by Heather Livingston
Contributing editor

Summary: Two new buildings designed as part of the Portland, Ore., New Columbia neighborhood are the first Hope VI redevelopment structures to earn LEED® certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The architects for the two buildings are Mithun, Inc. of Seattle and Robertson Merryman Barnes of Portland. Mithun also created the New Columbia master plan for the neighborhood, which was redeveloped by its owner, the Housing Authority of Portland (HAP).

HUD’s Hope VI program provided $35 million for the New Columbia neighborhood redevelopment. The aim of the HUD program is to redevelop severely distressed public housing sites and create new, mixed-income communities that improve the self-sufficiency of public housing residents and deconcentrate poverty. The Hope VI program also encourages its grant recipients to set high standards for urban planning and transit access, use sustainable demolition and construction practices, and pursue advanced technologies that will improve the quality, durability, and environmental performance of the nation’s housing.

When the project stakeholders—HAP, the City of Portland, residents of the former Columbia Villa, and the Portsmouth neighborhood—began to think about the property’s potential, they resolved to use the opportunity to create a neighborhood that would enhance the lives of its residents, both aesthetically and through quality building practices. The stakeholders participated in 10 months of rigorous charrettes and achieved a site plan that reflects the community’s top priorities: tree preservation, salvage and recycling during demolition, durable building materials, street grid repair, varied housing types, energy efficiency, clean indoor air, safe and attractive outdoor areas, stormwater management, and water conservation.

Thoughtful spaces, access to transportation
In its previous incarnation, the 82-acre site held 462 units and consumed a tremendous portion of green space. The New Columbia neighborhood now has 850 new dwellings that include single-family homes, townhomes, and apartment buildings. The neighborhood has more than seven acres of open space, including a four-acre park and four quarter-acre “pocket” parks that provide play areas close to home. The new houses were designed with spacious front porches to create a connection to the street and encourage neighbor interaction. The living room and kitchen windows face the streets and alleys so that residents can easily watch children at play and look out for buses.

One of the goals of the New Columbia stakeholders was to create a “Location Efficient Design,” which maximizes accessibility and affordability by linking neighborhoods with job centers via transit systems, creates good pedestrian and bicycling conditions, and conserves land by redeveloping underutilized sites. New Columbia is located on one of Tri-Met’s high-ridership bus lines and is near the Interstate Max Light Rail, making commuting via mass transportation an affordable and easy option.

Protecting the aquifer
New Columbia’s stakeholders also wanted to improve stormwater management. Among their strategies, private stormwater now is collected in common greens and alleys. The alleys located on the first seven blocks of the neighborhood are one of Portland’s largest porous pavement demonstration areas. At the centerline of these alleys, a strip of porous pavers sits atop a soakage trench. Stormwater from the private property enters the soakage trench through the pavers and filters to 30-foot deep drywells. The trenches filter hazardous pollutants before returning the water to the aquifer. In addition, New Columbia’s stormwater management system employs Low Impact Development strategies, which uses topography, vegetation, and soil features to infiltrate rain water naturally into the groundwater aquifer where it falls. It also eliminates the need for expensive conveyance systems. As a result, New Columbia has 80 percent less underground stormwater piping than a comparable traditional development and retains 98 percent of the stormwater that falls on site.

LEEDing the way
The two New Columbia buildings that received LEED certification are the Trenton North and Trenton South buildings. Both are mixed-use buildings consisting of a combined 74 units of rental housing. Trenton North also houses HAP’s leasing office and a community center. Trenton South holds a coffee shop, small neighborhood grocer, and a Portland Community College education and employment center.

The three-story Trenton buildings achieved LEED certification through various approaches. They incorporated salvaged materials from the structures demolished on site. They improved energy efficiency by 30 percent by strengthening the thermal envelope and incorporating exterior shading and high-efficiency HVAC. The buildings feature stormwater systems with on-site filtration, an irrigation system that uses non-potable water, low-flow hot water fixtures, secure indoor bike storage and showers, FSC-certified framing lumber, low-VOC and VOC-free interior finishes, hydronic space heaters in the apartments, Energy Star appliances and light fixtures, and plumbing systems that improve on Oregon’s water code by 30 percent.

“Achieving LEED status marks an important milestone for New Columbia in that these important standards were upheld within a very tight budget and for a community that traditionally has been marginalized,” says Steve McDonald, AIA, project architect at Mithun. “It reflects HUD’s commitment to neighborhood revitalization and recognition that energy efficiency translates into cost savings for long-term solutions.”