Gibbs Pedestrian Bridge

The City of Portland is working to build a new bike and pedestrian bridge over I-5 to connect the historic Lair Hill neighborhood with the South Waterfront District. The bridge will span approximately 700 feet, and will have a landing on the west side near the intersection of SW Gibbs Street and SW Kelly Avenue and on the east side near the intersection of SW Gibbs Street and SW Moody Avenue. The bridge will be adjacent to the aerial tram and will include improvements to some pedestrian crossings in the area. Work activities began in January 2011 and the bridge is expected to be completed by March 2012.

Link

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Yeon’s Watzek House is officially a National Historic Landmark

The influential Northwest Modernist 1937 house, hidden in the Southwest hills of Portland, has made it to the ranks of National Historic Landmark.

Oregon is known for a lot of things, but being a hotbed of influential 20th century modernist architecture is not one of them. Our claims to fame tend to be more humble, homegrown, and of the earth: Mt. Hood, the unspoiled coast, hazelnuts and hoppy beers, the wonky-sounding and invisible Urban Growth Boundary.

So perhaps it is appropriate that the latest Oregon building to be granted National Historic Landmark status by the U.S. Department of the Interior is a woodframe house quietly hidden behind dense trees off SW Skyline Boulevard: architect (and environmental preservationist) John Yeon’s 1937 Watzek House. It is hidden, but well worth being discovered.

Since 1996 the Watzek House has been owned by the University of Oregon as part of the John Yeon Center for Architectural Studies founded with the gift of the house and an endowment from Richard Brown, Yeon’s longtime companion who worked with Yeon and lived in for decades). The university plans to offer periodic tours and has inked a deal with prominent historian Marc Treib to write a monograph on Yeon’s work.

Read more

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Portland’s First Living Building

The June Key Delta Community Center will be unveiled to the public Wednesday, August 8th – 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at 5940 N. Albina Ave.

Slideshow
 

But perhaps its biggest moment in the sun will come in little over a year from now, when it could officially become the city’s first living building.

After two years of construction, city officials led by Mayor Sam Adams on Wednesday will host a grand opening ceremony for the building, a former North Portland gas station and brownfield transformed into a community center by the Portland Alumnae Chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc.

The project is a participant in the International Living Building Institute’s Living Building Challenge, which asks architects and builders to erect structures that minimize their impact on the world around them.

Before a building can be certified as a “living building,” it must be occupied for a year.

Portland Development Commission spokesman Shawn Uhlman said the certification process for the June Key Delta building can’t begin until all its components are in place. The building’s solar energy system has yet to be complete, he said.

Nonetheless, the city will celebrate its grand opening on Wednesday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at 5940 N. Albina Ave.

“The June Key Delta Community Center delivers on the city’s goals of increasing job opportunities for a diverse workforce, supporting education, and creating the nation’s greenest construction sector,” Adams said in a news release.

Link
 

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Portland Streetcar 10th Anniversary Celebration

Friday, August 12 · 10:00am – 4:00pm

Jamison Square, NW 10th & Johnson, Portland, OR

Link
 

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Portland’s Memorial Coliseum to be Redeveloped LEED Gold?

Portland’s Memorial Coliseum has a bumpy past (if you count numerous attempts to rip the building down). And now Portland officials want it to have a shiny new future. But information on that exact plan remains murky, at best.

While the eventual use of the structure could still flip or flop a few different directions, acting on behalf of the city, the Portland Development Commission has issued a Request for Proposals for architectural and engineering services to renovate the 50-year-old structure located on the Willamette River east of the main downtown core.

Originally opened in 1960, the coliseum served as the first home for the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers (they moved into the adjacent Rose Garden Arena in 1995). The coliseum still hosts minor-league hockey’s Portland WinterHawks and a smattering of other events throughout the year. Having grown up in Portland, but without living there since the 1990s, I remember both hockey and basketball games in the coliseum and the Rose Garden, often marveling at the massive glass windows of the coliseum (hey, I was only a kid, remember).

Read more

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

July 28th – Sustainability Networking

Join SBO and the Green Sports Alliance this Thursday for a fun evening of food, drink and sustainability networking. The event will include a 'think tank' session in which we'll brainstorm best practices for the Green Sports Alliance to share with their growing network of professional sports teams and facilities!

What: SBO Network: Greener sports
When: July 28th, 5-7 PM
Where: Mercy Corps Headquarters (45 SW Ankeny Street, Portland)
Who: Sustainability professionals, green team leaders, change agents, small business owners
Why: The SBO Network is a quarterly mixer event featuring in-depth discussion around important topics. In partnership with The Natural Step Network, the aim of SBO Network is to provide a forum for the exchange of best practices and solutions to hurdles at the intersection of business and sustainability.

Delicious food and drink generously provided by Bon Appetit Management Company.

Link

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Sustainable NW – Food & Wine Aug. 11th

Join us on August 11 for a fun evening celebrating the local wood supply and green building industry and its role in creating healthy economies and communities, and a healthy environment.

Wood & Wine is a fundraiser to support the important work that Sustainable Northwest does to connect people, empower communities and demonstrate solutions.

Guests will enjoy a free wine tasting, a summer barbecue and live music from local old time band Turpentine String Band.

The event will be from 5-8pm at Sustainable Northwest Wood just south of OMSI.

Tickets are $25 each and are on sale here.

More info

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

PDX Bridge Festival

PDX Bridge Festival 2011
July 29 – August 7
Festival Events & Information

Radiating like spokes from downtown Portland, the ten bridges that span the Willamette River are central to regional identity, tying the geography and cultures of Portland into a vibrant whole. Beginning with the Hawthorne Bridge Centennial in 2010—followed closely by the Steel Bridge (2012) and the Broadway Bridge (2013) Centennials—we are excited to introduce the PDX Bridge Festival as an annual, citywide cultural arts festival that celebrates the Willamette River Bridges while harnessing the power of Portland’s creative capacity.

The PDX Bridge Festival reinvents the bridges as staging grounds for individual works of art and performance. While showcasing the convergence of industrial design and artistic endeavor, and presenting a diverse program of gallery exhibitions, speakers, musical events and performance, we will create a valuable cultural tourist destination in the heart of Portland. Drawing large numbers of visitors and residents to this event, our goal is to bring people together in a spirit of civic pride, aesthetic wonder, and community engagement. In short, PDX Bridge Festival would treat the bridges as a canvas upon which we can tell the story of Portland—who we are, where we come from, where we are going, and how we choose to express the culture of our great city.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Understanding Changes to Oregon’s Energy Tax Credits

The Oregon Legislature recently passed legislation (House Bill 3672) that amends, sunsets and creates a number of tax credit programs currently administered by the Oregon Department of Energy. If signed by Governor Kitzhaber, the details of how the new programs will be implemented will be determined during the Oregon Department of Energy’s public rulemaking process.

Energy Trust cash incentives are available to Portland General Electric, Pacific Power, NW Natural and Cascade Natural Gas customers investing in qualifying energy-efficiency and renewable power projects. The pending tax credit changes do not change Energy Trust incentives at this time.

We understand that changes to the state energy tax credit programs could impact energy-efficiency and renewable energy projects you are considering or that are in progress. The Oregon Department of Energy has compiled a list of questions from the public regarding the changes, and has answered them by way of "Frequently Asked Questions" posted on the department's website. If you have additional questions, please feel free to email or call the Oregon Department of Energy at 1.800.221.8035.

Energy Trust will be studying the impacts of the tax credit legislation and evaluating whether changes to Energy Trust programs are needed in the future to continue delivering cost-effective energy efficiency and clean, renewable energy solutions to our residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural customers.

Read more

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Recycling Carpet Into Raw Nylon

An Oregon carpet-recycling business is poised to expand across the West Coast and co-owner Ron Smith says the company is also seeing steady growth at home.

With an eye on the 1.5 billion pounds of carpet discarded annually in the West, Smith established Beaverton-based Carpet Collectors with two silent partners and an undisclosed investment a year and a half ago. Now, he’s poised to open three additional locations by 2012.

Carpet Collectors currently recycles 1 million pounds of carpet monthly at its facility on Denny Road. The business generates revenue in two ways: by collecting fees from carpet dumpers and by selling the nylon sheered off of old rugs.

"Everyone wants to recycle, as long as it doesn’t cost them money. In our business model, we’re charging less than the landfills," Smith said, pointing to fees ranging from $35 to $40 a ton for disposal, compared with fees of more than $100 per ton at landfills, Metro fees considered. The non-prime, recycled nylon sells for between 60 cents and 65 cents per pound.

“It’s amazing how much gets wasted, and it’s nylon, it’s a great product. It’s just that nobody has figured out how to recycle it,” said Smith, who declined to share revenue figures for Carpet Collectors.

Well, almost nobody.  Read More

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment