ZGF spreads green influence globally

Enlarge Image

Portland's 12 West building, ZGF Architects' headquarters, is one of many that pushes the boundaries of sustainability.

Editor's note: ZGF Architects LLP was a finalist in the Sustainable Business Oregon Innovation Awards for advocacy. Read about other award winners here.

The men and women of ZGF Architects LLP travel the world each year to spread a gospel of environmental responsibility in building design, but their hymnals don’t fit in the overhead bin.

The Portland-based firm believes its most powerful environmental message is the buildings it leaves behind.

It’s an impressive wake. With 460 architects in five offices, 69-year-old ZGF Architects has designed more than 1,000 structures, at least 70 of which have received LEED certifications. The company designed one of the first two Platinum LEED buildings in the U.S.

“ZGF’s culture is the Oregon culture. A third of our architects are graduates of the University of Oregon. We share the state’s general regard for society as a whole and in its communal aspects,” said Jan Willemse a partner with the firm.

He joined ZGF 18 years ago, “because I admired the thoughtful way they put buildings together.”

ZGF’s projects include the Department of Homeland Security’s new headquarters in Washington D.C., U.S. embassies in Turkey and Bulgaria, the LDS Conference Center in Salt Lake City and a remodel of the Amazon.com building in Seattle.

In Portland, ZGF designed the Oregon Convention Center, KOIN Center, Doernbecher Children’s Hospital and Umpqua Bank Plaza.

One of ZGF’s most interesting recent projects is Twelve West, a 23-story mixed-use Pearl District structure that serves as the firm’s new headquarters. The building won the 2010 Architectural Institute of America’s Top 10 Green Building Projects award.

View all SBO award winners | See photos from the event

Twelve West a good metaphor for the environmental message ZGF wants to send, combining Swiss efficiency and a Northwestern appreciation for natural materials.

Square-shouldered, Twelve West stands with one environmental foot in the past and one in the future.

Its glass exterior and exposed concrete interior maximize what has become the theory of relativity in sustainable building design — thermal mass or matter plus a lot of light equals energy savings squared.

“It’s not sexy, but the best sustainability tools we have available are still the passive methods,” said Willemse.

There are some bells and whistles, however, not the least of which is four rooftop wind turbines, the first their kind in the U.S.

That gamble may have a longer pay-back period than expected. It’s a capricious technology to begin with, and all ZGF had available was off-the-shelf turbines designed to be installed on rural wind farms. There was a lot of talk about how the turbines might perform, but precious little hard science to be had. ZGF intends to help expand the science.

One thing that worked better than expected was a climate control system in office workspaces.

The company must still pay an electric bill every month. A truly net-zero office building is a long way into the future, Willemse said,

It’s not as if ZGF isn’t striving toward that goal. It uses 3D modelling software, for example, in an unending quest to eliminate unnecessary materials.

@SustainableBzOR | info@sustainablebusinessoregon.com