PSU's new student center goes for LEED gold

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The newest building at Portland State University is fueled by students — literally.

In 2005, students agreed to tax themselves in the form of higher student fees to support a $35 million bond to pay for a new recreation center.

Five years later, the recreation center is a reality. Weighing in at 208,000 square feet, the $73.5 million undertaking also includes quarters for PSU’s School of Social Work, offices for the chancellor of the seven-school Oregon University System, new digs for Portland’s city archives and seven retail spaces. It opened in January.

As if shouldering nearly half the cost wasn’t enough, students also help power the rec center’s electrical system. A voltage converter attached to 14 Precor exercise machines delivers electricity back to the building. A person working out on one machine generates enough power to fuel a light bulb.

For those reasons and more, the rec center is expected to earn “gold” honors in the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system. It will be PSU’s seventh — and counting — LEED project.

Green features include:

• • Windows that open to admit fresh air.
• • Room sensors turn lights off when no one is in the room. The sensors and other advanced technology make the building 29 percent more efficient than conventional construction.
• • Top-story skylights to bring natural light to interior corridors.
• • Green roofs keep rainwater from flooding the city’s storm water system and deliver water for use in toilets, planters and the fire suppression system. The building uses 85 percent less water than conventional construction. As a side benefit, the rooftop gardens are attractive, providing above-ground event space for students and other building occupants.
• • A 12-kilovolt photo voltaic system on the roof delivers power to stations for recharging wheelchairs. The system can be expanded in the future.

For all the green features packed into the building, officially PSU’s “Academic and Student Recreation Building,” the center was designed to wow the people who work, study and meet there.

Situated in the block bordered by Southwest Fifth, Sixth and Morrison Streets and the Portland Streetcar Line, the building is oriented to the south, overlooking PSU’s urban plaza and the southern end of downtown Portland. Occupants can see the city and the city can see the activity in the building — by design.

“We really pushed the opening of the building to the outside,” said architect Miles Woofter, a senior associate with Yost Grube Hall Architecture.

Lindsay Desrochers, PSU’s vice president for the office of finance and administration, shepherded the project as a solution to PSU’s ongoing problem providing enough recreation space to a growing student body. The new center augments the existing Peter Stott Center. PSU had just 8,000 students in 1965, the year Stott was built.

At last count, PSU was closing in on 30,000 students, making it the largest university in Oregon, public or private.

PSU students kicked the project off when they voted to approve the $35 million bond.

The city of Portland, state of Oregon and Oregon University System became partners as well, each taking a portion of the building for their own uses.

Desrochers said the real breakthrough came when PSU decided to put the building at the urban plaza instead of adjacent to Stott Center, five blocks away. The plaza location is served by MAX, TriMet and the Portland Streetcar, perfect for students and staff starting or finishing their days in the rec center.

TriMet’s two-year project to bring the green MAX light-rail line to PSU drove its timing. PSU and its partners didn’t want to begin new construction right after the MAX project was completed.

The Portland Development Commission played a key role when it donated the site — former home to the single-story Portland Advanced Technology Center. The technology center was demolished and more than 90 percent of the debris was recycled. PDC also provided $2 million to construct the building.

The city of Portland provided $10 million to bring the city’s valuable archives downtown from their remote home in North Portland. The archives are stored in the rec center basement and can be accessed from a fifth-floor public reading room, connected by a dedicated elevator.

The archives consist of hundreds of thousands of documents, images and other materials dating to the city’s founding in 1851. The priceless documents had been housed at a former refuse site in North Portland; now, they’re more securely housed downtown. The PSU location puts the archives in easier reach of the academics, journalists and citizens interested in how Portland came to be Portland.

The city’s $10 million investment leveraged a matching contribution from the state of Oregon to provide a new home for PSU’S School of Social Work. The state’s only training ground for social workers formerly operated from three separate buildings.

That cooperative approach will be a hallmark for future projects, Desrochers said.

“This is a perfect example of what we need to do to make things work,” she said.

The student recreation center occupies the second, third and fourth floors. Features include three basketball courts, a track, 36-foot climbing wall, weight and cardio equipment and a six-lane, 25-meter swimming pool heated to 82 degrees F. The building is designed to use waste heat from the pool water to moderate air temperature.

Designed to tread lightly on the environment, the rec center is also having a beneficial effect on PSU students and staff. The outdoor recreation program and the bicycle hub both report soaring interest in programs since they moved into street-level retail spaces there.

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