Site Justification:

Using the same “fade to black” ideas defined in the program the site was selected using a variety of shaded filters that meet a set of criteria. Orange dots were placed at the center of each lens; one hour driving circles where added to denote proximity to each location. A difference in temperature of 50 degrees or more, manufacturing jobs, proximity to a major airport, proximity to material research facilities at a higher learning institution, and top architecture schools where the lenses looked through in order to narrow down site options.  At the end of the study the locations with the most shaded lenses clearly shown through. These locations are:

Seattle, Washington

Portland, Oregon

San Francisco, California

Chicago, Illinois 

Detroit, Michigan

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

New York City, New York

Boston, Massachusetts 

Corvallis, Oregon:

Corvallis is a city of 54,400 people and is located in the heart of Benton County. Corvallis is about 80 miles south of Portland Oregon and 45 miles east of the Pacific Ocean. Located in the center of the Willamette valley, Corvallis enjoys mild weather throughout much of the year with temperatures ranging close to 50 degrees Fahrenheit through all four seasons. Corvallis experiences less rain than most northwestern cities.

The population of Corvallis has steadily increased since the early 1940s but still maintains a population density close to 4000 people per square mile. The predominantly White/Caucasian community is made up of a wide arrange of age groups with the median age being 24. The average household income is $34,000 a year and 9% of Corvallis families are below the poverty line. Oregon State University, located in the heart of Corvallis, is the major employer.  The three most common occupations are post secondary school teachers, computer specialist, and engineers at about 6% of the population higher then the Oregon average.

Oregon State University is located just out of downtown and provides much of Corvallis’s entertainment. The university also has extensive material laboratories that range in fields of study from: composites, metals, building materials, electrical, magnetic, optical materials and several others. The downtown area is located just across the Willamette river from the site and provides shopping, entertainment, and dinning. River Front Commemorative park separates downtown with access to the river. During the summer months the Park acts as a hub for activity and is the home of the Corvallis Farmers Market. The Environmental Protection Agency has rated Corvallis as “one of the greenest communities in the nation.” In fact the town purchases 21% of its electrical power from “sustainable green power”, one of the highest in the nation.  Scientists from the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico rated Corvallis Oregon as the most innovative city in America, leading the nation in patents since 2002.

The yellow road is the main access to the site and is a limited access highway to the west of the site. To the North of the site the freeway provides the best means of vehicular access to the site. The red highlights a rail line running through the center of downtown, which may also provide the ability of raw materials and assemblies to be delivered to the site.

These lines symbolize airways that cross at varying altitudes above the site. Pilots use these airways to navigate from airport to airport when they are unable to see the ground to navigate. The blue and green lines are used by higher altitude commercial airline traffic as they navigate north and south along the western coast. The yellow lines are used by lower altitude traffic like small private aircraft and helicopters as they navigate from small airport to small airport. 

This nolli map shows the grid of Corvallis merging with the grid of the residential area to the south. The buildings highlighted in orange are the research facilities run by private business or by Oregon State University.