
We’ve walked south from yesterday’s location, along a boardwalk-style retail/restaurant row, and past a marina. I think of this part of the waterfront as The Strand Park, as the condo/restaurant complex located next to the park is
The Strand, designed by my (former) employer Ankrom Moisan Architects, but the park is actually called South Waterfront Park.

I remember first walking through this park on a visit to Portland with my mother, years before I moved here. I loved the multiple layers of grass and the patterns that they created. I don’t think many Portlanders actually spend time in this park. When I’ve been I only see people biking through on their way to somewhere else, or homeless people spending a few minutes relaxing in a deserted peaceful place.


The park is a wonderful grid of walkways and ponds within a sea of grass. I remember hearing once that Walker Macy, the Landscape Architects that designed the park, used the undulating grass forms to mirror the waves of the river. The repetitive grass plantings run down the bank to the rivers edge and include paths that allow for river access. The bridge in the background (below) is the Marquam Bridge, I-5 as it crosses over the Willamette through downtown Portland.

Andrew would probably rather I wasn’t sharing this picture with the world but it shows the mix of hard-scape and grasses well. Plus I get to show off Lila; Andrew was trying to get her interested in the fish in the pond, but no luck.



They planted a lot of Sea Oats. They look so graceful here, I am starting to rethink the plant that I currently have in a pot, and it may need to go into the ground again.

This is perhaps the healthiest Euphorbia I have ever seen. I wish mine looked like this.

This bloom looks like a Witch Hazel but I thought they bloomed in the winter months, before the tree leafs out. What gives?