Green Architecture in Portland

You’ll arrive in Portland with a spring in your step. It’s an incredible city, and there are all sorts of things to see. Take some time to familiarize yourself with the city and see some sights before the tour starts tomorrow!

For your first stop of the tour, you’ll head to The Armory, the first performing arts facility to achieve a LEED Platinum rating. You’ll tour their facilities and learn about their energy efficiency, water conservation, and recycling policies. After, you’ll see a show from The Armory’s resident theater company, Portland Center Stage.

Next, you’ll head to the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability. A representative of the bureau will talk to you about what the city’s doing to protect against climate change and make the city more sustainable, especially in terms of architecture.

Today you’ll check out the National Capital Center. It’s the first historic redevelopment in the United States to receive a LEED Gold rating, and it’s one of the most well-known green buildings in the city. You’ll tour the building and see all their green measures, including the rubber floors made from reconstructed tires! 

Now to do some communing with nature, you’ll visit the Portland Japanese Garden. It’s widely considered the most authentic Japanese garden outside of Japan. It’s a beautiful spot to remind you of why it’s important to preserve nature in the first place.

You’ll make your way to the city’s Central Library to check out its eco-roof. It was the first library in Oregon to install one, and it’s a sight to see. You’ll learn about the benefits of an eco-roof for both the building and the environment.

Next, you’ll visit an urban garden with Grow Portland. These gardens help educate children about how food grows and how to be kind to the environment. You’ll tour two of these gardens and notice how they fit around the architecture around them.

It’s time to volunteer! You’ll be working with Friends of Trees, an organization that helps people work together to plant and care for trees. You’ll be going down some city streets to prune trees that are already planted, which helps them grow! You’ll be able to see more of the city’s architecture as you walk.

To reward yourself for a job well done, you’ll head to one of the handful of restaurants that grow much of their produce on their rooftop garden! You’ll receive a tour of the garden, and then sit down for a meal.

It’s a big day today! You’ll be touring SERA Architecture Firm, one of the top environmental architecture firms in the country. You’ll meet one of their experts on sustainability resources who will show you around and take your questions!

After, you’ll head to the International Rose Test Garden. It’s the oldest public rose test garden in the U.S. The garden has over 10,000 rose bushes with more than 650 rose varieties! You’ll get a guided tour to learn about this urban wonder.

Although it’s time to leave Portland, you can take your new knowledge and help the environment. If you’re interested in green architecture, you can consider getting into the field. But if not, you could write a letter to your local politician asking for more environmentally friendly buildings or grow more plants in your yard.