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Page II
Education&Careers
Complete Makeover for PCC Sylvania
Oldest campus
to modernize
learning
environment
by K ate C hester
F or the P ortland O bserver
Portland Community College’s
oldest campus is about to get a
facelift.
At 42 years old, PCC’s Sylvania
Campus is embarking on a five to
seven-year construction project
that will result in a modernized, en
ergy-efficient campus. Initial design
plans and concepts were shared
Oct. 27 at a community forum.
“Sylvania is known for its vin
tage, concrete 1968 buildings that
were constructed when energy
prices were considerably lower,”
said Linda Gerber, president of
Sylvania Campus. “These are not
energy efficient buildings, nor do
they offer our students the best
learning environment.”
Funding for construction stems
from a $374 million bond measure
that voters ap
proved in 2008
to upgrade exist
ing buildings,
ex p an d w o rk
force train in g
facilities and add
needed b u ild
ings at P C C ’s
cam puses
throughout the
district.
cessibility in case of emergencies;
and improving storm water manage
ment and way-finding on campus.
“The complexity of this is really
the coordination of logistics - of
what project to begin, when, so that
we create the least amount of dis
ruption and can continue operating
as usual, for students and staff,”
said Jeff Triplett, Sylvania’s dean of
instruction and campus liaison to
the project. To achieve this, most
construction work will be done dur
ing the summer months when there
are fewer students on campus.
Simultaneous to the improve
ments being rolled out at Sylvania is
the campus’ goal of getting on the
“path to Net Zero” - meaning, to
create a campus that generates its
own energy, collects its own water
needs and treats its own waste.
The project also is referred to as
“E6” - for energy creation; energy
conservation; environmental stew
ardship; employment stimulus; edu
cation; and effective and efficient
use of funds.
The idea was launched in 2009
when Gerding Edlen Sustainable So
lutions was brought on to conduct
. The architec
tural design ef
forts at Sylvania
are being led by
GBD Architects.
A cco rd in g to
P ro je ct M a n
a g er
G ary
S u tto n , about
$55 million to $60
Concrete buildings that lack energy efficiency on
million will be
,
the Sylvania campus of Portland Community
pumpe into t e College will be refurbished with green features in
campus toireno- a maj or m0Cj ernizati0n of the southwest Portland
vate 160,000 cam pug
square feet of
classroom, laboratory and office a study and determine what it would
sPace*
take to make the campus Net Zero.
“The largest project will be mod- A handful of multi-phase options
emizing nearly 75 percent of the were developed and presented for
College Center building, transform- consideration; the option chosen -
ing it into an accessible, easy-to- which will be woven into the reno-
n av ig ate student u n io n ,” said vations - includes building and
Sutton.
water efficiency measures, and en-
Other projects include building a ergy creation by way of a mega-watt
new childcare development center co-generator. Together, they are
and a storage facility for the auto- anticipated to create an annual sav-
motive building; completing a road ings estimated at $ 1.2 million,
around the campus to enhance ac-
“W e’re looking at the Net Zero/
IFl-wr
'4
5* 1:
~
*<•
Portland
C om m unity I
College
Bond funded improvements will completely modernize Portland
Community College’s Sylvania Campus in southwest Portland, the
oldest campus in the college system.
E6 project as a model for innovative
strategies and practices to address
climate change, environmental stew-
ardship and green workforce devel-
opment,” Gerber said. “To marry
this with bond-funded improve-
ments slated for Sylvania will offer
incredible learning opportunities for
our students - and the community
at large benefits from this.”
The campus is hosting visioning
sessions and symposiums with fac
ulty, staff and students to get input
and suggestions about what works
well, areas for improvement and op
portunities for interactive sharing
as it creates a design framework for
the campus improvements.
“We want to develop a sche
matic that provides greater accessi
bility, flexible and adaptable com
mon spaces, introduces natural day
light indoors and creates intuitive
way-finding on campus,” said Kyle
Andersen, one of the lead GBD ar
chitects on the project.
The Sylvania C am p u s- which
straddles Portland, T igard and
Lake Oswego - is P C C ’s largest
campus, with 30,430 full-and part-
time students. This represents an
increase o f nearly 18 percent over
the past decade. C ollectively, the
college serves more than 90,000
students - m ore than every school
in the Oregon U niversity System
combined.
Oregon Episcopal School
OPEN HOUSE
November 14, 2010 • Grades 9-12 •-1:30-4 pm
OREGON
E P IS C O P A L
SCHOOL
6300 SW Nicol Road • Portland, Oregon 97223
503-768-3115 • admit@oes.edu
www.oes.edu