Sunset Substation Park

Our park idea has been featured in a couple of resources for green design:

Inhabitat

Daily Journal of Commerce

Solar canopy and parkscape

We’ve completed the Feasibility Study and Community Design Report.  You can download the full report here (careful, it is a big file):

Download report as pdf

For a quick synopsis of the design:

Download design synopsis as pdf

PLAN:

SUNSET SUBSTATION PARK PLAN

The design features:

–Overhead, lightweight steel canopy provides support for 189 solar panels.

–Canopy partially shades site without providing full weather protection

–Sculpted landscape provides unique gathering and recreation spaces while screening park from rear of adjacent business

–Walls provide space for interpretive materials and community information

–Paths criss-cross site, providing multiple access points and shortcuts for neighbors

–Play area for kids/exercise and stretching for adults

–Small paved gathering area for a variety of uses including educational seminars

–Terrain sloped evenly up to alley at south side, encouraging access from 32nd

–Solar energy for charging station and lighting allows park to also function as center of community emergency response

–Designed to meet the LIVING BUILDING CHALLENGE, the most progressive and demanding sustainable building standard in the world.  One of 5 projects locally, and 70 worldwide to attempt to built a carbon neutral, net zero energy, net zero water use project.

VIEWS OF PARKSCAPE:

path to parkscape from 65th

The solar canopy soars over the park space.  The east and west edges of the park would be planted with a mix of vegetation, both to screen neighboring properties, and provide year round color.

Behind the orange barn door lies the equipment room which can be opened to supplement teaching opportunities about solar technology.

Along the wedge’s wall, there would be educational information and an opportunity for art.

Under the canopy, the wedge is covered with shade tolerant ferns and plants.

A stair up to a lookout provides a prospect to see downtown.

Along the stairs, a water feature using collected rainwater, feeds a fountain along the pathway.

The park has a resilient surfaced play area for kids.

view from alley

The view from the alley is open and welcoming.

To the east, a deeper planting bed with a hedge screens the back of the neighboring restaurant.

We want to thank the community for their input and the steering committee for their diligence and commitment!

We’ll have presentation boards on hand, and handouts that detail the current state of the design.  We’re closing in on the final feasibility report–it should come out by the end of the month, and Friends of Sunset Substation steering committee members will be on site to answer questions.

view from path

We’ve done a lot of work since the last posting, mainly with the landscape architect, structural engineer, and the Steering Committee with regards to the funding and legal structure of the community solar, but I wanted to share some of the latest design ideas.

Sunset Substation Park plan

The main design element, after the canopy itself, is the Wedge–a tilted section of topography that creates an artificial valley that the path slides through.  At the high side of the wedge, the gathering space  has access to the equipment room–which can be opened up so that the working of the system can be part of educational seminars about solar technology.  The emergency relief center and storage are also housed inside.

On the top surface of the wedge, we have a shade garden with a mix of species that you’d find in the understory of a mature Northwest forest, with a little stair path up to a lookout.

To the south, under the canopy, there is a area for kids’ play, parkour, and adult stretching and exercise, mixed in with seat walls for parents to hang out while the kids have free reign.

The east and west edges are conceived as more traditional planting areas with dogwoods, stewartias, burning bushes, rhododendrons, hydrangeas and a mix of other species to fill out the park with color year round.  In the next round of renderings, we’ll include the plantings to give a better idea of the character of the park.

Here are some other views:

view from the alley into the park

View under the canopy

The first underlying theme of the redesign was to increase the solar power potential.  In the new schemes we have the same canopy design.  It is made up of 188 panels and should produce about 35,000 kWh per year.  In terms of household use, the average US consumption is 11040 kWh per year (U.S.Dept of Energy), meaning our canopy would generate enough power for 3.2 households.

In the prior schemes, we had 117, 131, and 160 panels, so we’ve added 17 percent of over the largest solar array we’ve seen in the design thus far (and the array covers 2981 sq. ft.  of the 6300 sq.ft. lot–less than half).

The second main theme was to keep the dramatic form of the Wedge, but eliminate the blind spots for public safety, and overall reduce the amount of structure (no need for an indoor community space with the Association building a block away).  To accomplish this,  we’ve changed the canopy so that it is independent of the parkscape.  The canopy steps east as it slopes up.

Aerial view from 65th Street

The result is that the panels aren’t shaded by the apartment building to the east, and we maintain the dramatic view from 65th to help attract visitors to the park.

path from 65th entrance

Both the options deal with different parkscapes under a similar canopy. The first variation we’ve nicknamed ‘double wedge’, sculpts the land to make a valley through which the path from 65th to the alley runs.  Each wedge slopes up from the path: on the north side it raises up to about 6 ft (above the old substation’s slab), on the south it slopes more steeply to create a space underneath where we’d house the equipment/emergency center.

view under canopy

The goal is to make the space under the roof a playful landscape where kids can run up and down, and there are places to hang out.  In this scheme we’re showing the surface as a distinctive orange, with the idea that we would like to have a surface would be soft and inviting to sit on–rubberized playground material, resilient surface, or artificial turf colored so that the artificiality is highlighted.

With regards to the artificial turf, it may seem counterintuitive, but we were concerned with the viability of real grass, both in terms of maintenance, and how well it would thrive, being shaded by the canopy.  We are trying to make as ‘green’ a park as possible, and hence the big question: Is it more sustainable to have a surface that requires little maintenance, no watering, mowing, fertilizer but is both synthetic and manufactured far away resulting in a lot of carbon used in transport to the site, or a natural planting, such as moss and ferns that would thrive in shade but wouldn’t stand walking or playing on them, and require watering and more significant maintenance?  We’re open to your thoughts, and certainty it was a big topic of conversation at the Workshop.

Along the alley, we’ve tucked the equipment/emergency center into the hillside, but then cut stairs down, creating a little gathering place where the door can be opened to reveal the guts of the solar power equipment, and teach about the technology.

view from alley

The alley side is very open, limiting blind spots, and gives you a good feel for the entire pocket park.

Feel free to post your comments below:

Along either side of the canopy we would have landscaping, and use vegetation to screen out the back side of the restaurant.

path from 65th entrance

The second option flips the equipment/storage/emergency center to the northeast in the corner between the restaurant and soon to be finished tent, then grades the southern portion of the lot more gently to meet the alley.  The highest point on the single wedge is about 12′ above the existing slab.  The edge of the wedge would provide a wall for community posting as well as information about the solar park (the little orange window is the electric meter running backwards). 

single wedge diagram (solar canopy omitted for clarity)

We have a broad slope, open to the alley, with a high vantage point at the top end of the wedge.

view from high side of the wedge-green roof of equipment/emergency center

Here is the view from the alley:

Where the path crosses through the middle of the site, we have a little gathering space (Piccolino’s tent is beyond. The wedge hides the vent of the pizza oven.).  Again we are investigating different materials for the ground so that it is walkable, low maintenance and sustainable, and both east and west edges are planted up for screening, and year round color with species that thrive in this climate.

And one last image from the alley:

view from alley

Feel free to post your comments below:

Based on feedback on the three schemes from the prior meeting and the blog comments, CAST will be presenting a single scheme with a couple variations incorporating the most popular ideas.

The design is still fluid, so this is the time to and participate in the discussion and shape the future park!

click icon to download pdf of feedback sheets