of who visits Zion National Park, what they do during their visit, and their spending profile.”
Otak, RRC, ITRR and our other team members bring unique qualifications and strengths including management of NPS task orders and completion of tourism and recreation research across the country for decades. According to Jeremy Sage, ITRR Associate Director, “This contract is an opportunity to assist the NPS with a variety of issues, such as addressing crowding and congestion to improve visitor experience and access; helping to identify staffing needs and management strategies; and quantifying the positive economic impacts the parks have on local economies. We are excited to work with this stellar team to bring new and creative research methods and analyses.”
These creative approaches will be applied for task orders under a variety of project types:
Understanding in-park visitor use to allow land managers to make better decisions on visitor experiences and the protection of resources.
Investigating personnel and partner studies of internal agency and department issues from federal staff comprised within and with partners.
Assessing regional economic impact and economic welfare studies that include cost/benefit and regulatory flexibility analyses, willingness to pay and visitor spending profile estimates.
Studying recreation, transportation and carrying capacity issues including visitor movement, travel pattern studies, visitor use level estimation and evaluations of conditions with how they change over time and under various use levels.
Conducting non-visitor studies to look at visitor displacement and awareness of people in gateway communities and regional stakeholders, and studies of potential future visitors to assist in future management decisions.
The trio of Otak, RRC, and ITRR worked together on a large visitor study to better understand the visitor experience given varying congestion levels at sites in Yellowstone National Park. “Our unique approach in Yellowstone of using geofence technology to better understand the visitor experience in real-time provided managers with broad decision-making capabilities not possible in past research. We’re thrilled to be able to continue assisting NPS units across the country protect their vital resources and continue providing high-quality experiences through innovative research.” said Jake Jorgenson, Lead Analyst of RRC Associates.“The NPS is excited to work with this extensive team of subject matter experts to inform the variety of socioeconomic and natural resource data and analytic needs for our parks and programs. This contract will significantly contribute to data-driven decision making across the bureau,” said Bret Meldrum, NPS Social Science Program Chief.
The five-year contract will be served through a collaborative approach between Otak, RRC, and ITRR, as well as team members around the country that include academic partners who lead research at the University of Montana’s College of Business, Department of Mathematics, and the W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation and other academic researchers from Utah State University, Oregon State University, University of Colorado, Kansas State University, University of Florida, University of Georgia, University of Maine, and Virginia Polytechnic University. Collaborative business partners nationwide include Bioeconomics and Global Parks Solutions both from Missoula, MT; NatureWerks, LLC from Minneapolis, MN; Agnew: Beck Consulting from Anchorage, AK; EPS from Oakland, CA; Fehr & Peers from offices throughout the US; New Line Consulting from Gallatin Gateway, MT; Evermost from Kirkland, WA; Industrial Economics from Cambridge, MA; Kirk Value Planners from Goodyear, AZ; OmniTrak Group from Honolulu, HA; NeoTreks from Castle Rock, CO; and L2 Data Collection from Boise, ID and Salt Lake City, UT.
For Otak, the NPS is a cornerstone client. “The culture and values of the NPS and those of our firm are closely aligned,” said Chad Weiser, Otak’s Federal Practice Leader, “through a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach, we analyze, plan, and design the best solutions for each unique park setting. Our teams focus on being thorough, diligent, and responsive in serving the needs of the NPS, whether for research and studies or for design and construction.”
Image Credits:
Image 1: Yellowstone Geyser/US National Park Service
Image 2: Yellowstone Geyser/Neal Herbert for the US National Park Service
Header: Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial/Rachel Hendrix for the US National Park Service
Times are challenging as we all face the impacts of COVID-19. But as our day to day lives have been disrupted, mother nature continues on unabated. Flowers have come up, migrating birds have returned, and temperatures are rising.
In recognition of all that nature provides, Earth Day is celebrated throughout April. While this year there won’t be group events as we practice social distancing, Otak is still taking this time to celebrate the great outdoors.
Otak has again signed on as a business partner for Earth Day Oregon to recognize, support and celebrate our planet and those organizations that work hard every day for our natural world. Through Earth Day Oregon, Otak donated to Depave, a nonprofit that works to turn paved spaces into greenspaces to create more livable cities. We understand the environmental and social benefits greenspace can have and gladly stand behind and have volunteered for the many projects Depave has undertaken to green the landscape of Portland. We look forward to working together with Depave on its next project.
On the homefront, Otak’s GO Committee and Operations Team remind us that Earth Day is really every day and there are things we can do in our daily lives to get back to nature.
Start a small garden. You can build raised beds in your yard, or simply pot some herbs and veggies to grow on your porch.
Bike and walk more. Do you live near your local grocery store? Consider if it is possible to walk or bike for your next trip to the store (while following proper PPE and social distancing guidelines). A win-win for getting outside and getting your essential errands done.
Start a home compost. Many of us are already doing this. Check-in with your local trash service to see if they offer compost pick up. If not and if space allows, you can start composting in your backyard by purchasing something like a “Bio Monster” or “Worm Factory” bin and use the compost for your garden.
Shop locally, eat seasonally. With stay-at-home orders in place during the opening weeks for farmers’ markets, your local market or farm might be offering pick-up or delivery!
Play Earth Day Bingo! Get the family involved in this great activity from the City of Kirkland.
Getting outside is one of the recommendations for keeping COVID-19 at bay, as well as a way to maintain your mental health. We want our employees to stay healthy so we encourage you to get out and show your love for the planet, on earth day and every day!
Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experience, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Start a home compost.