Albina Water Research Center
2020
University of Oregon
A center for water research and management in Portland, Oregon.
Featured in Dezeen Magazine
About the site
Just City, Just Future
The Albina Water Research center is located within a redesign proposal for Northeast Portland’s 240-acre Albina Neighborhood. What once was a vibrant residential neighborhood was demolished in the 20th century and replaced with several large-scale structures and large expanses of parking lots. The remaining site today consists of a smattering of buildings with no consistent scale, no greenspace, and no remaining housing. In collaboration with two other students, we proposed a design that re-incorporates both housing and greenspace, with a goal to breathe life back into the site.
Existing site
Our design features three different types of greenspace. First is the large civic quad, which lives in the center of the site and is framed by existing large-scale buildings -- the quad both matches the scale of these buildings and gives order to their pre-existing location within the site. The second type of greenspace is the green boulevard, which combines safe transportation strategies, clear connections through the site, and green infrastructure. The last type of greenspace is the smaller pocket of green within city blocks, each with their own unique character.
The building
The Albina Water Research Center is located within the Just City, Just Future urban design proposal. To the South, the AWRC is the bookend to the newly-designed civic quad and serves as a community gathering space. To the North of the building is an expansive constructed wetland that filters rain- and gray-water naturally on-site for reuse. The building itself holds the administrative offices for the Portland Water Bureau as well as a volunteer outreach center for a local river wildlife organization.
The dual-sided nature of the AWRC is integral to its design. It is equally accessible from both sides and engages with both the civic and residential zones; it marks the transition from two very different types of greenspace; and it holds two different organizations that monitor water quality from both a human consumption and a wildlife perspective.
Equally important as the dual-sided nature is the center’s focus on transparency, collaboration, and community involvement. The eastern half of this building is devoted to public meeting spaces and classrooms, so Portlanders have space to take part in the conversations about laws and standards that directly affect their health and wellbeing.
The building uses concrete construction and features a two-layer facade: the first being a curtain wall assembly, and the second being a series of stone-cladded vertical “fins.” The water immediately surrounding the building infiltrates the facade through these fins, blurring the boundaries between inside and out.
Spanning horizontally through the building is a solid core that bridges the two halves of the building together. In addition to creating visual cohesion through the building, it serves a practical use, as it is load-bearing and carries the plumbing, HVAC systems, service spaces, light wells, and insulation.
The constructed wetland
The constructed wetland has three roles:
Its main role is to filter water onsite. All rainwater runoff from the building as well as the civic quad to the South is channeled to this wetland to be filtered naturally by plants and micro-organisms; and gray-water from the AWRC’s faucets are also filtered here for reuse. The building itself plays a role in the process too: in the basement level is a filter for sifting out solids and debris.
Second, the wetland replaces the massive concrete parking lot that previously existed on this site and allows native plant and animal species to exist and thrive again.
Lastly, it is a public park space for visual enjoyment and improving air quality, which will benefit the residential communities that exist once again in this neighborhood.
