Portland Gas & Electric’s (PGE) line workers are utility players in the best sense, says Dean DeSantis, whose landscape teams are working on a new state-of-the-art training facility in Sherwood, Oregon. “We’ve all relied on these workers through wildfires and ice storms and weather events over the past year, and it’s an honor to be part of a project that offers its employees a road to improved performance and trains the men and women who are so critical to emergency response and public health and well-being during difficult times.”
The DeSantis Landscape construction effort was led by project manager Rick Moisa, and occupies a vital role at the facility, providing outdoor and indoor training space with a performance-based approach to green infrastructure. As an integrated part of PGE’s master site plan, the finished and maintained landscape will improve stormwater management and water quality within a restored corridor of vegetated swales and retention ponds.
Working with general contractor, Reimers & Jolivette, and developer, Livermore Architecture & Engineering, the DeSantis team met a challenging range of institutional needs, including protecting and enhancing the existing open space, strengthening the site’s connection to watershed health, and creating a new outdoor classroom and training space that supports the advancement of the PGE workforce—including a helicopter landing pad for emergency services.
The 5-acre environmentally-conscious landscape project included the installation of below and above-ground irrigation technology, 4800-feet of bioswales, 1.5 -acres of eco-turf and multi-purpose lawn areas, 214 trees, and 1 acre of rehabilitated perimeter plantings.
The site has been a training center since the 1990s, and after years of planning, the transformation of this 5-acre site is nearly complete. “Working on this project and with this team helps us demonstrate our commitment to the essential workers who are always there for us when we need them,” says DeSantis Construction Division Manager, Ted Mucken.
DeSantis Landscapes has been designing, constructing, renovating, and maintaining landscapes to meet the needs of clients and communities since 1974. To learn more about green site infrastructure, innovations in stormwater management, bid-build partnerships, and the company’s multi-disciplinary approach to the environmental challenges of our time, go to: www.desantislandscapes.com