- The “living building” is dead.
RIP, $64.6 million “living building” in the center of Portland. The tumultuous life of the Oregon Sustainability Center seems to have come to a conclusion today with a press release Mayor Sam Adams’ office sent out this afternoon:
“The proposed Oregon Sustainability Center was set to be a laboratory for green technology and was designed to be the largest “net zero” high-rise ever built.
At the request of my City Council colleagues, we found a private partner — Interface Engineering — that offered to co-own the proposed cutting-edge building. Interface Engineering is a great Portland-based company that is known world-wide for excellence in their field.
Nonetheless, it’s become clear to me this week that I don’t have the votes necessary to pass the project through Portland City Council and we won’t be moving forward.”
The center was supposed to be a gleaming beacon of the city’s support of green jobs, but the pricetag for the building had many people questioning whether the building was economically sustainable.
And sanity is apparently alive, for at least one more day.
A cameo appearance, you might say, Blabby.
Wait … so the proposed building was unsust…
I thought it was already under construction. What happens to the site now?
Hey, couldn’t we just raise the water and sewer fees some more to pay for it?
The City of Portland can now use their share of the money to build more bike trails and paths. Written TIC.
Good. This thing was doomed the minute they chose the selected design team over Behnisch.
How is Adam’s gonna be remembered now?