Late last year, the Willamette Falls Legacy Project team issued a request for proposals to transform a conceptual design for the first phase of the Willamette Falls riverwalk into detailed permitting and construction drawings, as well as manage construction.
Metro, on behalf of the Willamette Falls Legacy Project, is pleased to announce Otak has been brought onboard for the design and engineering of the Willamette Falls riverwalk. Otak will be leading a team that includes Mayer/Reed, Snøhetta, KPFF, Pacific Habitat Services and others. The design and engineering team will need to transform the conceptual riverwalk design into detailed permitting and construction drawings, as well as manage construction.
Otak’s first assignment is to develop more complete permit level design drawings that are necessary to revise our federal permit applications for the riverwalk.
The riverwalk is the critical first component of the larger Willamette Falls Legacy Project, a collaboration between Metro, Oregon City, Clackamas County and the State of Oregon. After two years of community engagement and stakeholder input, the design team of Snøhetta, Mayer/Reed and DIALOG unveiled a conceptual design in June 2017. Last May, project staff submitted riverwalk permit applications to the Army Corps of Engineers, Department of State Lands and National Marine Fisheries Services. Construction on the first phase is anticipated to begin in 2020. Phase one of the riverwalk will include safe and secure interim public access onto the former Blue Heron paper mill site, a prominent view of Willamette Falls, habitat restoration along the riverbank and building demolition that will prepare the site for future phases.