A report produced with Karen Kennedy summarizing the work of the University of Washington Landscape Architecture 504: Landscape Urbanism/Regional Planning studio from Fall 2007

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Green Infrastructure Frameworks
for the UW Tacoma Campus
existing hard pan glacial till
possibly contaminated
decomposers create healthy
soil
permeable gabion wall allows
vegetation thrives in
ow of air, moisture and
wall pocktes, fed by the
nutrients
composting process
S.15th St.
Pacific Ave.
St.
S. 16th St.
Commerce
y
Broadwa
Market Ave.
Court c
Fawcett Ave.
Court D
Court East
Tacoma Ave.
Ave.
S. 17th St.
rson
Jeffe
S. 18 th St.
S. 19 th St.
S. 21 st St.
Landscape Architecture 504, Fall 2007
S. 23rd St. Landscape Urbanism / Regional Planning Studio

2. Green Infrastructure Frameworks
for the University of Washington Tacoma Campus
Introduction 1
Analysis Context 5
Site 9
Precedents 15
Opportunities 19
Teams:
Design Dynamic Balance 23
Pivotal Pedagogy 33
:generating
Re :sources 41
Next Steps & Resources 49

3. Acknowledgments
Kristine Kenny, RLA, LEED® AP Jim Ellingboe
University Landscape Architect, University of Washington Karen Kennedy
Brodie Bain, AIA, AICP, LEED® AP
Principal, Mithun Report Preparers
Lee Copeland, FAIA
Consulting Principal, Mithun
Architectural Advisor, University of Washington
Elisabeth Goldstein, LEED® AP Carrie Barnes
Planner & Programmer, Mithun Claire Beyer
Judy Blanco
Ken Pirie Margaret Chang
Associate, Walker Macy Gia Clark
Riisa Conklin
Patricia Spakes Jim Ellingboe
Chancellor, UWT Szu-yu Huang
Tom Jamieson
Beth Rushing Karen Kennedy
Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, UWT Annika McIntosh
Emily Miller
Hugh Smith Andria Orejuela
Supervisor, Facilities Services, UWT Danielle Pierce
Milt Tremblay Liao, Kuei-Hsien, Teaching Assistant
Director, Facilities & Campus Services, UWT
Nancy Rottle, Professor
Catherine Vogt
Project Manager, Capital Projects Office, UWT
Peter Huffman
Landscape Architecture
Division Manager, Planning Dept., City of Tacoma
504 Studio Participants
Robert Levin Fall 2007
Manager, Economic Development Dept., City of Tacoma

4. Introduction
Analysis
-Context
-Site
-Precedents
-Opportunities
Design
Teams:
-Dynamic Balance
-Pivotal Pedagogy
:generating
-RE :sources
Next Steps

5. Foreword:
INTRODUCTION
“Natural systems take from their environment, but they also give something back. The cherry tree drops its blossoms and
leaves while it cycles water and makes oxygen; the ant community redistributes its nutrients throughout the soil. We can
follow their cue to create a more inspiring engagement- a partnership- with nature...Instead of using nature as a mere tool
for human purposes, we can strive to become tools of nature that serve its agenda too.”
-William McDonough & Michael Braungart, Cradle to Cradle
All communities should be designed in such a way that they are able to function well while minimizing their ecological footprints, and better
yet, able to regenerate local resources. Institutions such as the University of Washington Tacoma have a grand opportunity to be regenerative in
multiple senses of the word. As it continues to grow, UWT will be in a position to enhance Tacoma economically, culturally and ecologically, thus
being truly sustainable. Our studio envisioned the campus as such a consistent catalyst for regeneration in Tacoma.
UW Tacoma is one of three University of Washington campuses, with the oldest in Seattle and the other branch in Bothell. The University of
Washington Tacoma was founded in 1990 as a two-year upper division and graduate campus, designed to provide the next academic step for
community college transfer students and serve adult and place-bound students with degree programs meeting demonstrated regional needs.
UWT’s permanent campus opened in 1997 in the heart of downtown, leading the charge in Tacoma’s downtown revitalization. In 2005, the
Washington State Legislature, seeking to boost college enrollment, approved UWT as a four-year university, requiring an update to the
institution’s master plan.
Significant master plans that have been completed for UWT’s 46-acre permanent campus include the first one developed in 1993 and a second in
2003. In 2007, Mithun, a Seattle-based architecture and landscape architecture firm, began updating the campus master plan, responding to the
needs of the new freshman and sophomore student populations seeking an on-campus residential experience. This update to the master plan will
include three phases: a near-term, a 10-year, and a long-term vision for the complete build-out of the campus footprint.
In the fall of 2007, our University of Washington Landscape Architecture 504: Landscape Urbanism/Regional Planning Studio took on UWT as
a project with the goal of exploring innovative and sustainable design ideas and typologies that might inform the 2008 master plan update.
What follows are our studio’s three alternative green infrastructure visions for the campus, taking both short-term and long term views for
its development. These are not prescriptive master plans or site designs, but rather a series of alternative frameworks and progressive design
opportunities that can be applied not only to UWT, but also to other urban institutional campuses. In all three of these distinct approaches, the
UWT campus expansion provides a timely opportunity to demonstrate how it can become an exemplar for sustainable campus planning.
Nancy Rottle
Associate Professor, Landscape Architecture
Bothell
Seattle
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Architecture
Tacoma Director, Green Futures Research and Design Lab
University of Washington
August 2008
www.tacoma.washington.edu/
chancellor/master plan/footprint.html
1

6. 2003 Campus Master Plan
The 2003 campus master plan, completed by LMN and Jones & Jones, is a refinement and a further development of the 1993
master plan. The 2003 document presents a vision of a university campus that is academically sequestered, yet integrated
Introduction with its city and visually linked to its regional context. The campus was to be centered on a central green, connected by
public streets and pedestrian ways to numerous campus gateways. Outward and publicly oriented open spaces and
inwardly-focused quadrangles were to be added, creating an open space structure which provides coherence and unity
to the campus. The master plan update currently underway represents a further refinement of this 2003 master plan vision.
Analysis
-Context
-Site
-Precedents
-Opportunities
Design
Teams:
-Dynamic Balance
-Pivotal Pedagogy
:generating
-RE :sources
Build-out Limit
Existing Building
Next Steps N
Proposed Building
View Corridor

7. Existing Campus Conditions
INTRODUCTION
UWT is a thriving part of downtown Tacoma. When the permanent campus
opened in1997, six buildings were in use. In 2004, UWT was awarded the U..S.
Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
silver certification for the renovation of five historic, loft warehouse brick buildings.
The current campus utilizes 12 buildings, as shown in dark brown below. The
University owns and maintains approximately 65% of the property within the
46-acre campus master plan. The remaining build-out will continue in phases.
East view of WA State History
Museum from the Hill Climb
North view of the renovated Garrettson
Woodruff Platt building
Looking south down the decommissioned 2008 UWT campus map (www.tacoma.washington.edu/campus_map)
Hood Railroad Corridor
3

8. Introduction
Analysis Context
Site
Precedents
Opportunities
Drawing from the broader regional and local context, we performed our
analysis through five areas of inquiry:
1) Spatial structure, cultural elements & open space for human use
Existing open space components in the surrounding area
Design & their relation to the existing and planned open spaces of the campus,
primary destinations, cultural institutions & activity nodes.
Teams: 2) Circulation & transportation
Motorized & non arterials, transportation hubs & regional connections
-Dynamic Balance
-Pivotal Pedagogy 3) Habitat & ecological systems
:generating Existing vegetation, eco-types, & wildlife; aquatic & terrestrial habitats,
-RE :sources
contamination, landscape ecology such as patches, corridors, and matrices.
4) Water
Watershed(s), bodies & sources of water, storm & waste water conveyance.
5) Energy & climate
Existing energy sources & regional climatic conditions, carbon sources and
sinks, population estimates, biomass, waste systems, and recycling.
Next Steps
The following four maps represent a synthesis of these five areas from a regional
perspective moving towards a focus on Tacoma and its immediate environs.

9. ANALYSIS
Bothell
Context
Seattle
Regional Context
King County
Bothell
Seattle
Tacoma
Tacoma
Tacoma, incorporated in 1884, is
Washington state’s third-largest city,
with approximately 203,000 residents.
Known as the City of Destiny due to its
1873 designation as the Northern Pacific
Railroad’s western terminus, Tacoma is
located in Pierce County, roughly one
hour south of Seattle, and one hour north
of Olympia. The city sits at the foot of
Mount Rainier and along the shores of
Commencement Bay at the southern end
Pierce County of Puget Sound. Easily accessible from the
Sea-Tac airport, the I-5 corridor and the
BNSF rail line, Tacoma is home to one of the
most active commercial ports in the world.
Mt. Rainier
City of Tacoma The City of Tacoma’s primary source of
UW Campuses
drinking water is collected from the Green
River Watershed, located in the Cascade
Major Airports Mountains to the east. The remaining 15%
Major Freeways of its annual water requirements are met
Railroads through 24 local wells, which pump water
N from underground aquifers.
5

10. The City of Tacoma Arsenic Concentration in soil
0-6 inches, 90th percentile (ppm)
Tacoma is made up of nine sub-watersheds – or smaller subdivisions of larger surrounding
Introduction watersheds - as indicated in the map below. Plans exist to develop several greenbelts and
connective corridors, including the Thea Foss Esplanade which will connect downtown
to Point Defiance Park. However, there currently exists a significant lack of open space
downtown, presenting the University of Washington Tacoma with a grand opportunity.
The City of Tacoma grew from the waterfront, where the deep-water port has attracted
business and industry for over 100 years. This, however, has led to years of contamination,
both of Commencement Bay and of the surrounding land. While the map to the right
illustrates arsenic concentrations in the soil, many other contaminants are also present.
Analysis to Seattle
Puget Sound
-Context
-Site Point Defiance Park 1 mile 2 miles
University of Washington Tacoma 40.1 ppm to 100.0 ppm
-Precedents NE Tacoma City of Tacoma 100.1 ppm to 200.0 ppm
-Opportunities Watershed
Joe’s Creek
Non-Detect to 20.0 ppm Greater than 200.0 ppm
Non-Detect to 20.0 ppm; Max >20.0 ppm Ruston Superfund Site
Watershed
20.1 ppm to 40.0 ppm Untested - Possible contamination
Port of Tacoma
to Gig Harbor
Western
Slopes University of Washington Tacoma
Watershed North Tacoma
Watershed
Design Tideflats
City of Tacoma
Watershed
Leach Creek Parks
Teams: Watershed
Water Bodies
-Dynamic Balance Foss Waterway
Watershed
-Pivotal Pedagogy Connective Corridors - current & proposed
:generating
-RE :sources
Lower Puyallup
Watershed
Flett Creek
Watershed
Next Steps
to Mount Rainier 1 mile 2 miles
N
to Olympia

11. UW Tacoma in the Urban Context
ANALYSIS
Not only does UWT’s location place it at the center
Context
of the historic city, but also at the heart of the
downtown’s recent revitalization. Currently zoned
as mixed-use and close to many key cultural, civic &
1
open spaces in Tacoma, UWT is poised to become a 2
2
Thea’s Park
vital community link. The lower, core area is located 3
across Pacific Avenue from the city’s restored Beaux 4
5
Arts railroad station and the new State Historical Evergreen State College-
Tacoma Campus
Neighbors Park
Fireman
Park
Museum and is part of the Union Depot/Warehouse 7&8
7&8 4
Special Review District. People’s Park
9
9 Thea Foss
Bates Technical College-
Downtown Campus
Waterway
6
UWT is just west of the Thea Foss Waterway, part of Lots for Tots
the larger 12-acre Commencement Bay Superfund Franklin Park
Pock Field Ferry Park
10
11 12
Site. In 1994, the City of Tacoma began a 12-year, $100 People’s 13 15
Community
million clean-up effort. In addition to monitoring the Center
14
16
waterway sediment with both chemical & biological Stanley Playfield
Foss Waterway Park
methods, the City also monitors the habitat mitigation Bates Technical College-
Mohler Campus
sites to make sure they function as intended. The McCarver Primary
challenge, however, continues to be both the steep I-5 14
Prep School
topography as well as “non-point” source pollution Golf Club 17 18
from storm water runoff, fertilizers & oil which travel Irving Park
McKinley Park
from residential areas through the City’s 17,000 storm Roger’s Park
drains and 500 miles of pipes and empty into the Thea
Foss Waterway and other urban water bodies.
1/2 mile
N
Key Cultural, Civic & Open Spaces 1 mile
Civic Spaces 1. University of Puget Sound
2 . Wr i g h t Pa r k & W. W. S e y m o u r B o t a n i c a l
Cultural Spaces Conservatory
3. Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum
Open Spaces 4. Grand Cinema
5. Work ing Water front Maritime Museum
School Grounds 6. Thea Foss Esplanade (western shore) / Ruston Wa
7. Broadway Center for the Per forming Arts /
Universities Theater District
8 . C h i l d r e n s ’ M u s e u m o f Ta c o m a
UW Tacoma 9 . Ta c o m a M a i n P u b l i c L i b r a r y
1 0 . G r e a t e r Ta c o m a C o n v e n t i o n & Tr a d e C e n t e r
1 1 . To l l e f s o n P l a z
Downtown Zoning Districts 1 2 . Ta c o m a A r t M u s e u m
Residential 13. Union Station / Federal Cour ts
14. Washington State Histor y Museum
Mixed Use 15. Chihuly Bridge of Glass
16. Museum of Glass: International Center for
I-705 Contemporary Art
Commercial
17. LeMay Museum Campus
UWT footprint in downtown Tacoma N Warehouse & Residential 1 8 . Ta c o m a D o m e
7

12. Introduction
Context
Analysis Site
Precedents
Opportunities
We used these same five system layers in analyzing the UWT campus site:
1) Spatial structure & open space for human use
Quality & function of existing open space, both in and adjacent to
the campus, view corridors, campus gateways, & topography.
2) Circulation & transportation
Design Campus circulation for pedestrians, bicyclists & motorists, parking,
& the campus’s relationship to the existing orthogonal grid.
Teams: 3) Habitat & ecological systems
-Dynamic Balance Existing vegetation and habitat, soil and/or water contamination
-Pivotal Pedagogy from former uses of the site.
:generating
-RE :sources 4) Water
Storm water flows, pipes, catch basins, & outfalls; waste water lines;
and water bodies.
5) Energy & climate
Liabilities for mitigation & potential qualities for energy use reduction,
including sun orientation & wind patterns; greenhouse gas emissions,
waste systems & recycling; adaptive reuse of existing facilities.
Next Steps The base map used in the following maps represent 2008 conditions;
all of the buildings in black currently exist within the campus footprint.

13. Spatial Structure & Open Space:
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Gateways View Corridors N
(www.flickr.com: eststudios)
Topography of the
As of 2008, UWT has acquired roughly 70% of the 46 acres of property
19th Street Hill Climb within its eight-block master plan footprint and continues to work
to acquire additional property as it becomes available. The current
boundaries of the campus are 21st Street to the south, 17th Street to
the north, Pacific Avenue on the east, & Tacoma Avenue on the west.
The campus currently occupies approximately 1/3 of this footprint,
concentrated on the eastern boundary. In contrast, the western side
remains open and undeveloped. Many of the current gateways occur
where a view corridor and major city street intersect.
A steep 12% east/west slope across the campus footprint, as illustrated
in the diagrams to the left, affords excellent views of downtown and
Mt. Rainier. However, this slope makes east/west access difficult as well
as open space creation. In contrast, all of the north/south routes are
flat, with the exception of the two diagonals, Jefferson Avenue and the
decommissioned Hood Railroad corridor.
9

14. Transportation & Circulation:
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UWT’s eight-block campus is aligned with Tacoma’s orthogonal
Introduction downtown street grid with six north/south and three east/west 15TH
street arterials either cutting through or bordering campus. The
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heaviest automobile and bus traffic, as well as the Sound Transit
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Lightrail, occur on Pacific Avenue on the eastern edge of campus. 16TH
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campus receives overflow traffic from I-705, and S. 21st Street on 17TH
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the south border of campus is often backed up the hill for the I-705
onramp. Currently, off-street parking is limited to two larger lots in
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the SE corner of campus and two smaller lots on the north side. 18TH
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The 19th Street Hillclimb is a two-block long corridor in the center
RAMP I7
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of campus with eleven sets of stairs and an ADA accessible route
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-Context featuring switchbacks. Navigating the ADA route is challenging
TACOMA
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-Site and takes considerable time, especially since one must cross the SR509
-Precedents main path of pedestrian traffic nine times.
21ST
-Opportunities
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Teams:
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-Dynamic Balance RAMP I7
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-Pivotal Pedagogy
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Next Steps
I
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24TH Looking west up the Hillclimb
Pedestrian Paths Bus Routes
Sound Transit Link Light Rail
(www.flickr.com: time2flk)
Bicycle Paths Light Rail
N