A Common Vision
In 2007, several sustainability-focused nonprofits began planning a commonly held office space in Portland to share expenses, resources, and to take advantage of the synergies that are created when ideas are shared in close proximity. A priority for the group, led by the Oregon Environmental Council and Earth Advantage Institute, was constructing a building that adheres to the then-recently released Living Building Challenge ™ guidelines, which would qualify it among the most sustainable buildings ever designed and constructed.
Coincidentally, the Oregon University System (OUS), under the leadership of the Oregon State Board of Higher Education, was developing similar plans for Oregon universities to pool resources for a facility dedicated to sustainability research, and thus the two groups began collaborating in the spring of 2008.
That summer, they learned that the City of Portland, led by the Office of Sustainable Development and Portland Development Commission, was also taking steps to construct a center for sustainability. Mayor Sam Adams called the parties together and formally proposed that the region’s public, private and academic communities collaborate in creating a space to keep Oregon at the forefront of the new green economy. The Oregon Sustainability Center would demonstrate that capability by creating the world’s first high-rise, net-zero energy, water, and carbon emissions building.
Building on a History of Environmental Achievement
It’s no surprise that Oregon’s public, nonprofit, and academic communities simultaneously initiated plans for a center for green research and commerce. The state has long been a leader in innovative environmental policy and practice.
Green policy innovation began as early as 1899, when the state legislature declared 30 miles of Oregon's coastal beaches as a public highway. This unusual action kept the magnificent and still-pristine coastline out of developers’ hands, forever securing public access. In 1913 the designation was extended to the entire length of Oregon’s shore. Public access to and "ownership" of the beaches was further defined and codified in the 1970s by Governor Tom McCall. Further, McCall castigated, “sagebrush subdivisions, coastal condomania, and the ravenous rampages of suburbia,” and helped create statewide programs for land use planning. This eventually gave rise to Portland’s Urban Growth Boundary, a renowned model for desirable, sustainable growth nationally and the world over.
In 1993, Portland became the first US city to enact a local strategy to reduce carbon emissions. Local emissions are now one percent below 1990 levels, sharply countering the national trend. Oregon continues to foster green energy innovation statewide — spurring an exciting wind- and solar-energy boom, creating hundreds of jobs, and supporting important research and development in renewable energies, including impending wave-energy technologies being developed by Oregon's private sector and public universities.
Timeline
In the fall of 2008, the city of Portland funded a design feasibility study for the Oregon Sustainability Center, selecting the design team in January 2009. That spring, a series of high-profile design charrettes tapped dozens of the region’s best and brightest green building minds to move the project forward.
The City of Portland and the Oregon University System completed schematic design in Summer 2011. Subsequent to obtaining final approval, construction would begin in 3rd quarter 2012, with building completion at the end of 2013.
Location
The Oregon Sustainability Center will be located on the eastern edge of Portland State University campus in downtown Portland, Oregon. It will form the nucleus of the Portland State University Ecodistrict, a neighborhood strategy to develop and integrate smart buildings, infrastructure, transportation, and community connectivity along sustainable lines.
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The project is led by:
Oregon University System – Seven distinguished universities reaching more than one million people each year.
Portland Development Commission – The city’s urban renewal and economic development agency.
City of Portland, Bureau of Planning & Sustainability
The Oregon Living Building Initiative - A group of leading environmental organizations and firms, led by the Oregon Environmental Council and Earth Advantage Institute.
Other key partners include:
Oregon Built Environment & Sustainable Technologies (BEST) Center
Portland Sustainability Institute – A nonprofit defining and steering the region’s sustainable vision.
Team:
Gerding Edlen Development Company