EWEB Board Unanimously Approves 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).