Pearl Harbor Memorial Museum & Visitor Center
National Park Service, US NavyHonolulu, HI
The Memorial, with its dramatic and moving history, has become the most popular visitor attraction in Honolulu, and the annual visitation of 1.5 million is double the carrying capacity of the existing shore-side visitor center. The entire campus has been redesigned to accommodate more visitors and to better tell this important American story. The new museum and visitor center will extend the areas for visitor gathering and memorial ceremonies, expand museum exhibits, renovate the theaters for the introductory film presentation, improve visitor amenities and provide new offices for park staff. Incorporating universal accessibility and sustainable design principles, the new museum and visitor center are LEED Gold certified.
Happy Hollow Park & Zoo
City of San JoseSan Jose, CA
In the heart of San Jose an existing forty acre multi-use park holds opportunities for drama and fun, and a heightened interpretive experience. Capitalizing on complex site topography, creating themed circulation, and planning for new buildings and exhibits, we developed an immersive experience focused on children ages two through 10 and their families. This project represents the first LEED Gold certified amusement park and zoo in the United States.
- Architecture
- Landscape Architecture
- Interpretive Planning
- Exhibit Design
- Graphic Design
- Master Planning
Beaver Lake Park
King County Facilities Management - ParksIssaquah, WA
From master plan to implementation, Portico led design for the development of Beaver Lake Park. The park includes a “Sports Meadow” with four ball fields, bleachers, restrooms, parking and support facilities, and a “Camp” area with picnicking, overnight cabins and a lodge to serve parks recreation programs. Outdoor nature education areas include trails into the woodlands and wetlands of the park site.
BeltLine Arboretum
Trees AtlantaAtlanta, GA
Utilizing an old rail right-of-way, the City of Atlanta is creating an opportunity to link its many neighborhoods with an environmental and cultural asset: the BeltLine Arboretum. Trees Atlanta, a non-profit group dedicated to protecting and improving Atlanta’s urban environment through planting and conservation of trees, engaged Portico to develop a conceptual plan for their vision of a “green necklace” linking “jewels” of parks and urban nodes together along the 23-mile long arboretum corridor.
Crossroads Community Park
City of Bellevue Department of Parks & RecreationBellevue, WA
Crossroads Community Park provides a rich and imaginative setting where people of all ages and diverse cultural backgrounds can interact and communicate through play. The design uses the metaphor of a village as its organizing principle; a network of paths represents the village streets, providing access to buildings and play equipment. A terrazzo map of the world, identifying Bellevue’s four sister cities, orients the visitor. An adjacent play meadow provides space for sports and informal play. Portico developed a long range plan for the park, as well as design documents for the initial implementation phase.
Decatur Woods Park
City of Olympia Parks, Recreation & Cultural ServicesPortico created a master plan for Decatur Woods Park, the first phase of which grew into the design and construction of an interpretive trail, a play area, picnic pavilions and other park amenities. Residents of the neighborhood helped define the priorities for the plan, including an effort to preserve areas of established trees; the creation of a wildlife pond and habitat; and the placement of a safe system of trails suitable for many different uses.
Descanso Gardens Master Plan
Descanso GardensLa Canada Flintridge, CA
Building on Descanso Gardens’ strategic plan, the master plan helped the Gardens achieve near self-sufficiency in water and energy use, and become self-contained in terms of waste disposal and recycling. For a garden as beautiful as Descanso, demonstrating sustainability is truly a worthy vision. The Portico team assessed the feasibility of all aspects of self-sufficiency by identifying potential methods and technologies, assessing their application to the specific site and operations, and identifying the true value and cost of accomplishing the Gardens’ vision.
Washington State Capitol Campus Expansion
Washington State Law Enforcement FoundationHeritage Park is a 24-acre expansion of the Washington State Capitol Campus. The urban park block, with its central lawn ellipse and fountain, terminates the historic “Wilder & White Axis” and the public Esplanade, connecting the State Capitol Building to the city of Olympia and Budd Inlet. Portico enhanced and created 9.4 acres of wetlands along the south shore of the middle basin of Capitol Lake. Portico’s most recent project at Heritage Park is the Washington State Law Enforcement Memorial. This contemplative memorial overlooks the park from a bluff north of the Washington State Capitol Temple of Justice.
Holden Arboretum Master Plan
The Holden ArboretumKirtland, OH
The Holden Arboretum aims to convey that ?Trees are for life; they are a long term investment necessary for our future health.? Portico worked with the Arboretum to further this message. The master plan is designed to increase and broaden visitation by creating a significant visitor destination with greater relevance to its audience. By grouping proposed facilities together such as science labs and conservation areas, the arboretum staff can easily demonstrate and explain its work to the public.
Keiki Zoo
Honolulu ZooHonolulu, HI
Keiki (Children’s) Zoo is a special place bringing young and old close to animals while exploring the workings of a traditional Hawaiian ranch. Portico helped the Honolulu Zoo staff create the ambience of a rural farm, with all the sights, sounds and adventures of a day in the country - all within blocks of the urban center of Honolulu.
Korea National Marine Museum
Korea Ministry of Maritime Affairs and FisheriesBusan, South Korea
South Korea has deep historical and cultural ties to the ocean. With the goal of creating a world class museum and aquarium that would be an icon of national pride, Portico gathered, analyzed and organized various programmatic requirements, creating a comprehensive program that served as the foundation for a compelling concept. Taking visitors on an exciting ocean journey from the site’s shoreline to the depths of human imagination and adventure, visitors are immersed in compelling environments and stories through the integration of galleries, live animals, interactives, simulator rides, play areas and a variety of cutting-edge, high-tech theaters and exhibits.
Lacerte Family Children’s Zoo
Dallas ZooDallas, TX
Family activities transport visitors to real places with authentic ecology, promoting the idea that we all belong to a global ?home territory.? House, farm and woods encourage exploration from the familiar to the wild. Live animal interactions and role playing opportunities abound.
Mary Lowell Center
National Park Service, US Forest ServiceSeward, AK
For the planning of a new joint agency headquarters and visitor center for Kenai Fjords National Park and Chugach National Forest, Portico led a site selection study to analyze downtown Seward and its waterfront. Goals for the study were to strengthen downtown, stimulate private investment and complement other existing public waterfront visitor destinations. The chosen site will be developed to provide NPS and partnering agencies with an energy-efficient, year-round facility serving residents and tourists alike.
Miami Zoo Master Plan
Miami Dade CountyMiami, FL
The Portico Group developed a new master plan for Miami Zoo. The plan involved studying the existing zoo and conducting analysis of South Florida economic and tourism factors, with the aim to revitalize the zoo and increase attendance. The final plan involved conducting visitor studies, economic analysis, surveys and focus groups. The study also provided for the development of compatible facilities on adjacent public lands, considering museums, theme parks and eco-tourism attractions. Coordination with multiple agencies was required to coordinate complex plans for adjacent sites.
New Zealand National Aquarium
City of NapierNapier, New Zealand
The Portico Group developed a renovation and expansion plan to revitalize the Aquarium as an attraction, and to increase both visitor capacity and operations capability. Incorporating the animals and habitats of New Zealand, the experience starts with a journey through the country forests, including exhibits for several of the most endangered indigenous species. Visitors continue to the ocean shore and into the marine habitats around the islands.
Oklahoma State University Botanical Garden Master Plan
OSU Botanical GardenStillwater, OK
The vision for Oklahoma State University Botanical Garden is to serve as a gateway to the Stillwater community and a cultural destination for Oklahomans statewide. It is a living laboratory where visitors discover the world of plants; a gathering place that accommodates a range of activities; and a place of refuge. Portico’s master plan directs a layout of the site that reflects both the straight-line geometry of the surrounding grid of agricultural fields and roadways, and the sinuous curves of the rivers and streams that course over the natural terrain of central Oklahoma.
Rocky Mountain Wild
Cheyenne Mountain ZooColorado Springs, CO
Working within the unique mountain setting of the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, Portico designed exhibits to take advantage of a steeply sloping site with native Rocky Mountain vegetation and mature trees, capturing the Rocky Mountain wild experience. Exhibits feature Grizzly Bears, Mountain Lions, River Otters, Lynx and Prairie Dogs. Visitor play and adventure opportunities are built into the design.
Russia’s Grizzly Coast
Minnesota Zoological GardensApple Valley, MN
This new exhibit is a stunning, multi-species experience set in the Russian Far East, from Kamchatka Peninsula to Primorye and the Ussuri River Valley. These are places of mystical beauty, profound conservation challenges and fascinating animals which, by virtue of their own native habitat, are also uniquely adapted to Minnesota?s conditions. Special features of the exhibit provide visitors with captivating portrayals of the lives of real people who make their living in this unique wilderness, side-by-side with the wildlife.
San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers
City of San FranciscoSan Francisco, CA
A destination for generations of visitors, the Conservatory of Flowers at Golden Gate Park required significant restoration. Portico created an overall interpretive plan for the facility, which was implemented through thematic plant exhibits and interpretive displays. The restored Conservatory draws visitors to explore the world of plants; a range of options are presented, from elegant, formal pools and fountains, to playful interactive water elements and informal naturalistic pools and waterfalls. The award-winning facility is now a renewed and reinvigorated attraction.
Sea Lion and Penguin Shores
Auckland ZooAuckland, New Zealand
This playful exhibit accurately brings a sense of the New Zealand coast to the Zoo and contributes to shore community conservation. Provided with abundant shade and salt water, Little Blue Penguins and Sea Lions share a rich experience layered with textures of wood, rock and dappled sunlight.
Utah Field House of Natural History
State of UtahVernal, UT
The Portico Group, with AJC Architects, planned and designed the building and exhibits of the Utah Field House of Natural History. The museum offers visitors an expansive lobby; there a Diplodocus skeleton crosses a tile floor map showing the wealth of fossils found in and around Vernal. Large galleries devoted to the area’s richest offerings - fossils from the Jurassic Period and Eocene epoch - include dioramas, an interactive paleontology laboratory, and an entire wall covered with delicate fossil leaves.
Washington Park Arboretum Master Plan
Seattle Department of Parks & RecreationSeattle, WA
Ecology, conservation and education are even more compelling today than in 1934 when the Arboretum was originally designed by the Olmsted Brothers. The value of a world-class arboretum to the Puget Sound region has greatly increased. Portico created a visionary new master plan and a detailed implementation plan, identifying long-range strategies to manage the collections of this living museum. The plan emphasizes an ecological approach to plant collections showcasing plant communities and associated habitat, and highlights those plants adapted to our Pacific Northwest maritime climate and geography.
Trail to Treasure
Alliance for Pioneer SquareSeattle, WA
People’s needs and desires flow across time to shape Pioneer Square. This main message continues through all the stories that are told as part of the Trail to Treasure – a recreational and interpretive trail seeking to connect people to the fascinating history, ecology, and culture of Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighborhood. Working in collaboration with the Alliance for Pioneer Square, The Portico Group provided master planning and design services for the development of the trail. While the trail is firmly rooted in the neighborhood’s past, the aim of the project is to enhance the current and future vibrancy and resilience of Pioneer Square.
