Thursday, September 13, 2012

A look at the garden around the Oregon State Convention Center…

While parking on the first day of the recent Farwest Show I got to thinking about my visits to the Oregon State Convention Center (OCC). For me the OCC building is all about plants…every year I can count on being there in February for the Yard, Garden & Patio Show…and in August for the Farwest Show. I know every year hundreds of conventions having nothing whatsoever to do with plants take place there, but for me this building holds just one thing…the excitement of PLANTS! This time I decided to take a look at the ones outside too...


I’ve walked by this display at the NW corner of the convention center property many times, however this was the first time I walked completely around it and read the signs. This host log was pulled from the Bull Run watershed in 1991 and arrived at the OCC “with a mix of micro-organisms, fungi, and plants attached to the decaying biomass of an old growth Douglas Fir windfall…The nurse log is an urban metaphor for accommodation and collaboration. Perhaps at this location Host Analog will remain undisturbed for the thousand years required to complete the regenerative cycle”

Due to my former career I knew the grounds around the OCC building also held an award winning rain garden, one I doubt many residents of Portland even know exists. I set off to find it.

Because I seem to do everything in life just a little backwards I approached the garden from where it ends, rather than at the beginning. I also happened to visit a rain garden in the driest August Portland has experienced since 1998, with just a trace of rain falling here since July 20th (yes, you read that right, and we just ended our 51 day dry streak on Monday the 10th of Sept with all of .04" of rain). So it’s a dry rain garden, but still quite striking.

Imagine water rushing through there...

I bet it's beautiful.

There were great details, like here where the metal edging disappears into the concrete.

Here's one of the sources of  the water that feeds the rain garden. See the huge scupper towards the bottom of the side of the building, in the break between the trees? The roof run-off pours through and the garden comes alive. You can see several great images of the garden with actual water here, on the website of Mayer/Reed the Landscape Architecture firm behind this project.

And to give you an idea of just where the Convention Center is located, see the arrow in the photo below? That's I-5 as it travels through the heart of Portland (the east-side, not technically downtown I suppose).

Another of those details I love...

And another scupper, this one at the very start of the garden, where I should have begun this journey.

Okay back around at the front of the building it's time to head inside. First though I snapped a shot of one of the many (hundreds?) of roadside bioswales in Portland. Empty at the time (and still now) but in a few months I'm sure it will be an entirely different story!

21 comments:

  1. Beautiful garden. Looks amazing dry, but I can see how that would be stunning with water flowing.

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    1. I was really surprised at how lush everything around it was, and the nice contrast that provided to the rocks.

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  2. Fun garden! It would be great to see it in the rain, too. Sure hope that Host Analog is out of the way of the heavy equipment that'll be tearing down the convention center in about 60 years to make way for a new, more modern building!

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  3. I've loved this garden since it went in. It's such an improvement on the original building's overall landscaping. It's nice to see how good it looks during such dry weather, too - I always seem to be there when it's wet.

    Too bad there was no way to continue the garden around to the old west side of the building: it's all most people see when driving past on the freeway. That white metal mesh screen in front of the HVAC is sad and ugly. It always seemed like such a design mistake in siting the building, somehow. Now at least the prostrate rosemary dangling down from the upper planters distracts your eye a little!

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    1. Oh yes the how and why the building came to be placed as it is on the site has always kind of confused me. The rain garden is completely out of sight of the average visitor to the convention center, as well as the casual passer-by!

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  4. I loved seeing these pictures of the rain garden. I've been contemplating putting a rain garden bed here at my house for a while. I know next to nothing about it, though. Something to think about for the future.

    I seesaw back and forth when thinking about visiting Portland. Do I come for the Yard, Garden and Patio Show, or do I wait till later when the gardens and nurseries are in full swing? I suppose I could do both...but there are no guarantees of a second trip, so I'd want to make the most of it.

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    1. That's a touch question Alison, there are definitely reasons to visit at both times. Maybe take the train down for the YG&P Show, and then drive down later in the spring/early summer?

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  5. I guiltily admit I've never actually walked around the rain garden...but I've always admired it while driving by :-)

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    1. I don't think you've got anything to feel guilty about! It's not exactly in a spot where most people find themselves walking by...

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  6. I like the design of it all. The vegetation looks great and I'd wish we'd all think about designs like these with your own yards....but the intitial sticker price is high.....BUT it's so worth it down the road.

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    1. I can't imagine what the rocks alone must have cost for this project!

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  7. Those are both interesting concepts and so different from public landscaping in the past. Beautiful design, I would love to see those stones and rocks with water on them too.

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    1. Did you click through to the site of the LA? They've got a couple of good ones.

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  8. I only go in Feb for the Yard, Garden & Patio Show so seeing the summer face of this garden was a treat....Thanks.

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  9. I love the detailing of the rain garden, well constructed and well thought of. Must look great indeed with rain gushing though it.

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    1. Maybe I'll try to get back down this winter and see what it's looking like...

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  10. I would like to suggest that a host log be installed in our nation's capitol.

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  11. I love that Portland's city leaders budget for stuff like this. It gives me hope. I wouldn't mind a smaller log for my garden.

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