This Office Building Designed to Last 500 Years
…And it didn’t break the bank. On a corner in a historic district in downtown Portland, Oregon, a new office building has just started what could be a very long tenure. If its builders got everything right, it will still be standing there five centuries from now.
The 5-story, 58,000-square-foot mixed-use commercial building was specifically designed to last 500 years—with a super strong structure, resilient design, and a suite of on-site infrastructures that will allow it to make its own power, harvest its own water, and adapt to huge swings in the climate for centuries to come. Designed and partly developed by ZGF Architects along with PAE Engineers, also the main tenant, its rents cost only about 8% more than a conventional office.
GRAPHIC: Benjamin Benschneider/courtesy PAE Engineers/ZGF Architects