FORECLOSED: REHOUSING
THE AMERICAN DREAM

NATURE-CITY

Amale Andraos and Dan Wood, WORKac

The team headed by Amale Andraos and Dan Wood of WORKac asked, "What if we could live sustainably and close to nature?" Their proposal, Nature-City, reinvents British urbanist Ebenezer Howard's 1899 concept of the Town-Country, a classic feature of the Garden City that combines the conveniences of urban life with the health benefits and access to agriculture of country living. Nature-City integrates density, diversity, a mixture of uses, and a variety of housing types ranging in affordability, and incorporates ecological infrastructure, sky gardens, urban farms, and public open space, including large swaths of restored native habitats. More

Cities in Oregon are required by law to establish an urban growth boundary (UGB), protecting the open land around the community, encouraging densification within existing boundaries, and preserving forest and farmland as rural amenities. The population of Keizer, a suburb of Portland, is expected to increase by 13,000 in the next two decades, and the city is currently debating whether to expand its UGB. It lies on the route of a planned high-speed rail connection between Eugene, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, and includes a 225-acre developable site at its north edge. In 2009–10, 28 acres of this site, adjacent to an older residential quarter of modest single-family houses, were sold for development into a series of big-box stores, the first phase of a larger retail development.

The team designed an alternative scenario for those 225 acres that accommodates the community's planned growth with higher-density, more environmentally sustainable living at the metropolitan edge. In the proposal, the new area is five times denser than the adjacent suburban blocks but has three times the amount of public open space, including a 158-acre nature preserve. Several existing streets in the city's residential grid are extended into nature in a series of urban "piers." The project incorporates a variety of housing types, including party-wall town houses and various multi-unit forms: from towers with hanging gardens and interior waterfalls to courtyard homes. Through their specific shapes, the housing types offer vital services to the community as a whole, such as the production of renewable energy and the natural processing of waste and other by-products.

The project could be built by developers working in partnership with the city, allowing for maintenance of the open spaces through a traditional system of property taxation.

Work Architecture Company: Sam Dufaux, Patrick Daurio, Marisha Farnsworth, Brantley Highfill, Allan Izzo, Colleen Tuite. Renderings and Models: Michael Alexander, Rubèn Carboni, Julcsi Futo, Joanne Hayek, Tamicka Marcy, Brett Masterson, Ian Quate, Deborah Richards, Marcel Sonntag, Neil Wiita, Sarah Witkin. Michael Kennedy, Kennedy Fabrications. Will Pratt, millworker. Infrastructure: Laura Kier, Sherwood Design Engineers. Economics: Alex Stokes, analyst, HR&A Advisors. Dream Experts: Wieden+Kennedy New York: Nick Setounski, John Jay, Neal Arthur, Ian Reichenthal, Scott Vitrone, Stuart Smith, Gary Krieg, and Kristen Johnson. lena Beug, Moxie Pictures. Adam Robinson, Whitehouse Post. Pancakes (music).

Michael Etzel, local Keizer expert Gerald E. Frug, local government law specialist Harvard Law School

Sean McLaughlin and John Parker, creative directors Wieden+Kennedy

John McMorrough, architect and urban planner Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan

James Lima, economist James Lima Planning + Development

Jason Loiselle, civil engineer Sherwood Design Engineers

Eric Sanderson, ecologist Wildlife Conservation Society and the Welikia Project