Team presentations tonight at City Hall for Sustainability Center from interesting mix of local and international firms

From 6-8PM tonight in the Portland City Council chambers at City Hall (1221 SW Fourth Avenue), presentations by finalists for the Sustainability Center of Excellence to be located in downtown Portland at SW Fifth Avenue and Montgomery Street. Following proposals, a project team will be selected to conduct a Development Feasibility Analysis.

One word of caution to those thinking of going: these presentations will not be about design proposals for the sustainability center. That stage hasn't arrived yet. Instead, the presentations will mostly, I'm told by Daniel Spero of the Portland Development Commission, be about the teams articulating their experience.

The finalists who'll be making presentations tonight at half-hour intervals beginning at 6:15, are teams of architecture firms, developers, and other specialists and consultants:

• Gerding Edlen Development with SERA Architects and GBD Architects

• Holst Architecture with FX Fowle, Pettigrove Venture and Equity Community Builders LLC

• Ethos Project Management with Behnisch Architects, Brightworks and Regenesis Group

• Winkler Development Corporation with Perkins + Will and LRS Architects

Of these, the Gerding Edlen partnership with SERA and GBD would be the most familiar to Portlanders, with Gerding and GBD doing the Brewery Blocks, Casey Condominiums, and Gerding Theater at the Armory and several other projects together, and Gerding and SERA previously teaming up for The Civic condo-apartment project.

Holst Architecture and developer Pettigrove Venture have worked together before; it's my understanding Pettigrove was a partner in Holst's Belmont Lofts. Pettigrove also developed renovations like the Triangle and Fitzgibbon Glass buildings. FX Fowle is an acclaimed New York firm that will add gravitas to Holst's already strong design and sustainability reputation. FX has done work in Dubai, India, China, Denmark, the New York Times headquarters (with Renzo Piano), and much more. Their design for 11 Times Square is pictured at right.

I'm not familiar with Ethos Project Management, but Behnisch Architects has offices in Stuttgart, Germany and Los Angeles. They've done a hugely impressive array of work all over Europe, Russia and the United States. Brightworks, a Portland firm providing green design services, would also be a good addition to that team.

Winkler Development is another Portland firm; Jim Winkler redeveloped the Adidas Village from the old Kaiser hospital on North Greeley, as well as a renovated building in the Yamhill historic district downtown and the DeSoto Building in the Pearl housing numerous art galleries. Winkler hired LRS Architects to do the Adidas project's interiors, and they have gained some major green building experience in China, as I reported a few days ago in a separate post. Perkins + Will is a huge Chicago-based firm with offices throughout the world. They are a previous winner of the AIA's prestigious national firm of the year award. Right now they're doing, among hundreds of other projects, what will be the nation's largest US courthouse in Los Angeles, a LEED Platinum rated skyscraper (pictured at left) with an impressively massive atrium.

Although the Portland Development Commission's RFP seemed to focus on local firms, I'm excited to see the combination of local and national/international firms involved. I haven't personally decided which of these teams I'd like to see get the job. There are naturally lots of practical considerations to be made. The Gerding/GBD/SERA team would, again, be the most familiar to Portland, but maybe they have a design in mind that's more mind-blowing than all the rest. Holst and FX Fowle would be an intriguing combination, and the job would be another step up for Holst into the stratosphere of larger-scale projects. Perkins + Will is also intriguing, and it would be nice to see Jim Winkler get the job after being on a treadmill for much of the last decade trying to get One Waterfront Place built.

Again I must ask, though: Are the parameters of the competition ideal for producing the best possible design for this Sustainability Center? Are teams of developers and designers delineating their experience the best way to pick, or should we have some sort of design competition where we're judging the building itself? I love design competitions and seeing the potential building before picking a designer. But it isn't always so simple. With the Portland aerial tram, for example, Sara Graham and her firm, AGPS Architecture, were my least favorite of the four finalists. But Graham did a superhuman job once the team was picked, ensuring that the integrity of a quality designed was maintained throughout the construction process. Other finalists like UN Studio and SHoP had me more excited, but I couldn't possibly second-guess the Graham selection now, in hindsight.

Meanwhile, do the rest of you have any preferences yet?

Comments

[Horsewhistle]

Before hand, be sure to stop by and see David Orr speak at U of O's White Stag:

http://www.cascadiagbc.org/events/2009/february/transformational-lecture-series-w-david-orr/view

[anon]

Did anyone attend the presentations last night? Would love to hear your impressions...

[John Jennings]

Last night after sitting though all the presentations by the four finalists for the Sustainability Center of Excellence to be located in downtown Portland, I asked myself which team would I choose. Although there were world class leaders in sustainable design on the teams and enough images of really dramatic and substantial buildings that purportedly come close to meeting the ambitious Living Building goals, I came away thinking a recombination of some of the team members might be best. Pick the best of each specialty from each team and mix them back into a super team. Too bad we can't do that. But what makes a good team anyway? What kind of team can assure successful delivery of this highly ambitious innovative project that aims for zero carbon emissions, no off-site energy resources consumed, zero waste, all water use from captured or reused water from the site, with no wastewater discharge, a healthy interior environment, and at the same time beautiful and inspiring. (See http://www.cascadiagbc.org/lbc/ for Living Building Criteria).

From our experience at BetterBricks, it will require a team with a client that sets clear and significant performance goals (done here by the project sponsors); a developer that is open to ideas, willing to take risks and innovate; an architect able to work collaboratively with lots of team members (not a visionary "starchitect"); engineers with out-of-the box thinking empowered by significant technical expertise; and a sustainability consultant with a holistic view (not just a list checker). In fact, all team members need to be well versed in ecosystem thinking (ecology, systems dynamics, regeneration, balance, biomimicry, biophilia, etc.). The whole team must be open to community input. And to ensure effective integrated design, the team has to be able to easily and quickly communicate on a regular basis.

John Jennings
Market Manager, BetterBricks
Design & Construction
Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance

[Aneeda]

The project may not need a star architect, but it will need to be iconic, a task (one of many) left to a gifted architectural visionary. If this project fails to create Architecture with a capital A - then a wonderful opportunity for this city will have slipped us by. If the community is creating a building that functions unlike any other building in the city in terms of sustainability or regeneration then this building will look and function unlike any other building in Portland. To make those new elements 'sing' will indeed require a gifted architect. Although I see many good architects on this list, judging by the lack of response on this site to the teams presented, I'm guessing the architecture community is maybe a little (not completely) disappointed by the teams that were shortlisted for this project.

[Z]

I was ecstatic upon learning that Behnisch had made the shortlist...they'd be the ideal designers for such an prominent and important Portland building.

I've been checking the comments section frequently to see if anyone had made it to the interviews...Brian? Anyone???

[dennis]

I am quite happy with who made the list, but I am holding my opinion until I see what they are really proposing. I have a feeling most people are doing that as well.

[[name removed - spam]]

Whoa!!!!
it looks huge and amazing, and the partnership with SERA AND GBD is the smartest way of get to the top!!!