By Dylan Bailey, PLA
April is World Landscape Architecture Month! This month celebrates landscape architects’ role in shaping healthy, resilient, and beautiful places for all. A prime example – Port of Kennewick’s Vista Field Southern Gateway.
Once complete, the project will transform two unused former hangar buildings into lively community-use facilities. It will also attract private-sector investment to the regional town center. This gathering space is something the Kennewick community has expressed interest in since the early planning stages.
This project is part of the larger Vista Field, known as one of Washington’s most ambitious community creation endeavors in recent years. This new regional town center aims to raise the bar for what urban spaces are in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Vista Field is at the commercial core of the Tri-Cities (Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland, Washington), with easy access to a diverse and well-connected transportation network.
The Port received a $3.4 million grant from the Benton County Rural County Capital Fund to create the new spaces in the southern gateway, including removing metal walls, constructing several restrooms and storage areas, and building a pergola, sound wall, and bandstand.
A sheltered courtyard will go between the two former hangars, complete with lighting, industrial fans, landscaping, wayfinding signage, and a whimsical aviation themed sculpture piece.
The project will honor Vista Field’s World War II Naval history by reusing the site’s distinctive metal carrier-deck artifacts – something that has been explored through previous phases of work and has finally found a fitting re-use since their training days.
Parametrix is leading an interdisciplinary design approach for the public gathering space, including landscape architecture, civil, and structural engineering. Parametrix was also instrumental in providing these conceptual 3D renderings used to present to the Benton County Commissioners and to secure grant funding.
About the Author
landscape architect
Dylan Bailey
PLA
Dylan Bailey, has over a decade of experience working in the public and private sector. He is a licensed Professional Landscape Architect in Washington and Oregon and holds a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from University of Georgia.
