katmartenson

Schematic Site Design

10/29/2009

 
Picture
panorama of civic drive stop
Tony, Kate and I worked together this past week to develop a conceptual site design.  Initially, when we first shared our impressions of the site, we had similar thoughts about our experience.  The natural landscape gave us a perception that the transit stop was in a valley sandwiched between a hill and trees.  While we all came to the same conclusion, our perception did not match the topography map sent to us by the city.  The incline of the hill was much less steep than we remembered and the housing development to the northwest is not as far a distance as we held in our memory.  That said; we found the disparity of the perception and the reality an interesting topic for exploration.  
The concept of carving the station out of the land led to the idea of the plaster model.  We wanted to create our concept as a group and use craft to express the nature of it.  The natural features inherent at the site are an usual feature along the MAX line.  Civic Drive is also a point along the line that can be seen as an entrance to and an exit from Gresham.  By making a bold gesture we were celebrating the existing landscape and creating a public amenity for the community.
The framework for the site is set and now our individual projects can explore how the natural landscape can inform and coalesce with the built environment.
Nancy Cheng link
10/29/2009 04:51:43 pm

Kat,

I really appreciate your group's strong analysis graphics. They have a nice clean aesthetic. I was curious about what your thinking is on image 4 where the ribbons twist as they cross and the red dots imply an exciting place to gather. The diagram seems to imply that the trains and cars pause for a relaxing smoke break and meander OR metaphorically the speed of rushing is interrupted for the pleasure of an aesthetic moment. Since the trains and the road can't tangle like that, it could mean that there are attractors in the station site that invite the pedestrians to meander and circle about (without getting hit by a train, of course!).

I think we were all attracted by the bold monumentality of the carving. The idea of carving could be expressed at a much more intimate level, through grottos within another kind of grand gesture. Perhaps we read the sleekness at the urban level and then as one approaches, it becomes clear that what appeared to be a continuous surface is intermittently syncopated, at some angles translucently screening human-scale bench nooks or plants.

Think about what you enjoyed about the act of carving and how it might be incorporated into an interaction piece at the station.

- Nancy


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