Presenters:

Patrick Condon, Professor, UBC

James Santana, Pringle Creek

Dan Kent, Salmon-Safe 

Moderator:

James Meyer, Principal, Opsis Architecture

Explore the shifting social and physical ideas of learning, place, and community through the transformation of a previously vacated site into the new and forward looking Pringle Creek Community. Now a hub of restoration and education, Pringle Creek has physically transformed an abandoned site into a network of green streets, restored vegetation and geothermal pipes, and fostered a social transformation toward environmental stewardship and community connections. The community is the first Salmon-Safe® certified neighborhood on the west coast, and its retrofited Painter’s Hall is the first net zero
energy commercial building in Oregon. The neighborhood connects the past to the future, and nature to itself and to us. Above all, it connects the human community.

Presenter Bios

Patrick Condon
UBC Professor Patrick Condon has over 25 years’ experience in sustainable urban
design; first as a professional city planner and then as a teacher and researcher. He
started his academic career in 1985 at the University of Minnesota, moving to the
University of British Columbia in 1992, acting first as the Director of the Landscape
Architecture program and later as the James Taylor Chair in Landscape and Livable
Environments. He is now senior researcher with the Design Centre for Sustainability at
UBC, a sustainable urban design think tank that evolved from the original efforts of the
Chair. He has lectured widely, and is the author of several books, most recently "Design
Charrettes for Sustainable Communities", 2008, and “Seven Rules for Sustainable
Communities”, 2010, both from Island Press.

James Santana
 An early member of Pringle Creek’s development team, James has helped the project achieve several environmental innovations and initiatives, from greenroofs to greenstreets to ground-source geothermal. His role in design, implementation, and management of the site’s award-winning green infrastructure, the development of high-performance homes, the restoration of Painters Hall into a net-zero energy, LEED Platinum community center, and the thoughtful attention to community have helped Pringle Creek become a neighborhood that is beautiful and healthy to live in. With a longtime interest in greenbuilding, supporting one of Seattle’s first LEED buildings pursue and achieve certification more than a decade ago, as well as community development, having experienced, while living in high-need neighborhoods of Mexico and Central America, the power of community to improve livability and change lives, his primary role at Pringle Creek is sustainable design and project management, and the development of shared spaces and programs that lead to social interaction. He holds a B.A. in French and Political Science from Seattle University..

Dan Kent
Dan Kent is Salmon-Safe's executive director. Dan led the development of Salmon-Safe
at Pacific Rivers Council from 1995 to 2001 and also served as that organization's
communications director for five years. A native of the Pacific Northwest, Dan was raised
on a small farm in the Palouse Hills of eastern Washington state. Dan has an
undergraduate degree in management and economics as well as a graduate degree in
business (MBA) and corporate product management and marketing experience with one
of the nation's largest financial institutions. Dan also serves on the board of directors of
the Wild Farm Alliance, a California-based organization working to integrate sustainable
agriculture and the conservation of native biodiversity, and Cork Forest Conservation
Alliance, a startup organization focused on protecting and sustaining the high
biodiversity cork forests of the Mediterranean region while working with the wine industry
to build North American markets for recycled natural cork.

James Meyer
James Meyer is a partner and co-founder of Opsis Architecture in Portland, Oregon, an
award-winning firm rooted in the philosophy that design excellence is environmentally
sustainable. In 2003, James guided the firm’s purchase and development of a 1910
historic structure in the Pearl District, transforming it into a LEED Gold Certified open
studio and Opsis office. James is a frequent guest lecturer on the topic of sustainability
at colleges and businesses around the Northwest, as well as a Fellow for the Institute of
Green Professionals. Currently, he is the Principal in Charge of a number of green
building projects, including the sustainable Pringle Creek Development in Salem,
Oregon, Oregon State University's Student Experience Center, the University of Oregon
Alumni Center and Western Oregon University's Health and Wellness Center.