EWEB Riverfront Master Plan

Following more than a year of public input and design development, the EWEB Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the Riverfront Master Plan at a meeting on Tuesday, June 1. Since May 2009, the design team led by Rowell Brokaw Architects has worked with the public and a nine-member Community Advisory Team to develop a plan that captures the community’s vision for the downtown riverfront. More than 1,000 people participated in this effort to plan a new future for the 27-acre site, and the resulting design establishes a unique place where people can experience an active, thriving, downtown neighborhood and a beautiful stretch of the Willamette at the same time.

Much of the riverfront property will be vacant when EWEB moves its operations to the Roosevelt Operations Center in November 2010, which makes the completion of this plan timely. The master plan creates 8 acres of new public open space along the riverfront, improves public access, requires sustainable design strategies, allows for the adaptive reuse of existing structures, and proposes numerous ways to teach about our river, our history and our city. With the Community Advisory Team’s counsel, a series of design guidelines and an ecological assessment were both completed to before finalizing the pedestrian-oriented plan. Thank you to all the members of the community who have participated in this effort! A final PDF of the master plan document will be available by June 15. A draft of the document is now available (but please excuse any typos).

Thank you to all the community members who braved the glorious sunshine and festive music to join us at last night's Open House. The registration table reported that just under 200 people participated in site tours and stopped by to view the final design proposal...which means that more than 1,000 people have directly participated in this project since our work began. Thank you again to every member of the community who has given time or energy to this project during the past two years. Rowell Brokaw Architects, EWEB, and the full design team deeply appreciate your enthusiasm and commitment to the work.

Images of a few of the presentation boards produced for the Open House are below. A single PDF of all eight posters is available under Project Documents.

The design team has continued to make refinements to the master plan since the March 3 public event. At that event, approximately 300 community members offered their thoughts and suggestions. So how has recent community input influenced the design? The attached PDF provides a written overview of how the plan has incorporated public input, new knowledge, and direction from the Community Advisory Team since March 3. We hope you'll join us on May 12 to review a draft of the full proposal. (Pre-register by submitting your name and email in the column on the left.)

Please join us at EWEB on May 12 from 5:00-7:00pm to celebrate the completion of the EWEB Riverfront Master Plan. The program for this event is still being developed, but site tours are planned and materials explaining the master plan will be available. We would like to thank everyone who has participated in this project, so please make plans to join us (and invite your friends!).

Please RSVP by emailing eweb@rowellbrokaw.com or submitting your name and email in the "REGISTER HERE" column on the right side of this page. Thank you!

This 70-page report includes an executive summary and key recommendations to enhance the ecological and human experiential values of the master plan. The report is written from a landscape ecology perspective and includes a summary assessment of the master plan in terms of five qualities related to the ecological value of a landscape: ecosystem function, habitat size, habitat quality, habitat connectivity, and management of ecological dynamism. Also included are recommended plant communities, innovative precedents, an overview of site history, context and floodplain complexity, and design and management strategies for the site. Written by Bart Johnson, Aryana Ferguson and Justin Simms with contributions from Bruce Newhouse and Rowell Brokaw Architects.