N'hood Development

My first project as an intern at Fat Pencil Studio was to develop some visualizations for possible growth scenarios in the east-side neighborhoods of Portland. In the process I learned how to tag a geographic location in a SketchUp model and then view the new model in the context of existing buildings in Google Earth.

A large number of people are predicted to relocate to Portland by 2050, and accommodating the growing population involves many stakeholder priorities. My task was to study what it would look like to densify an existing close-in neighborhood with a variety of infill building types. Using SketchUp, I showed how a 100x100 sq. ft. lot can fit development ranging from a single family home with an Accessory Dwelling Unit, to a ten-story microtower.

Adopting Irvington in NE Portland as a test case, I created a series of maps to speculate how density might distribute through the neighborhood to support livability and preserve neighborhood character. I did this by importing SketchUp models into various lots, locations and clusters. Once I had done that, the biggest challenge was to simplify the overlapping tree and building textures to produce a readable image. A hand drawn overlay emphasized building outlines and people. In Photoshop, I replaced textures with color fields to communicate the cityscape. This information and more is also available on my personal website, www.yelenaprusakova.com.

Yelena Prusakova was an illustrator at Fat Pencil Studio from 2013-2017.