Posted on 06/29/2010 1:12:42 PM PDT by Willie Green
Home to an expanding light-rail system, a thriving bike culture, a citywide recycling program, and a large number of LEED-certified buildings, Portland, Oregon, has long been known for its green sensibility. So it seems fitting that a government building there may soon be sheathed in a 200-foot-high living wall that would be visible from miles away.
The vegetated facade is part of a roughly $135 million overhaul planned for the Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building. SERA Architects, a local firm, is working with the General Services Administration on retrofitting the building to make it more energy efficient. The 18-story structure was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and was completed in 1975.
Work is slated to begin this fall on the renovation, which is being funded by federal stimulus dollars. The overall project calls for a new radiant heating and cooling system, a rainwater harvesting system, and energy-efficient interior lighting. Moreover, shading devices will be added to the east and south facades.
The centerpiece of the plan, however, is the green wall on the building’s west side. While the design is in flux , early schemes show seven movable, vertical “fins” that stretch the length of the building. Planting boxes created from recycled coconut husks would be affixed to a steel framing system. The architects are working with Sharp & Diamond Landscape Architecture, based in Vancouver, on the plan.
Don Eggleston, AIA, president of SERA, says the living wall has aesthetic value, yet also aids greatly in mitigating solar gain. “The original thought was that vegetated fins could help maximize the shading in the hot afternoon suns,” he says. “ We are out to maximize our energy conservation.”
While the green wall has been highly publicized, the project team isn’t confident it will actually happen. Concerns regarding installation costs, possible performance issues, and maintenance have all been raised. “What we don't want to end up with is in 30 years having to do this all over again,” says Kevin Kampschroer, director of the GSA’s Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings. If the green wall is nixed, Kampschroer says they intend to employ another shading strategy.
Code for Wasting Taxpayer Dollars. And I'd be willing to bet that a "living wall" will cost more than a conventional one.
How about a 200 ft. tall wall several thousand miles along the U.S./Mexico border?
Racist!
I’m soooooo glad I’m an Oregonian. Can’t wait to help maintain this sucker.
Coming from Portland, I just know that there’s a giant dose of “I didn’t know that would happen...” in there.
Libs are not only NOT the sharpest knives in the drawer - they’re plastic spoons in a drawer of knives.
WE DON’T HAVE ANY MONEY TO WASTE ON CRAP!
“Keep Portland Weird”
“funded by federal stimulus dollars”. No money for the gulf, no money for the wall along the Mexican border, but money aplenty for this.
Pest control alone will see to that . . .
Especially "green" pest control!
“How about a 200 ft. tall wall several thousand miles along the U.S./Mexico border?”
Covered with poison oak overlooking freshly laid (yet eco-friendly) fields of living claymores.
Only modern day liberal geniuses would even think to implement such an integration of nature and brick...oh, wait....
what a waste.
Government should be banned from spending money
We should be putting up a 200-foot high "living wall" on the southern border. Just to study it and see what happens.
Especially "green" pest control!
Well yeah, if you go the conventional route. Instead they should get some hippies from Berkley to hand-pick every last mite off the "green-wall."
That sentence is especially fitting for a government project.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
I suppose the terrorists will bring a bunch of Round Up with them if they ever attack the place....
LOL
Good wind will come along and dump 500 lds of “coconut husk” baskets on passerby.
CAn’t wait for that video - sorta like - “After Man is Gone, and only Hippes remain”
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