The Oregon Sustainability Center (OSC) is the collaborative vision of a unique public/private partnership between city and state government, higher education, nonprofit organizations and the business community.
At the core of this project is a 200,000+ square foot urban, mixed-use high rise positioned to become the regional hub for Portland and Oregon’s sustainability activities.
The Center will also be the world’s first “Living Building” of its scale. Adhering to the prerequisites of the Cascadia Region Green Building Council’s Living Building Challenge, the Center will produce 100% of its energy on site through self-sustaining energy generation and distribution systems; its design also includes integrated water reuse (for black, grey and storm water management), net-zero energy consumption and no carbon footprint.
The OSC’s core project team includes:
- Oregon State Board of Higher Education and the Oregon University System
- Portland Community College
- Portland + Oregon Sustainability Institute
- City of Portland, Bureau of Planning & Sustainability
- Portland Development Commission
- Oregon Living Building Initiative, a consortium of nonprofits working in sustainability
- A design team of 20+ Oregon-based businesses led by Gerding Edlen Development, Inc.
A feasibility study for the project is currently underway, and scheduled for completion by June 5th, 2009. We will be tracking the progress of the study, and the building’s early design stages, on this blog.
Check back often, things change quickly around here.
[...] at the Gerding Edlen Development Co. offices to dream up features for the city’s proposed Sustainability Center of Excellence — a state-of-the-art high-rise that would function both as an emblem of hyper-green design, [...]