Going Street Commons is a net-zero community designed to Passive House Standard in Portland’s Cully neighborhood. In keeping with the buildings, the landscape design takes a high-performance approach, in which the site is net-zero in its approach to water, and net-positive in its ability to build habitat and store carbon as the landscape matures. Paths lead residents to a series of common areas that include nature trails and a community garden. The community garden will be irrigated by a rainwater cistern and all other permanent plantings are designed to need no long-term irrigation. Plants are mostly native, and selected to foster wildlife and enhance residents’ everyday nature access and quality of life. The result is a site that builds community, is extremely simple to maintain, and could easily be adapted to work parties as community needs develop. Image credit - Studio Wild and Birdsmouth LLC

Completed: 2020

Collaborators: Birdsmouth LLC (architecture), Blossom (landscape installation)