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a lack of funding. Of course, this meant that the Center’s bid to meet the Net Zero Energy Imperative of the Living Building Challenge — and therefore qualify for full certification — would be on hold as well. PooleJones nonchalantly replied that the installation of the 18.36 kW array would be completed within the week, thanks to a Blue Sky grant from Pacific Power. As with all other aspects of the project, patience and diligence paid off.
building sustainable. The neighborhood tutors, educators, mentors and organizers, along with the children, students, seniors and other occupants, make the building a community center. They are the real catalysts for community transformation. Change hasn’t been swift or dramatic — real change rarely is — but that doesn’t make it any less powerful.
The building is a demonstration of how a building can bring together a community and promote sustainTime will tell if the June Key Delta Community Cen- ability, just as the dedicated women of the Portland ter, already the recipient of several brownfield recla- Alumnae Chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority mation projects awards, will achieve full certification hoped it would be. Before I left, I asked Poole-Jones if under the Living Building Challenge. More important the Community Center had changed the community than certification, however, is that the building has for the better. She said, “I think the community has successfully supported the noble work of community changed and developed, and we’ve changed and develbuilding while illustrating the reality that sustainable oped along with it.” buildings need not be extravagant or absurdly expensive to have a meaningful impact. Prior to its occupancy, the new building at the corner of North Albina and Ainsworth was a vast improvement over an abandoned gas station, but it was neither green nor a community center. For a building to create community and be truly green, it takes people. Volunteers like Chris Poole-Jones, who donate time to open doors, host events, lead tours and tend the garden, make the
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JAY KOSA is the Communications Manager at the International Living Future Institute.
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