Oregon’s reputation as one of the nation’s leaders in sustainability practices is getting a serious boost from the state government.
Included in the Governor Ted Kulongoski recommended budget of $917 million for higher education for 2009-11 is a $80 million dedicated for the creation of an Oregon Sustainability Center, to be built on Portland State’s campus.
The Oregon State Legislature, which convened last Monday, is currently reviewing the project as well as the Governor’s recommended budget.
The project will be a collaboration between both private and public entities, including the Oregon University System and the Portland Development Commission. According to Diane Saunders, director of communication for the OUS, the site for the building will be at the junction of Southwest Fifth Ave. and Montgomery St. and at the confluence of the MAX and bus system, currently an empty parking space donated by PDC for the project.
Jay Kenton, vice chancellor for Finance and Administration of OUS expressed his hope for the project.
“It would become the front door to sustainability in Oregon where people from around the world could come to see the building because it will the first living building on that scale in the world,” Kenton said.
A living building, as defined by the Cascadia Region Green Building Council, is a building that “generates all of its own energy with renewable resources, captures and treats all of its water, and operates efficiently and for maximum beauty.”
Portland State is no stranger to innovative green design. The recently renovated Shattuck Hall Building is an example of the university’s effort toward sustainable practices. Shattuck Hall employs a number of factors such as natural lights, efficient plumbing and recycled material to earn it a Gold rating from LEED, the nation’s standard for green building.
However, according to Saunders, the state’s sustainability center will go well beyond Shattuck Hall in terms of sustainability.
“It will have its own energy source so you don’t have to bring any outside electricity, which will bring it above and beyond the LEED rating,” Saunders said.
The potential for what the building can be used for is limitless, as Kenton cites a number of possibilities.
“We can have the office of sustainable development and planning in there, it will has a group of nonprofit and for-profit entities involve in sustainability like the Oregon Environmental Council and the Green Building Services,” he said.
Portland State students can also benefit from the building as Kenton said, “We’re hoping to have classroom and offices, even some housing for people to live.”
“We are excited about the opportunity for both our students and faculty to interact with a number of green nonprofits that will provide student internship opportunity,” said Roy Koch, Portland State provost who coordinates the university system’s participation in the project. “Students will get the chance to come learn how the building work and the opportunity to do a variety of studies, such as capstone projects.”
The center will also provide inspiration for the citizens and students to create better green buildings for the future.
“We’re hoping the citizens could come and learn about sustainability technology that they could deploy at home and also a place where they could come to apply for tax-incentives for green technology,” Kenton said.
“Our intent would be to make the building an experiment where our students can get the opportunity to study whether the building functions in the way it was designed and what kind of improvement can be made for the next wave of buildings,” Koch said.
In addition to being a first of its kind in the nation as a living building, the project also ties in with one of the key themes of the governor’s recommended budget, which is making an investment in infrastructure across the state of Oregon.
“The project will be in step with President Obama’s plan to invest in infrastructure to create jobs across the nation as well as to work on long-term infrastructure problems we have across the nation,” Saunders said.
Bruce Warner, PDC executive director, said, “Our investment and involvement in building a permanent Oregon Sustainability Center are consistent with our strategic focus on promoting local and regional green businesses, entrepreneurs and innovators with the goal of creating more jobs for Portland.”
To kick off the development, the PDC and the OUS issued a proposal for a study last Monday. The study will focus on the design, engineering and financial aspect of the center and whether it would be a feasible project at all. Koch said if everything goes as planned, construction can begin as early as next year.