Eliot tower earns high marks

Eliot Tower, an 18-story condo tower in Portland’s cultural district, is slated to become the Rose City’s first project tomount a LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) plaque.

Most people don’t think of a high-rise building as a neighborhood. Pegged a “vertical neighborhood” by its developer, Eliot Tower offers residents many amenities a well-planned neighborhood would try to create, says Andrea Thompson, project coordinator for Portland-based Green Building Services, who worked with colleague Terry Miller to usher Eliot Tower through the LEED-ND process.

Such amenities include easy access to grocery stores, the central library, art and history museums, Portland State Launched in January 2008 in its pilot version, LEED-ND is a partnership between the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the Congress for New Urbanism and the Natural Resources Defense Council. The new rating system encourages designers to go beyond green construction and consider building location and neighborhood design during the building’s planning and design stage [see “There goes the neighborhood,” SI, May 2007]. Factors such as the efficiency of street lights, water pumps and other public services are recognized in the LEED-ND rating system, rewarding projects that look beyond their own footprint, Thompson says.

Projects must meet six prerequisites and receive aminimum40 points to achieve LEED-ND status. Eliot Tower, which was completed in 2006, has been reviewed by USGBC and is expected to receive LEED-ND Silver certification, according to Thompson. Of the more than 200 pilot projects pursuing LEED-ND, only a handful are in “stage three” of project completion.

“I think this is a project that has raised a lot of questions because it is a single building,” Thompson says, noting USGBC might include a minimum building requirement in the next version of LEED-ND.

Green Building Services is working on additional LEED-ND projects, including Helensview, a 32-unit affordable-housing development in North Portland, and Washougal Blocks, a four-block redevelopment project in downtown Washougal,Wash.