taking the long way

most wonderful time of the year

the annual holiday card is finished...
just in the st. nick of time!
have a joyful, reflective and festive holiday!

p.s. click on the image below to view it in full.

a light has gone out

Jeanne-Claude (1935-2009)

a world of trees

An awe inspiring Sequoiadendron giganteum grove at the Hoyt Arboretum which rhythmically swayed back and forth in the wind this morning. Like a pendulum it calmed my soul and has the power to do that for everyone who walks through this forest cathedral.

What a Portland treasure. Walk its trails and explore its collections - the conifers in particular, which perfectly fit the tenor of the season - both its holiday celebrations and its moody stormy days.

lawrence halprin

I just found out that Lawrence Halprin died this morning at 8:30 a.m. Coincidentally, I spent yesterday in the parks he designed in Portland which changed the direction of modern landscape architecture. I had no idea this morning when I posted photographs of those parks that he had just passed. The news organizations haven't picked up the story yet, but I hope they capture the influence he had on public spaces and in turn our shared culture. Without him, public open space as we know it would not exist as it does.

pettygrove park

Pettygrove is the second of four parks designed by Lawrence Halprin as part of the Portland Sequence. This park is often forgotten since it's design was less revolutionary than either Forecourt Fountain or Lovejoy Fountain, two of the other parks in the sequence. However, this park has the most ties to the Northwest and the history of park design. Local basalt, deposited here during one of many lava flows that spanned the region thousands of years ago, is crafted into low stone walls which are modeled after those found along the historic Columbia River Gorge Highway. The park's miniature pastoral design recalls the work of Frederick Law Olmsted, especially his design for Central Park. My favorite design feature stems from how the linear elements play off each other - the silver 60s era light standards against the warm brown bark of the shade trees.

day and night

(love the shadows of the pine trees reflected in the fountain's waterfall)

(love this image's depth - from the leaves in the bottom left corner over the top of the fountain's sculptural forms to the distant pine trees)


I'm working on a National Historic Landmark nomination for the Portland Sequence, landscape architect Lawrence Halprin's ground-breaking design for public spaces in Portland. The sequence includes four public parks linked by walkways that were designed to span one of Portland's late 1960s urban renewal projects. While similar urban renewal projects failed in other parts of the country, Portland's has been deemed successful, in many ways because of Halprin's parks.

Forecourt Fountain, the most visible of the four public parks, is turning 40 next year (just like me). While many parks of this era are dated, Forecourt Fountain (also known as Ira Keller Fountain for the man whose vision and political power was at the root of this urban renewal area) remains both modern and relevant. Though many of the forms and concepts are purely born of the late 60s and early 70s, they are also classic enough to transcend time and design fads. Added to that the park is both functional - serving as a place of respite on cooler days and a much needed wading pool on blistering hot days, and beautiful - a sculptural centerpiece both for both day and night.

minidoka internment camp

remnants of the entry garden designed and built by the internees in view of the guard station

former warehouse which will be rehabilitated to serve as the site's visitor center

from here you would have been able to see hundreds of barracks spanning the landscape towards the horizon

one of the barracks blocks - block 22 - covered this field. each block consisted of 12 barracks buildings, one mess hall and two bathroom buildings

remains of the root cellar which was built by the internees to store the vegetables they grew, which contributed to the fact that the internment camp was completely sustainable by 1944

silver creek campground

I loved summer camp as a kid and started going away for at least a week each summer when I was 7 or 8. The trend continued though high school when I spent my summers as a camp counselor. I loved packing my duffle, grabbing my favorite pillow and sleeping bag and heading on the bus with my best friends to a place in the woods or on the Oregon coast. I loved singing camp songs and performing skits, playing capture the flag, hearing reveille wake us up, and taps before we fell asleep. I loved campfires and s'mores and bells that signaled it was meal time. Not to mention making sand candles and plaster masks, hiking and canoeing, and sleeping in rustic cabins.

So why all the nostalgia?! Well I discovered a beautiful 1930s era summer camp in Silver Falls State Park that brought all those memories back. The rustic cabins and lodges were built during the last economic downturn by the Civilian Conservation Corps as part of FDR's New Deal. The workmanship of these places - the stone work and wood work in particular, is incredible. Not only did building these places help turn our economy around, but thousands, probably millions of kids have been able to enjoy the fruits of their hard labor for decades. I'm thinking of getting a big group together there someday - maybe next year to celebrate my 40th.

sights and sounds of the oregon coast

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the ocean and sand

a thresher shark that recently washed up on shore

scary eyes and teeth

side trip

on my way back to portland from silver falls state park i made a few quick stops - to enjoy the architecture and peace at mt. angel abbey, to savor what's fresh from the fields at a produce stand, and to soak in the colors of saturated pink poppy fields.
mt. angel abbey

finnish architect alvar aalto's library at the mt. angel abbey

a pink sliver hovering above the wheat fields becomes

a sea of brightly hued poppies