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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (June 7, 2013)
...Union-’rebuilt’ (From Page 1) low-flow toilets and irrigate native plant landscaping. • Natural light is augmented by en- ergy-efficient LED lighting systems with automated controls. “Symbolically, it’s an image of our government committed to sustainabil- ity,” said architect James Cutler. “This building was built by hard-working Americans, not only in 2013, but in 1974.” Some of the original steel welded columns were left visible — as were the original concrete floors, which were cut through in portions to allow light. “Hopefully this building will rep- resent the best of our sustainable future, and the best of our hard-working past,” Cutler said. All the craftspeople and other indi- viduals who worked more than 100 hours on the project have their names listed in glass at the building’s entrance. Members of 24 local unions took part in the project, covered by the project la- bor agreement. The building also has new art, in- cluding Louie Louie — a three-dimen- sion depiction of the sound waves that make up the popular song which was Clockwise, from upper left: A utility room shows pipes for hot, cold, and rainwater; construction workers names are memorialized in glass at the front entrance; a brightly-colored art installation, Louie, Louie, represents the sound waves of the famous song; and on the building’s west face, aluminum reeds project outward to provide shade. originally recorded in Portland. And the remodel increased usable space. Replacing precast concrete with a glass curtain wall pushed out the perimeter 22”, which in a city-block- sized 18-story building added 18,000 square feet of usable space. The 536,000 square foot building will serve as a regional headquarters for the U.S. Forest Service, which will have the top four-and-a-half floors. Be- low that, three floors will be used by the Bureau of Land Management, and three-plus floors by the Internal Rev- enue Service. Altogether, the building will provide office space for 1,200 fed- eral employees in 16 agencies. Tenants begin moving in in August, and the art and other features on the main floor and ground level will be accessible to the public starting Aug. 1. The National Labor Relations Board will occupy a sixth floor office starting in September. The building is named for Edith Green and Wendell Wyatt, who repre- sented Oregon’s Third and First Dis- tricts as members of Congress in the 1960s and early 1970s. (Editor’s Note: To see more photos of the finished project, go online to www.nwlaborpress.org.) TriMet has cut our passengers’ service and raised fares. Each day, we hear from our passengers how these changes have made their lives more difficult. At the same time, TriMet intends to cut our family income in at least 80 different ways. Whenever the question, “Why are TriMet’s workers and passengers being asked to make such deep sacrifices?” is raised, the response is always the same: “TriMet has terrible financial problems.” We started investigating, looking for the cause of those “financial problems.” This investigation raised a number of questions. Below are just two of them. TRANSITVOICE.ORG T R A RA AN N SIT V O I CE. OR R G JUNE 7, 2013 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS PAGE 3
