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I am glad to hear Jill's mention of EcoDistricts. After tracking the actual performance of first generation green buildings, the design and construction industry is beginning to look at the potential for groups of buildings, whether in city districts or on campuses, to achieve much greater degrees of energy and water efficiency with less cost than would be possible in isolated buildings.

 

Not only can such systems benefit from variety of time of occupancy, as Jill mentioned, but types of occupancy that have very different energy demands such as residences requiring heat while offices primarily need to reject heat. These district systems achieve symbiosis mimicking natural systems.

 

The GED-developed brewery blocks district thermal system has become available beyond that immediate development. The ZGF-designed GED project, 12th and Washington, for example was able to tap into that district system, which in concert with energy efficient building design and systems will make the building over 45 percent more efficient than the national energy code.

 

The governor's Oregon Solutions project is trying to make such an integrated EcoDistrict take shape in Portland's Lloyd Redevelopment District, and we've been involved in envisioning what that might look like.

It is an exciting time to see the scale of thinking about green building reach the community scale, an area where Oregon has always been a leader.

 

Johanna Brickman

Director of Sustainability

ZGF Architects, LLP

posted 3 years, 12 months ago
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