From the AHC Director’s Desk: Addressing Climate & Sustainability in Existing Buildings

July. 12, 2024
By: Heather Flint Chatto

Portland City Hall’s Green Roof © Mayer Reed

Reinvesting in our existing buildings is one of the greenest strategies a City can choose. With new city policy making it easier to add solar panels on historic buildings, and more incentives available to reduce costs, it is an exciting time for action. 

As an environmental designer and urban planner, I love how Portland has been a leader in sustainability promoting green roofs like the City Hall and the Ecotrust Building downtown. Green roofs can help increase insulation and extend the life of a roof, add habitat, mitigate stormwater, and reduce urban heat - learn more at the Grey to Green Conference Coming up on July 25-27th. 

I’m also excited about new innovative buildings like the PAE “Living Building” designed by ZGF Architects. This building has a net zero energy and water impact, is built in a historic district and is a 2022 DeMuro Award winner. We recently had a chance to tour the building and loved how well this new building seamlessly complements the nearby historic fabric. The PAE building certainly is a “future landmark” building in the making!  

Other strategies like adaptive reuse of commercial buildings for housing are also critical approaches that can leverage existing vacant buildings for new uses and add vitality. Strategies like a Rehabilitation Tax Credit can not only help with increasing housing capacity, this can also support energy efficiency and seismic upgrades for unreinforced masonry buildings (URM’s). This is a strategy 39 other states use that could significantly help address multiple issues. Older historic buildings have significant value and role to play in a sustainability, climate and housing strategy. 

In the coming year we’ll be looking at the critical role existing buildings can play in helping address many issues including our housing needs and climate solutions, and in reinvigorating our social and economic vitality. I look forward to much more thought leadership, advocacy and collaborative partnerships as we work together to envision Portland's next evolution, drawing from an incredible historic fabric of buildings to learn from as we shape our present and future plans.

PAE Building’s solar panels © Restore Oregon