Mayer/Reed Scope: Signage
Location: Salem, OR
Opened: July 1, 2013
Photographer: Ken Gutmaker
New Project Photos: Keizer Transit Center
Bud Clark Commons Receives 2013 National ASLA Award
The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) announced this week that Mayer/Reed won an Honor Award in Residential Design for its work on Bud Clark Commons. The society will present the award for the project to Mayer/Reed at its November annual meeting in Boston.
Bud Clark Commons is an urban mixed-use facility in Northwest Portland that offers comprehensive services to homeless persons. Mayer/Reed provided landscape architecture, urban design and visual communications services for the project, working closely with the project architects, Holst Architecture.
The ASLA awards program recognizes the best in the landscape architecture of public places, residential designs, campuses, parks and urban planning projects from across the United States and around the world. A jury composed of top practitioners and academicians from throughout North America selected this year’s honorees.
Bike Commute Challenge: Pumped Up
I love to ride my bike. I commute every day, I’ve raced for years (and won) and so for me and a core group at Mayer/Reed every month is Bike Commute Challenge month. That’s just how we roll. Sure, we do the official challenge, but I mainly use it as opportunity to send an unsolicited and over-the-top email about the virtues of cycling. That gentle reminder and a promise of cookies usually gets a few of the less inclined to pump up the old tires.
And so out march all of the bikes with their proud owners. Some of us have carbon fiber bikes, others ride electric bikes or bikes with warn-out knobby tires. Other bikes are retro classic racers and there is one much-beloved yard sale “gem.” All the different bikes at Mayer/Reed underscore the different personalities that play through the firm in a magically cohesive way.
Cycling is also a terrific way to see our city and region. I think it is the best way actually. Each of us at Mayer/Reed takes great personal pride in our work and cycling is a wonderful way to keep tabs our projects. This isn’t just during construction mind you—we are invested for the long haul. For this reason many of us find cycling is the best way to go. That is just how we roll.
“Think Like a Kid Again” AFO Dinner at the Portland Children’s Museum
On August 7, members of the community, Portland Children’s Museum and consulting/construction team gathered to “think like a kid again,” while raising money for the Architecture Foundation of Oregon (AFO). Mayer/Reed, Hennebery Eddy Architects and Andersen Construction hosted a picnic and hardhat tour of the new Outdoor Adventure underway at the museum. Sponsored as part of the Dinner with an Architect program, the event contributed to AFO’s mission to create awareness of our designed environments.
Mayer/Reed’s design for the Outdoor Adventure was inspired by Richard Louv’s book, Last Child in the Woods. It will reconnect children and their families with nature and learning through active, engaging, outdoor experiences. The wooded hillside will feature a rocky streambed, splash puddles, bridges, trails, sand pit, hide-outs, plant thickets and hut-building areas for kids to explore. Hennebery Eddy Architects’ timber shelter provides a flexible location for special events, camp-outs and art projects.
Thank you to the Portland Children’s Museum, donors and skilled craftsman working on behalf of the project. We look forward to its opening on Earth Day, 2014!