Who was Gustav Albin Pehrson and why is Richland suddenly interested in honoring him?

Wendy Culverwell
·2 min read

A walking path that meanders through central Richland has a new name befitting the man who designed the area.

The Urban Greenbelt Trail, a horseshoe shaped path that starts and ends at the Columbia River waterfront, is now the G.A. Pehrson Urban Greenbelt Trail.

A shaded stretch along the Urban Greenbelt Trail passes by a fountain at the Banner Bank on Jadwin Avenue in Richland.
A shaded stretch along the Urban Greenbelt Trail passes by a fountain at the Banner Bank on Jadwin Avenue in Richland.

The Richland City Council approved the new name Sept. 3, after fans of the atomic-era architect first pitched the idea to the city’s parks and recreation commission.

The city will install new signs and take care of vegetation in anticipation of a celebration of the new name next spring.

The name change follows Richland’s history of honoring its roots by naming city parks, streets and other facilities for notable figures from its history.

Most notably, Howard Amon Park takes its name from the pioneer who platted the city and brought water and phone service to the area while Leslie Groves Park honors the the general who led the Manhattan Project.

Hanford project

Gustav Albin Pehrson, known as G.A. Pehrson, was a Swedish-born architect who worked in Spokane in the Art Deco era, according to his Wikipedia page.

In 1943, he was tapped to design the village to serve the Hanford Engineering Works. Richland had relatively few residents at the time and Pehrson was tasked with designing a community for 6,500, expanding to 12,000, according to the city.

Richland’s Urban Greenbelt Trail, in red and yellow, now honors Spokane-based architect G.A. Pehrson, who was responsible for the design of central Richland in the 1940s.
Richland’s Urban Greenbelt Trail, in red and yellow, now honors Spokane-based architect G.A. Pehrson, who was responsible for the design of central Richland in the 1940s.

His work informed the city’s road network, utilities, homes, school placement, commercial development and more, as echoed in the layout today.

“For many of us, our homes, the outlines of our streets, the kind of place Richland became after its initial World War II building, is largely due to the work of this Spokane architect,” said Nancy Doran, a Richland resident who championed the change.

Chris Waite, Richland’s parks and public facilities director, said Richland might have suffered the fate of other Army towns built to serve a strategic purpose: Identical homes stamped out along cookie cutter streets if it hadn’t been for Pehrson’s design instincts.

Giant horseshoe

At its northern point, the three-mile G.A. Pehrson Urban Greenbelt Trail connects to Richland’s waterfront trail behind Porter’s Real Barbecue, 1092 George Washington Way.

Markings for the Urban Greenbelt Trail are painted on the sidewalk near the intersection of Jadwin Avenue and Gillespie Street in Richland. The horseshoe shaped path that starts and ends at the Columbia River waterfront is now called the G.A. Pehrson Urban Greenbelt Trail.
Markings for the Urban Greenbelt Trail are painted on the sidewalk near the intersection of Jadwin Avenue and Gillespie Street in Richland. The horseshoe shaped path that starts and ends at the Columbia River waterfront is now called the G.A. Pehrson Urban Greenbelt Trail.

It heads west, following an irrigation channel toward Jadwin Avenue, which it parallels briefly before crossing a small oasis outside Banner Bank, 1221 Jadwin Ave., and heading south toward Kadlec Regional Medical Center.

The hospital, formerly Richland Hospital, was renamed eight days after the July 1944 death of the first person to die there, Lt. Col. Harry R. Kadlec, a lead engineer at Hanford.

At Kadlec, the trail passes a helicopter pad outside the emergency room, then heads south to George Prout Pool.

From the pool, it crosses Columbia Playfield below Richland High School, turns east and returns to the Columbia via Gillespie Parkway and Howard Amon Park.

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