Landscape Architecture Archives - Page 4 of 7

Hillcrest Orchard Commercial District Design Manual

Across nearly 60 acres of land in Southern Oregon, a design guideline manual for its development was established to provide clear and consistent direction regarding architectural and site design elements. In setting these requirements for three commercial developments in the Hillcrest District, the Otak team placed an emphasis on ensuring that buildings developed contribute to high-quality public spaces and vibrant town center.

Historically-Inspired Design Guidelines to Develop a Vibrant Town Center

With historic properties featuring pear orchards that define the past of the Hillcrest Orchard area, those same elements provided inspiration on aesthetic guidelines aimed at a modern interpretation for its future. The Commercial Design Manual is outlined with the intention to create a pleasant and memorable experience that attracts people to the area while encouraging them to shop, dine, visit with friends and family, and ultimately return in the future. These standards and guidelines aim to enhance the district’s unique character and elevate the overall quality of design. By incorporating elements from both regional traditions and contemporary styles, specifically the Cascadian and Modern Farm styles, the goal is to establish a cohesive design image that reflects the aspirations and vision of the Hillcrest District while creating a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly commercial district. The design requirements of this manual take into consideration local architectural precedents, historic site uses and character, and local building preferences and materiality.

Sound Transit’s Transit-Oriented Development Toolkit

The Sound Transit, Transportation-Oriented Development (TOD) Toolkit is a comprehensive resource designed to support the creation of multimodal, mixed-use communities centered around expanding public transit in Northwest Washington. Developed to encourage transit ridership, strengthen community vitality, and support economic growth, the Toolkit provides clear policies and regulatory guidance for comprehensive planning in local jurisdictions along the Everett Link Extension light rail corridor. In developing this document, Otak worked alongside Kimley-Horn, Mithun, and EnviroIssues to align community priorities with practical strategies, ensuring recommendations reflected both local values and real‑world feasibility.

Planning and Design Guidance for Growing Transit-Oriented Communities

Adding fast, reliable light rail and bus rapid transit in the region, plans for the Everett Link Extension by Sound Transit and Community Transit would also create opportunities for growth of vibrant communities near transit stations. The TOD Toolkit (see here) includes guidance on urban design and placekeeping, land use and built form, multimodal streets, as well as resilient infrastructure and green buildings. It goes on to cover implementing regulations around those areas that can be integrated into local codes. Multiple workshops with the Model Code Partnership—a collective of representatives from Sound Transit, Snohomish County, City of Everett, City of Lynnwood, Puget Sound Regional Council, and other supporters—were facilitated to create consensus across community stakeholders. The toolkit is heavily illustrated and presents best practices, recommendations, potential policies, design concepts, and regulatory language to be considered for local adoption. From urban design and land use, to stormwater infrastructure and affordable housing, the Toolkit establishes a vision for placemaking and placekeeping while providing regulatory language for effective implementation and local adoption. Design concepts illustrate a variety of approaches for maximizing the value of new spaces while creating cohesive environments. Altogether, the toolkit supports continued smart growth and infrastructure investments, enhanced community vitality and health, and strengthened multimodal connections.

Wecoma Place

An affordable housing community takes shape in Lincoln City, Oregon. In designing Wecoma Place, Otak drew inspiration from the site’s surroundings to emulate the enduring nature of the Oregon coast.

Affordable Housing Designed for a Displaced Community

Wecoma Place is comprised of three masses that resemble the large geomorphic shapes along the beach. The various patterns in the siding battens represent the wind-swept grasses found along the coastal landscape. The 44-unit building provides a place to live for residents of Lincoln County displaced by The Echo Mountain Fire in 2020. The units are designed to maximize natural light in the coastal environment and the building is oriented around a courtyard that provides space to recreate and acts as a buffer between the building and Highway 101.

Elizabeth Austin Playground

Focused on a fully inclusive design, Elizabeth Austin Playground incorporated extensive community input to establish final features and playground equipment as part of broader master planning for improvements to Fruit Valley Park. The Otak team (in partnership with Learning Landscapes) led public outreach along with master planning, construction documents, and permitting services to develop this public space designed to celebrate the natural beauty and habitat found in the Vancouver lowlands.

Planning an Accessibility-Focused Public Asset, Based on Extensive Community Input

Made possible by a $1 million donation by the Kuni Foundation, plans for Fruit Valley Park added the playground, named after Elizabeth Austin to honor her legacy as a leader and mother in the community. With features based on community input, the playground embodies a design theme of “Play Like a Bird.” While most playgrounds incorporate basic ramps and a few wheelchair-accessible play options, those accommodations only address some mobility disabilities making inclusive play spaces a priority for Vancouver Parks, Recreation & Cultural Services. An emphasis on inclusive play equipment, from ADA-approved poured in place rubber surfacing to fencing that supports the safety of children with specific developmental and neurodiverse needs, as well as bird sculptures and houses, altogether highlight the design theme. A rope climber, we-go-round spinner, zipline, water play area, play mounds, slide, and bell and drum musical instruments are among the specially-designed inclusive equipment. New bike racks, benches and picnic tables also improve the park’s utility while a planting area enhances its natural setting. In addition to making the park more inviting for people with disabilities, inclusive play environments also encourage strong physical, mental and social development in children who do not experience disability.

Arlington Comprehensive Plan

With an overarching mission to represent itself as a regional example of innovation, progression, and resourcefulness, the City of Arlington’s Comprehensive Plan establishes newly-defined subareas as well as goals and policies for each planning element. Guided by Otak, the comprehensive planning process sets the stage for decades of development and provides goals and policies that will help the community sustain a strong quality of life amid growth and ever-changing conditions.

Establishing Adaptable Goals for Growth Designed to Meet Future Conditions

The long range plan titled, “Arlington in Motion,” is designed to chart a course for Arlington, Washington decades into the future. The plan is built on five foundational principles designed to support the community as it adapts to ongoing changes related to growth and population, environment, economics, technology, and governance. These foundational principles place an emphasis on equal access to opportunity, neighborhood connectivity, climate resilience, stable employment, and community health, all framed around accentuating the city’s beautiful natural setting between the Stillaguamish River and Cascade Mountains. With fourteen established subareas, an in-depth analysis of existing conditions and missing gaps were used to identify needed improvements and goals for each area. Informed with data detailing various socioeconomic factors as well as historical and forecasted growth in population, the plan also outlines steps for monitoring—with goals, policies, implementation strategies, and projects that will take Arlington toward a strong future and through transparent process for implementation with the public.

Danah Palik Earns SITES Accreditation

Thanks to Otak’s GO (Green Otak) Committee, we’re able to empower our staff to live their values of sustainability every day. It follows that when team members advance their credentials in the sustainability space, we should give them the attention they deserve.

One of these employees is Danah Palik, landscape architect, who recently earned her SITES AP, or Sustainable Sites Initiative Accredited Professional certification.

Danah joined Otak in 2018. A dedicated member of our planning and landscape design team, her experience on city and outdoor park projects for NPS has made her indispensable. After half a year’s effort to get this certification, she passed the exam in December of 2022 and was eager to talk to us about what SITES enables.

But just what is SITES? And what does it mean?

According to the Sustainable Sites Initiative, the SITES AP establishes a common framework to define the profession of sustainable landscape design and development. It provides landscape professionals with the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge, expertise, and commitment to the practice of sustainable design.

Those seeking to get the accreditation must meet existing requirements and pass an exam that demonstrates not only their knowledge, but their pledge to sustainable land development.

Danah has certainly demonstrated that commitment. When asked why she wanted the certification in the first place, she said, “I wanted to improve my knowledge base of sustainable land use practices. Not every project emphasizes sustainability in this way, but having SITES in my background enables me to bring that knowledge to the job site whether it’s emphasized or not.”

Communicating the value of this to clients comes down to user experience. When people actually use a site that has been engineered to be sustainable (both during the project and after completion), PM’s save time, money, and materials by integrating a SITES framework.

When asked how sustainable projects should be in the future, Danah doubles down, “I constantly think about how sustainable practices can be best used in every step of project delivery. I’d like to see a project take that on from the outset, integrate it into its entire lifecycle, and conduct more post-occupancy evaluations to continue to stay in tune with the site. SITES has helped me look at every project this way.”

Congratulations Danah on this achievement! To learn more about our firm-wide commitment to sustainability, check out Otak’s sustainability page.

Hess Creek Preserve

Creating more than 50 acres of natural habitat and public space, the restoration of Hess Creek Preserve protects the community from failing infrastructure while balancing human recreation with ecological health. Removal of two dams and invasive species combined with the addition of two bridges, unique earth art features, and a looped trail system are part of this Otak designed and managed project that celebrates the restored stream corridor.

Restoring a Natural Area that Blends Art, Ecology, and Education

Hess Creek is a tributary of the Willamette River that drains runoff from the slopes of the Chehalem Mountains. For the community of Newberg, Oregon, two small dams on the waterway presented an ongoing liability for property owners with the potential for failure. Plans to remove the dams and develop a publicly accessible park and natural habitat in their place took shape. The channels would also be re-graded to activate the natural floodplain and improve resilience during storm events. The design includes a looped trail system, bridges, and earth-themed art and educational installations. Restoration work began with the removal of invasive species and revegetation across 36 acres of riparian forest and reestablishing 10 acres of oak savannah, a once common native planting in the Willamette Valley that is now rare due to urbanization. These improved areas will support habitat for a variety of local birds, mammals, and aquatic organisms. This rare combination of private land, public access, and multi-agency support results in a community asset that blends ecology, education, and recreation.

Middle Village / Station Camp Park

In November 1805, the Lewis and Clark Expedition reached a site along the lower Columbia River they named Station Camp. Located in current-day Washington state, the riverfront site was redesigned to become a National Park Unit of the broader Lewis and Clark National Historical Park.

A Historic Site with Tribal Heritage Designed to Benefit the Public

While the site carries significance to the Lewis and Clark Expedition, that event represents only a small part of its history as a long-time summer village of the Chinook Nation. Once an important trading site for tribes on the Columbia over the course of centuries, Middle Village / Station Camp Park is now designed to serve as an outdoor commemorative park and interpretive landscape with elements that tell the important story of the location. After an unintended archeological discovery at the site, revised plans moved forward in meeting the broader vision of promoting the region’s rich history. The updated park master plan and final design plans for the site also address parking and pedestrian circulation, as well as low impact measures for stormwater facilities, earthwork, and wetland mitigation. Visitor orientation, accessibility, safety, and site connectivity were all included as important design considerations. In leading the design, Otak also developed the NEPA Environmental Assessment and worked closely with representatives from the Chinook Indian Nation and other tribes throughout the course of the project.

Don Hanson’s Retirement: A Lasting Legacy in Landscape, Planning and Design

Posted on September 29, 2022June 10, 2025 by OTAK Team

Community impact, quality design, and a lasting legacy—all of these are phrases that describe the work of Don Hanson, senior advisor of our planning and landscape architecture division, who has announced his well-deserved retirement. It’s a bittersweet day at Otak, however, we are taking this opportunity to reflect on and commend Don’s work throughout his illustrious career.

A Certified Expert

For the past 37 years at Otak, Don has become a lauded expert in residential, mixed-use commercial, and industrial development work. He also has extensive project experience with public parks/recreation, open space, and streetscape improvements. Greater still, Don served as chairman of the Portland Planning and Sustainability Commission and was a member of the commission for 10 years, setting development and land use policies for the entire Portland Metro Area.

To say Don’s career has been impactful would be an understatement. Though it’s hard to pick just one of the many projects he’s worked on, we’re zooming in on a few key projects that highlight Don’s legacy both at Otak and in our greater community:

The Project Breakdown

Center Commons—Portland, OR

Don’s Role: Serving as the Principal Planner, this project involved the preparation of a master plan and highly detailed site design, as well as a land use approval process coupled with public involvement.
Project Highlights
- This work is regarded by TriMet, the Portland Development Commission, and the neighborhood as a model for transit-oriented development and in-fill development in Portland’s station area districts.
- The project includes 314 units of housing at both market and affordable rates, housing for seniors, as well as for-sale townhomes. Retail space, a daycare center, and management offices are also provided.
- The focal point for Center Commons is a “woonerf” space that congregates cars, pedestrians, a playground, a bosque of trees, parking, drop-off zones, and generous sidewalks that provide shortcuts to transit. The development is located adjacent to the 60th and Glisan station of the MAX LRT line.

View the Center Commons Project

Columbia Knoll—Portland, OR

Don’s Role: As the Principal Planner/Landscape Architect for this project, Columbia Knoll is a mixed-income redevelopment project located on the ten-acre historic Shriners Hospital site in northeast Portland.
Project Highlights
- The redevelopment includes affordable senior independent and congregate housing, as well as affordable family housing, a day-care facility, a community center, and market rate-for-sale townhomes.
- The 334 housing units are configured in two, three, and four-story structures that 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, and an extensive public outreach program with five neighborhood associations. We also worked closely with the NE coalition of neighborhoods throughout the process.

View the Columbia Knoll Project

Villebois—Wilsonville, OR

Don’s Role: Serving as both Principal and Master Planner, this project is in the countryside west of Wilsonville.
Project Highlights
- Villebois is a spectacular 480-acre site where residential neighborhoods include forests, open spaces, ponds, walking trails, and magnificent vistas. Working in close coordination with the master planner and the City of Wilsonville, Don oversaw the design of a cohesive street and site network that encompasses 135 acres of single-family residences, parks, and open spaces, while preserving the natural features of the site.
- Individual projects within Villebois include residential subdivision developments, engineering of public roads and private alleys, utility infrastructure design, water quality and detention ponds, and enhancement and creation of wetlands. Final design elements include greenways, trails, neighborhood and regional parks, a future community swim center, and entry monuments.

View the Villebois Project

Involvement and Affiliations

Not only has Don’s skill set had an indelible impact on Otak’s project work, his involvement and community affiliations outside of work set him apart as a luminary in the field and his extensive resume reflects that. Some of the groups Don was a part of, and even led, include:

Portland Planning and Sustainability Commission, Past Chair and Former Member
Urban Land Institute (ULI)
Former Development Review Advisory Committee: City of Portland
Former Citizen Advisory Committee Member reviewing the Title 34 Land Development Ordinance: Portland, Oregon
Former Stakeholder Advisory Group Member for Vision 2000: Portland, Oregon
Committee Member reviewing the Urban Renewal Districts Status: Portland, Oregon
Former Downtown Design Review Board Member: Vancouver, WA

Passing the Torch

With a dedicated planning & landscape architecture team now led by staff like our own David Sacamano, Business Unit Leader for our Oregon and Southwest Washington Planning and Landscape Architecture team, Otak will continue to deliver on dynamic projects in Don’s spirit and bring not only our whole selves, but also our expertise to projects in the future. It’s a practice that Don ensured was integral to Otak’s success, and it will continue to be so in our future operations.

Take a closer look at how we celebrated Don’s legacy as an Otakian in this digital booklet and join us in bidding a fond farewell to Don as he begins this well-deserved new chapter.

Thank you, Don—you’ve made Otak a better place.

Take a quick peek at Don’s career below:

Columbia Knoll

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.