SUSTAINABLE SOUTHEAST
COMMUNITY COALITION
Green Buildings in SE Portland
Portland is a leader in sustainability and we have many great examples to learn from in Southeast! In 2024 S2C2, received a small grant from the Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF) to develop a green building tour that could educate communities about strategies that reduce our carbon footprint, support habitat, filter stormwater, generate energy and live more sustainably. These projects showcase innovative green housing solutions, including solar energy, adaptive reuse, regenerative agriculture, solar thermal, eco-roofs and living wall technologies. View a few of the projects below and download the map to visit these projects. The following are the green buildings from the tour that can be visited around southeast. Read more below, download the mini-case study summary, or use the self-guided tour map.
Jolene's First Cousin
2828 SE Gladstone St.
This project is a replicable model of mixed-use affordable housing with 11 SRO's, three retail spaces and two market rate loft units. The project used no public subsidy to build the affordable housing and is a great example of context sensitive main street architecture that provides something for everyone. New solar panels on the roof offset nearly half of the energy of the affordable housing units makie it greener and even more affordable.
Eco-Features:
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Designed to be LEED Certifiable
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Roof-top solar photovoltaic renewable energy generation
Learn More: guerrilladev.co/jolenes-first-cousin
Move the House Project
3810 SE Division St.
Built in 2011, the Move the House project is a 26-unit apartment home mid-rise in the heart of Richmond neighborhood with ground-floor commercial space. The four-story development project creatively relocated and preserved an existing four-square existing home to another part of the lot rather than demolishing it. The project used creative design strategies to help fit with context of the neighborhood including breaking the massing into two wings connected with a transparent sky-bridge, upper story stepbacks at street façade, a courtyard that steps in from the street with a preserved tree and pedestrian gathering spaces, a pedestrian pass-through with permeable paving, multiple stormwater features, interpretive signage, vegetated trash enclosures, green roofs and stormwater art.
Eco-Features:
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Stormwater planters
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Permeable paving
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Eco-roof
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Tree preservation
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Raingarden
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Stormwater art
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Interpretive signage
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Relocation of an existing residence instead of demolition
Learn More: www.udplp.com/3810-se-division
Solterra
959 SE Division Street
The Solterra Building includes a 5-story mural with living hair. The building includes main street patterns with vertical human-scale windows, stacked floor plates for efficiency, base-middle-top storefront patterns at the ground floor, with solar awnings at the base, and a second solar canopy at the roof. They have a living wall in the interior and a roof deck with a beautifully landscaped living roof including 20 full size trees. PDX Main Streets gave the project an award in 2019 for art and innovation.
Eco-Features:
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Eco-roof deck with 20 full size trees
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Greywater cistern
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Living walls on the exterior & interior
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Northwest’s tallest insulated concrete form building
Learn More: solterra.com/our-projects/the-solterra-building-2/
Kailash Eco-Village
4311 SE 37th Avenue
Converted apartment complex that has incorporated almost every sustainability strategy in the book! From expansive permaculture, stormwater management, material reuse, to solar and even humanure, this project has an amazing community vibe and dedication to deep sustainability that is incredible. Tours are held the first Saturday of the month at 3:00 p.m., from March to November. If you are unable to attend in person, you can also check out a virtual tour of the property
Eco-Features:
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Rooftop solar generation
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Passivhaus building
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Tiny house on wheels
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Permaculture
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Rainwater harvesting
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EV Charging
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Solar thermal showers
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Composting
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Material reuse
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Adapted apartment buildings
Learn More: www.kailashecovillage.org
Salt & Straw Building
3345 SE Division St
This four-story, 31,000 SF mixed-use project was built in 2013 by UD+P and designed by Hacker Architects. The project includes ground-level commercial, 31 apartment units and two courtyards with public seating. The project was designed with energy efficiency in mind, and includes rainwater art, stormwater planters, permeable paving and a visible eco-roof accessible for viewing from a rear deck for public viewing.
Eco-Features:
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Visible Eco-roof
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Stormwater planters
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Permeable paving
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Energy-efficient design
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Certifications: LEED Platinum
Learn More: www.udplp.com/3339
Community Visions Inc
2475 SE Ladd Ave
The Seven Corners Community Collaborative building, built in 2018, is home to five non-profits offering support and services for individuals with intellectual, physical, and developmental disabilities. Waterleaf Architects designed the building to be welcoming for people of all abilities. The 28,500 s.f. building consists of an adaptive technology lab, coffee shop, three floors of offices, shared conference rooms, adaptive demonstration kitchen for the whole building, an event space, outdoor deck, and green roof. All stormwater is handled on site. PDX Main Streets gave the project an award in 2019 for context sensitive design and reflection of main street patterns
Eco-Features:
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Roof deck with living roof
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All stormwater managed on-site
Learn More: waterleaf.com/portfolio/seven-corners-collaborative
Lucky Lab
915 SE Hawthorne Blvd
As the most cost-effective form of renewable energy, solar hot water was an obvious choice for their brewery. They contracted Ra Energy to install 16 Heliodyne solar collector panels on the brewery’s roof. Inside each collector are thin metal tubes filled with a non-toxic solar fluid. When heated, the solar fluid is circulated from the collectors through a heat exchanger, which transfers that heat to a 900 gallon solar storage tank filled with water. Lucky Lab uses the heated water to make beer, which must be a hot 160° Fahrenheit and to heat water at the restaurant and public restrooms.
Eco-Features:
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Adaptive Reuse of an old warehouse into a brewery and pub
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Solar thermal generation for brewing beer, and hot water for their restaurant and restrooms.
Learn More: www.heliodyne.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Case-Study-Lucky-Lab.pdf