Block 47 Temporary Landscape

Historic tax lot maps spanning 100 years have been overlaid into an urban mosaic of planting, performance areas, and seating at the Block 47 project, located along a lightrail station near the Portland Convention Center. This temporary landscape transforms a vacant parking lot into an urban garden with native grasses, recycled materials, gravel, and stone.

Features include sculptural steel irrigation bollards set on a grid throughout the garden, and tall grass panels that recall the historic tax lots. A central stone mound planted with Sumac trees punctuates one of several crushed gravel temporary art spaces. Over time, as the grasses spread into adjacent plots, the garden fabric will evolve and break down the history-based geometry. In 10 to 20 years, the garden will be demolished for a future building.