Portland hits platinum

In June, the Port of Portland, Ore., received LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for its new headquarters building at Portland International Airport that opened in May 2010. The 205,000-square-foot office building incorporates many green technologies — such as daylighting, fixed exterior shading, water-efficient fixtures, and a 10,000-square foot eco-roof — that combine to reduce the facility's water use by 75 percent and energy use by 36 percent compared to a standard building of the same size.

Under the building, more than 200 pipes provide ground source heating and cooling in a closed loop system, serving the passive radiant ceiling panel heating and cooling system inside. The lobby features Living Machine technology, from Charlottesville, Va.-based Living Machine Systems, which recycles all of the building's wastewater for reuse in the building. Much of the Port's original furniture was reused in the new headquarters, reclaimed old-growth fir from piers dismantled in the late 1990s was reused in the building entry lobby, and cobblestones in the entry plaza once served as ballast in ships.

The $85 million office building was designed by locally based ZGF Architects, and the general contractor was locally based Hoffman Construction Co. Its construction was funded with a combination of available working capital in the PDX Port Cost Center and airport revenue bonds paid for by the cost center.