This 18 mile light rail line extends commuter access between downtown Portland and downtown Hillsboro in the heart of Oregon's Silicon Forest through a twin-tube tunnel under Portland's thousand-foot-high west hills.
It was Oregon’s largest public works project at the time, and when the line opened in 1996, it set precedents in urban transit design, engineering, accessibility, collaboration that became a model for other surface rail systems in the United States and other countries.
It introduced the first low-floor light rail vehicles in the country specially designed for easy access with strollers, walkers, and wheelchairs.
And the initiative demonstrated a commitment to social and economic development through coalitions between TriMet and west side neighborhoods.
Tri-Met brought architects, artists, engineers and local citizens together as equal partners in a larger planning vision to shape the system in a way that reflected and enriched the character of the communities surrounding each of its 20 stations.
By adapting these designs block by block and station by station, an uncommon rapport developed between community and transit agency initiative resulting in a greater patronage response than previously achieved by comparable systems in America.
A sharp curve at the Civic Stadium station split a city block into westbound and eastbound platforms. The westbound platform was an awkward triangular shape exposed to the elements, so we fashioned a protected outdoor enclosure using the substation and communications buildings as walls, and we furnished the space with a bronze soapbox, tree stump and pedestal art objects supporting spontaneous oratory. On the eastbound platform spanning the length of a newspaper publishing building we fashioned seating in the shape of typographical characters.
Cobblestone paving, a rumble strip, and a unique rail grounding solution for preventing corrosion of underground pipes on Jefferson Street represented the fruits of diplomacy and collaboration. And the Goose Hollow Foothills League commemorated their contribution to the alignment planning process by commissioning a 4ft bronze sculpture of a Goose on the Salmon Station platform
The West Hills geology and rail tunneling process inspired designs for Washington Park station's surface plaza and underground platform 260ft below ground.
Awards
In addition to a prestigious Presidential Award for Design Excellence and a U.S. Department of Transportation award in 2000, this project collected a long list of honors. In 1999, the Washington Park Station received the Building Team Project of the Year Award from Building Design and Construction magazine. The award recognized the cooperative effort of team partners in designing the project. That same year, the American Public Transit Association presented the light rail project with a first place spot in the national Livable Communities Transit Design competition. The project also received design awards from the Portland Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the Consulting Engineers Council of Oregon and the Associated General Contractors.
Presidential Award for Design Excellence
Year 2000, National Endowment for the Arts - Clinton Administration
"This is a powerful model for other car-oriented cities, showing how well it can be done and how this new technology can be integrated."
Design for Transportation Honor Award
Year 2000, U.S. Department of Transportation
"This project compellingly illustrates what is possible when architects, artists, engineers and contractors, along with city officials, collaborate and aspire to the highest design standards."
Responsibilities
As an Architect and Landscape Architect in urban design with ZGF Architects, my involvement in this project began in the early planning phase with others analyzing, studying issues, and developing concepts for several rail alignments.
During the design phase, my focus shifted to the downtown Portland segment from the 11th Avenue turnaround on SW Morrison and Yamhill streets, to SW 18th Avenue and SW Jefferson Street to the tunnel. I was responsible for the design, project management, contract documents, and construction supervision of four streets, three stations, and the Lincoln High School fence.
Light rail stations, traffic circulation, street paving, lighting, furnishings, trolley wire suspension, and plantings honored the unique qualities of Yamhill, Morrison, 18th Avenue and Jefferson streets.
During the construction documents phase, my attention to detail and first-hand experience in construction resolved numerous engineering constraints, reduced system maintenance costs, turned artist concepts into meaningful public structures, preserved the values vocally expressed by the Goose Hollow neighborhood, and the enhanced transit patron experience.
When assigned responsibility for the architectural contract documents of the Washington Park Station, I contributed details that helped structures and furnishings resist heavy public use, theft, and graffiti.