Portland Oregon: The New Model of Urban Redevelopment

摘要

The reclamation of the Portland waterfront, as described by Matthew Jelaeic after his recent site visit there as Loeb Fellow, contains a history of the ecological movement in the us as well as an admirable scenario for brownfield development. Concern with the contaminated condition of the site dates back to the early 1970s, just a decade after Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. A regional viewpoint that allowed natural boundaries to supersede local political ones emerged several years later. The culture that developed from these early forays into environmental practice spawned the River District Plan, specifically the bold restriction of sprawl and the provision of housing for all income levels. In this, Portland is exemplary, as its placement as the first project in this issue attests. Yet the mandate of the essays that follow is to test its limits and question its parameters, as well as celebrate and encourage the proliferation of similar accomplishments.