urban food stimulusUndergraduate Thesis Project

by Wesley Thompson

The objective of this project is to look critically at a comprehensive agricultural plan for the city of Portland, Oregon. There are some obvious problems with large-scale agriculture, many of which have been addressed in the past few years through books, news, films, lectures, etc. The Portland Plan--a document compiled by

various groups involved in city planning--points out issues of food security, obesity, and general nutrition awareness. Food production has always had a place in urban planning and land use, whether it occurred in the city or had some connection to more rural growing conditions. Recently, there have been major efforts to revive efforts in urban farming and looking at under-utilized spaces in cities for food production. And while local and organic gardening is the most effective way to feed the citizens of a city, there must also be a way to distribute and store food within the city. According to a study reported in The Guardian, nearly half of food produced in the world is not consumed due to spoilage and waste. And although food produced locally does not have nearly the distance to travel as most food produced currently, there is no guarantee that food won’t be spoiled and citizens will not be living in food insecurity. Further, there

is an inherent problem with local food during the winter when supplies are relatively low. Urban Food Stimulus proposes that cities begin to think of urban agriculture as more of a system that engages multiple entities with the task of feeding its citizens. The city becomes a machine for producing food, and just like any other machine, it contains many moving parts that must work well together. The project is a building in Northwest Portland that is a node for the collection, processing, storage, and sales of food produced specifically within the Urban Growth Boundary. The building does not only engage the food system in terms of tangible production, but it also becomes a highly transparent, intellectual and cultural node. It questions previous roles of disparate programs like food production, markets, city planning, and community involvement, and it proposes that they can all exist in a common space.

3 out of 10 children in Portland live in food insecurity

44 % of Portland’s adults are considered obese

many citizens have an interest in farmingbut maybe no outlet

Problem: disconnected gardens + malnourished citizens

vertical gardens under-utilized urban space under-utilized suburban spacerooftop gardens

3 out of 10 children in portland live in food insecurity 44 % of portland’s adults are considered obese many citizens have an interest in farmingbut maybe no outlet

Viable options for local food production, but where does all the food go during harvest?

Portland Urban Growth BoundaryA Food Collection Node

Picking1 a bright sunny morning on davis street at the waterfront delivery2 produce washed and sorted processing + storage3 public market4

wash basin juicer freeze dryer dehydrator compost canning eqipment

preventing local food spoilage

a northwest tradition

Urban agriculture starts to combat many of the problems inherent in large-scale food production, but what it does not guarantee is that food will not be wasted. The “machine” of the Urban Food Stimulus is based largely on the idea that there is an infrastructure for Portland’s food system. Food produced in different parts of the city has somewhere to go once it is picked. Part of the

machine also addresses the problem of food spoilage. At the end of a growing season, a large quantity of food is produced , so it is imperative that a city has the right means to preserve it throughout the winter. This drastically changes the grocery shopping experience as well. Instead of driving to a big box store to purchase food with large embodied energy, citizens now shop for

local food, even when it isn’t necessarily fresh. The project will have several pieces of equipment on site that allow for different foods to be preserved throughout the off-season.

winter

spring

summ

er

fall

Urban agriculture starts to combat many of the problems inherent in large-scale food production, but what it does not guarantee is that food will not be wasted. The “machine” of the Urban Food Stimulus is based largely on the idea that there is an infrastructure for Portland’s food system. Food

produced in different parts of the city has somewhere to go once it is picked. Part of the machine also addresses the problem of food spoilage. At the end of a growing season, a large quantity of food is produced , so it is imperative that a city has the right means to preserve it throughout the winter. This drastically changes the

grocery shopping experience as well. Instead of driving to a big box store to purchase food with large embodied energy, citizens now shop for local food, even when it isn’t necessarily fresh. The project will have several pieces of equipment on site that allow for different foods to be preserved throughout the off-season.

preventing local food spoilage

Picking1 a bright sunny morning on davis street at the waterfront delivery2 produce washed and sorted processing + storage3 public market4

wash basin juicer freeze dryer dehydrator compost canning eqipment

preventing local food spoilage

a northwest tradition

Urban agriculture starts to combat many of the problems inherent in large-scale food production, but what it does not guarantee is that food will not be wasted. The “machine” of the Urban Food Stimulus is based largely on the idea that there is an infrastructure for Portland’s food system. Food produced in different parts of the city has somewhere to go once it is picked. Part of the

machine also addresses the problem of food spoilage. At the end of a growing season, a large quantity of food is produced , so it is imperative that a city has the right means to preserve it throughout the winter. This drastically changes the grocery shopping experience as well. Instead of driving to a big box store to purchase food with large embodied energy, citizens now shop for

local food, even when it isn’t necessarily fresh. The project will have several pieces of equipment on site that allow for different foods to be preserved throughout the off-season.

winter

spring

summ

er

fall

siteexisting building

b u r n s i d e s t r e e t

I-

40

5

Location in Northwest Portland

South Facade from Burnside Street:Completing the Street Room

0 5 15 35 FEET

Site Plan

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5 5

public market, open to Burnside Streetfood processing + storage space (existing building enclosure)cold storagepublic gardenmarket opens to adjacent streetsgallery/lecture spacelibrarylocal food restaurantgallery space (exhibitions about local food projects around Portland) planning + design office (makes proposals for local food projects)university extension officegreenhouses + tool storage

6 9

1011

12

12

7

8 8

123456789

101112

second floor third floor

fourth floor

fifth floor

Longitudinal Section

Assembly of Standard Bay

17th Ave

South Elevation

Trees in Roof Detail

I-40515th Ave16th Ave

Transverse Section ConceptTrees in Roof Detail

Lecture Space

Processing Building Interior

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perforated metal roof louvers over processing space

permeability from street to market

greenhouse

facade study model

sketch, exploring construction and solar control of popout

facade study model, exploring human scale

1 2 3

4 65

Sectional Model

This book was prepared after a thesis studio at the University of Oregon under the direction of Professor Howard Davis. Many thanks to Howard for his guidance and support throughout the project and to the members of my jury for their generous feedback at the review. Wes Thompson, June 2013