91视频

The June Key Delta Community Center, in the works for 20 years, is coming alive on a former brownfield site.

The Portland Alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority purchased the property at 5940 N. Albina Ave. in 1991 as part of a plan to develop its own community center. An ex-gas station has since been transformed and expanded, and is slated to open this summer as a living building.

The Living Building Challenge, launched by the Cascadia Green Building Council, has standards among the most stringent in green construction. Projects must be built from local and sustainable materials, and energy consumption must be net-zero.

Living building requirements have added complexity, time and cost to the project: More than $50,000 was spent on testing for green compliance, according to Chris Poole-Jones of Delta Sigma Theta. Even donated and recycled materials must meet strict standards.

The immediate hurdle for the project team is the weather: needs two consecutive dry days to be able to install insulation and a new roof. The building can then be completed, but it won’t yet meet living building standards.

The sorority chapter would first need to raise an additional $50,000 to $60,000 to pay for solar panels and a total water retention system. With those features, the center would become the first commercial project in an urban area to be completely off the sewage grid, said Mark Nye of , the project designer.

Securing money for the project has been a struggle from the start. Grants have covered about half of the $900,000 budgeted for the project to date, and that figure doesn’t include in-kind donations of materials and time. For instance, Benson Industries contributed $7,000 of glass and Poole-Jones is volunteering project coordination.

鈥淭he big hurdle for us at the beginning was getting the funding lined up and put together in such a way that we could get started on the project,鈥� Nye said.

Because the project is aiming to meet the Living Building Challenge, special care must be taken with all materials used: they can’t contain toxins or other chemicals on the International Living Building Institute’s red list; they must be sourced locally, usually within 200 miles of the project site; and their performance has to mesh with the building’s ability to be net-zero in energy use.

鈥淥ne challenge has been that the Living Building Challenge is such a comprehensive standard, it’s hard to tell the story in sound bites,鈥� Nye said.

The site’s gas station, constructed in 1964, 鈥渨asn’t built to last,鈥� Nye said. It added complexity to the project because it was supported primarily by its windows and had a roof full of dry rot. Nevertheless, the project team decided to reuse the structure’s frame to reduce the project’s carbon footprint. The building was expanded via large, steel cargo containers. The final product will be a 2,700-square-foot building that includes a meeting hall, a gallery and a kitchen.

The space will be available for events, though a special user agreement will restrict what can take place inside the building, Nye said. Poole-Jones said that the sorority group is aware that energy consumption must be minimized.

鈥淲hen we go into that building it isn’t going to be business as usual,鈥� she said.

The center will host a public tour of the site on April 23, and the project team is aiming to finish work in June. Visit for more information.