As the dust of “urban renewal” carried out during the late 1950s settled across the southeast end of downtown Portland, the city experienced overwhelming international acclaim for a central component of the development — Lawrence Halprin’s Portland Open Space Sequence.
The series of fountains, parks, and plazas was inspired by the wild abstraction of nature, bringing jagged mountain crags and undulating rivers into the urban environment. “Ecology of Form” blended apartment buildings with the surrounding foliage and tree canopy seamlessly.
Today, you can take a walk through history along the pedestrian path, from the Source all the way to its conclusion at Keller Fountain Park, which The New York Times architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable called “one of the most important urban spaces since the Renaissance.”
This masterpiece of landscape architecture is also credited with spurring Portland’s enthusiasm for establishing more parks and protecting green spaces.
To see more sketches from the project, visit Portland City Archives.
