Visited the site twice, on Jan 17 and Jan 21. Both days are sunny, with no winds, as shown in the photos below. It is rarely uncommon in this season of Portland. But it’s nice for a site inventory.
Location
The map below shows the block I chose. North of it is N Graham St, while the south is N Knott St. And it is between Vancouver Ave and N Williams Ave in a west-east direction. Still have no idea where is it. Click the icon on the top-right corner and change the base map to Google Maps (hybrid), which could be helpful.
[mapsmarker marker=”1″]
The length of the site in the west-east direction is 108m (353 ft), and in north-south is 95m (308 ft). So the size of the site is about 1.03 hectares (2.54 acres). This equals approximately double the size of the universal block in downtown Portland. The north of the site is slightly higher then the south, observing with eyes, the elevation difference is about 1.5 meters (4.5 ft).
Current Land Use
As you have seen on the map, the site can be divided into two parts in general. The west part is a parking lot of Legacy Hospital, while the east part is an idle, wide lawn. According to the property records of portlandmaps.com, the owner of the whole block is Legacy Health System. Click the pictures below to read the description of every image.
Via these pictures, you could get a rough image of this site. In general, it remains a favorable natural status currently. It should be kept idle deliberately for the possible campus extension in the future, by its owner – Legacy Health System.
Surrounding Area
The surrounding area could help to define the context of the site. East of the site, along Williams Ave, there is one small office owned by an individual, two small vacant lands, and three nursing homes owned by Legacy Health System. At the intersection of Graham and Williams, there is a bus station, and lines 4, 24, and 44 would stop by here. Click the pictures below to see more details.
South of the site is the worst area. The view along Knott St towards the east is just fine. It looks as any normal low-density residential area. But in the section just below the site, only one side has sidewalk. Cars parks on the road vertically. The other side of the road is a messy parking lot surrounded by rude fences. Click the pictures below to see more details.
场地南侧是最糟糕的一侧。沿着Knott街往东看，景观还好，看上去和普通的低密度住宅区没什么区别。但场地南侧这段，只有一侧有人行道，有垂直于行车道的路边停车位，路对面是用简陋栅栏围着凌乱的停车场。（点图片看大图）
The site’s west and north sides are the Legacy Emanuel Hospital campus. The west side is a 3-story parking building, while the north is a 2-story medical office building. Both streets are covered by dense vegetation and are comfortable for pedestrians and bicyclists. Again, click the pictures to get more details.
In general, the site is near the east boundary of the Legacy Emanuel Hospital. It’s a transitional area between an institutional campus and a residential area. This factor will exert an important influence on the future development of this site.
Features
Besides the diversity of the vegetation, several other things give the site distinguishing characteristic. The first of them is the high, wooden telegraph pole. A small facility indicates the ecological notion of the community.
Textures
The textures found on the site can be divided into artificial and natural. The artificial textures include the cement road surface, sidewalk pavement, curbstone, etc. The natural textures are soils, grasses, climbing plants, trees, etc. Although strictly speaking, some natural textures are arranged deliberately, they don’t fail to give a real “natural” feeling. Furthermore, some natural factors would continuously seep into those textures.
Animals
I hoped I would bump into some squirrels during these two short visits, but I didn’t. The only animals I saw were birds, black-and-white birds.
我本希望可以看到松鼠之类的小动物，但去了两次都没看到。只有鸟，黑的鸟和白的鸟。
Summary
I like this site because of the natural feeling currently. Meanwhile, it is a transitional area between institutional campus and residential area, so its future is undecided. It could either be a big parking building again, as its neighbor blocks, or a mix-used institutional-residential area. No matter what function it would be, I’d like to keep the natural feeling and add more public factor into this site.
发表回复