Integrating Habitats Lets Award Winners Share Their Thoughts

Via Daily Journal of Commerce Oregon:

‘Webisodes’ reveal what designers were thinking when crafting entries for Oregon’s Integrating Habitats competition

When Jason King heard about Metro’s Integrating Habitats international competition last year, he didn’t hesitate to begin forming a team.

“It was an easy decision to do this competition, because this is something we do every day,” said King, a landscape architect with Portland’s GreenWorks PC.

The Metro competition asked multidisciplinary teams to design developments in one of three scenarios – integrating the developments into existing waterways, trees and wildlife habitats. The competition included teams of architects, landscape architects, urban planners and biologists.

For King, whose team came up with a plan called Urban Ecotones, the submission was an extension of design ideas he has applied over the years. His team, which included designer Brett Milligan, tackled the issue of locating a home improvement store, garden center, cafe and other development around an existing wetlands and riparian forest.

For their work, the GreenWorks PC team earned first place in the Commercial Development and Lowland Hardwood Forest Habitat category and received a people’s choice award – making it the only entry to win in two categories.

Metro, which announced the juried winners earlier this year, recently began announcing the winners of the people’s choice awards. Those winners are posted on Metro’s Integrating Habitats Web site, accompanied by a three- to four-minute video featuring design insights from winning teams and reactions from locals, as well as comments from Metro councilors.

Metro compiled the people’s choice award winners in May, but decided to announce them over a period of several weeks to maintain suspense, according to Stacey Triplett of Metro… continue at Daily Journal of Commerce Oregon

Learn more about this competition, its winners, and thoughts behind their entries here.