Help tell the story of a St. Johns-area parking lot!

Depave, Friends of Baltimore Woods, and the City of Portland are planning restoration of a 6.3-acre partially-wooded parcel in St Johns, which will ultimately form part of the npGreenway connecting Pier with Cathedral Parks and points beyond. The restoration work involves removal of a 2-acre parking lot, control of invasive species, and planting of the site back to a native Oregon white oak savannah. The site has sweeping views of Forest Park, the Willamette River, and St Johns Bridge, and sits above active port and industrial lands on a west-facing hillside.

The parking lot formerly served the North Portland Toyota automobile import facility and was purchased in 2010 through a partnership between Metro, the City of Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services, and Portland Parks and Recreation. After the pavement removal in summer 2012, the City of Portland will implement a controlled burn during early fall with subsequent restoration plantings in 2012 and 2013.

Because of the sheer size of the parking lot, heavy equipment will be used to remove most of the pavement during August-September 2012. On July 28, 2012 the Friends of Baltimore Woods and Depave are planning a small, volunteer-driven community depave ground-breaking event. In advance of or as part of this community depave event, Depave and the Friends are soliciting proposals for one or more temporary art installations.

Depave is available to assist with limited funding needs (potentially up to $1,000), and would help coordinate art installation work with the City of Portland, the Friends, and St Johns community.

We are particularly interested in proposals that could do one or more of the following:
• tell the history of the site and its transformation over time, including the restoration;
• set the context for the site and restoration, explaining its ecological significance;
• engage the community in helping transform the site; and/or
• utilize on-site pavement, rock, or invasive plant materials in the temporary installation.

The audience for this work is the City of Portland and the wider Metro region general population. An ideal proposal would help us celebrate the ecological restoration of the site and its reclamation as public space, interpreting this work in a non-technical and accessible way, and use photos or film to document the installation and transformation. Installations will occupy the space until late July 2012, when demolition and restoration begins.

Application deadline is Friday March 16, 2012

Please submit a one page proposal to: Ted Labbe

For more information on the site, please see:

Neighborhood Notes article on the site and effort 

Portland Maps parcel information 

npGreenway info and park system connectivity map

More information on the imperiled Oregon white oak ecosystem: HERE and also HERE