PROJECT: Zidell Yards in Portland

Image by ZGF Architects via The OregonianPlans to develop a 33-acre parcel owned by Zidell Marine Corporation is moving full speed ahead, according to the Oregonian. The Zidells hired ZGF Architects for the master plan, and also hired Landscape Architect Peter Walker, the designer of Jamison Square in the Pearl District and the recent recipient of the J.C. Nichols Prize for the Urban Land Institute, to design public space for the Zidell Yards property.

The land, described by the Oregonian as the “largest chunk of developable land in the city,” is mostly vacant, but Zidell and its developer ZRZ Realty Co. (the real estate company is managed by Zidell family member Matt French) has produced a master plan that would add 27 buildings and 3 to 3.5 million square feet of indoor space to the property, mostly comprised of residential properties with ground floor retail. The plan also calls for high-density office properties near the north end of the property, where the Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Bridge, which includes a pedestrian bridge, is currently under construction. An adjacent property at the same end of the property will see the addition of Oregon Health and Science University's new Collaborative Life Sciences building.

Zidell has owned the property since 1948, using the site to break down ships for scrap until 1960, when it transitioned to barge building operations. For a review of Zidell Yards' potential as a neighborhood, click here.

AWARD: Peter Walker Wins ULI's JC Nichols Prize

Courtesy of PWP Landscape ArchitectureThe Urban Land Institute has awarded Peter Walker with the J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development. Walker is the founder of PWP Landscape Architecture, a Berkeley-based firm that has designed such famous projects as the National September 11 Memorial, “Reflecting Absence;” Jamison Square Park in Portland; the Nasher Foundation Sculpture Garden in Dallas; the Sony Center in Berlin; Millennium Park in Sydney; and Constitution Gardens on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

In a written statement acknowledging the award, Walker describes his work’s attention to the public life of cities: “The thread that runs through all of my work is to make public space memorable, to make it the heart of the city…You have to make people aware of the space so that it sticks in their memory, and it is important to the community. It’s not enough to just have open space. It has to have character and uniqueness.”

Walker will be honored during ULI’s annual fall meeting October 16-19 in Denver. Click here for a video of Walker describing his work.