April 6th and 7th, Design Forums, 3:40 - 5:50 p.m., Food for Thought Cafe, basement of Smith Student Union: wide-open brainstorming of ideas, modeling, drawings, etc. by a cross-section of PSU students, faculty, and staff.
Our action starts with finalizing the site footprint and foundational development with the University administration. April 6 & 7 will host public introduction and brainstorming forums where we seek departmental engagement and conceptualization. Following with additional feedback submission dates (April 12) and an alternative plan forum (April 15 or 17), we lead to present out final vision to the University then the community by April 29. Previous to the final visioning, it is achievable to break ground and begin foundational work during Spring Break.
Spring Term 2005 is a milestone for Project: Sustain Urth, when we see the first shovel meet the Urth, grounding people within the site during the term. Anticipate transplanting the existing foliage, appropriately directing drainage and installing the retaining walls around the recessed oven access pathway. Join the engineer supervised core team in progressively beginning the Spring term at PSU.
The VBC will invite intense volunteer hours of cob mixing, structural development, and spiral stonework. Alongside the cob structures being built, the ecoroofs will be constructed with future expansion in mind, remembering that the overall goal is to present a holistic design that can grow further around campus while the conceptual seed is carried to outlying regions of Portland-Metro and beyond.
Anticipation of the VBC will invite Forum 2 feedback to be submitted by, at the beginning of the term, giving announcement to the Final Vision on April 29. The next weeks through May 20 will properly orient and familiarize volunteers with the departmental missions and expression within the site's foundation. It will also engage them in the planning and funding of educational living models of the coming intensity of cob mixing, structural development, and spiral stonework. Alongside the cob structures being built, the ecoroofs begin their construction, and landscaping emerges.
Evaluations of plant species sensitive to our climate's variations considering the incorporation of native plants back to the site following intense xeriscaping and permacultural implementations. This phase will start simultaneously with Phase Three on May 20, but there is anticipated long-term commitments needed through the summer to properly establish the system. This phase will also facilitate the construction of integrated filters, planters, worm composting bins, etc.