According to the Willamette Week, Portland has 103 LEED certifications, second only to Chicago’s 120 certifications. Chicago is the third largest US city with 2.8M people — compare that to the .5M Portlandians living in the Rose City. Way to Go Portland! The struggle to stay on the forefront of the sustainable movement is most apparent with the proposal of The Living Building aka The Green Giant. The real name of this eight story building is the Oregon Sustainability Center (yawn, how boring). Portland State University is steering this project and it will soon become the home of sustainability education where students will learn the importance of being green. The City of Portland and Mayor Sam Adams are highly involved along side Gerding Edlen Development. Watch the most recent video and make your comments on the two schematic designs.
When you read the names of the organizations collaborating with PSU and supporting this project, you wonder how companies can differentiate if they all use the word sustainability in their names. It will be a huge surprise if funding is not secured for this green monster, especially since Governor Kitzhaber is all about building the green economy. For $65 million in public funds, the building is a steal. Unfortunately, the public is not on the list of tenants. But perhaps the building can save $65 million in electricity and water, and that will indirectly help the future energy resources of Portland. Or maybe if the developers add a real rainforest inside, it will attract more visitors to our port and boost tourism.
Snapshot:
Square feet: 132,000
Inhabitants: 725
Construction cost per SF: $462
Material origination: 250 miles
Rainwater collection: 200,000 gallons
Rainwater reserve tank: 200,000 gallons
Solar panels: 6,000 SF
Energy monitoring devices: 1,000
Wouldn’t it be nice if the 725 inhabitants of the building were new, permanent positions developed just for this building?
Every Day Life of Lola 