Construction officially began earlier this month on the 101,600-square-foot clinic, scheduled to open in August 2006.
As designed, the three-story building will store 15,000 gallons of rainwater to serve 44 percent of its water needs. Rainwater will flush all the building's toilets and irrigate the landscape.
The building will use special windows that block heat and natural day lighting to make it 30 percent more energy efficient. Other sustainable strategies include aggressive recycling targets during construction, nontoxic and recycled-content materials, and environmentally friendly cleaning supplies.
All of these features make the clinic a strong candidate for green building certification. Planners expect to earn a silver LEED rating, which means it meets nationally agreed-upon efficiency standards for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
By meeting those standards, developers also can benefit financially with tax breaks and cheaper operating costs.
Nine buildings in Portland are LEED certified; 47 buildings are registered as working toward the certification. Portland has the most certified buildings in the country.
The medical complex will be environmentally friendly in another way — it's easy to get to without a car. The site is next to TriMet's Gateway transit center, a hub for the MAX Red and Blue lines.
A parking structure for commuters and the clinic will be constructed next to the complex. Construction on that project begins in a month.
The Oregon Clinic has 90 doctors and 18 clinic sites for specialized care such as cardiology, pulmonology, gastroenterology, urology and radiation oncology. About 150 new and transferring jobs will go to the new medical complex.
