The sand-colored, midcentury modernist office tower was still functional but showing its age. Systems were working, just not as efficiently as those in buildings of the LEED Age. The building had good bones, good space and good views, and would cost hundreds of millions to replace.
It was time for it to break out of its box.
No, not the former HSBC Center in Buffalo.
This makeover candidate was the Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building in Portland, Ore., a “fraternal twin” of Buffalo’s One Seneca Tower.
Now, after a total top-to-bottom, inside-and-out makeover, the Portland building is virtually unrecognizable from its former self. The dated 18-story edifice has been turned into a 21st century showcase for environmentally friendly, energy efficient, sustainable architecture.
The Green-Wyatt building is just one of several siblings of One Seneca around the country, all about the same age and bearing the well-known, practical profile favored by their “parents,” the architects at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.
While most of the other siblings have undergone their own updates and reconfigurations to keep up with tenants and the times, it is in Portland where, with the help of more than $100 million in government money, the renovations went to the extreme.
“It was renovated as a model space for LEED for the federal government,” said local architect Barbara Campagna, referring to standards for environmentally friendly and energy efficient buildings.
She is familiar with the Portland project from a stint working for the government in the Northwest.
“It is just an example of what could be done,” she said.
While its size and private ownership make a complete redo of One Seneca Tower financially impractical, the building will become largely vacant soon due to the departures of three major tenants and leave room for some intriguing possibilities.
And, after the recent announcement of major “green” manufacturing coming to Buffalo, the remaking of Green-Wyatt could supply some ideas.
“Before” photos show Green-Wyatt as a smaller version of Buffalo’s landmark tower.
“After” pictures reveal a dramatic upsweep of glass and metal, capped with a jaunty rack of solar panels.
“The outside was completely removed,” Campagna said. “They have covered each exterior level with environmentally suitable materials, depending on which direction they faced.”
The renovation was years in the planning, Campagna said, and, while it could be used as inspiration, the entire project would probably be too ambitious to duplicate here.
“It takes a big effort,” she pointed out. “And it isn’t cheap.”
The price tag: $139 million, paid for with money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
To update the building, James Cutler and SERA Architects reinvented the way the interiors and exterior worked, from the heating and cooling systems to water use, turning it into one of the most energy efficient buildings in the country, according to the General Services Administration.
It lists among its technological innovations solar thermal panels to help heat its water, a solar roof to bring in 3 percent of its electricity, elevators that generate power when they descend, shades on the facades that respond to sunlight, and a 165,000-gallon cistern to collect water for toilet flushing and landscaping.
Some improvements will take years to pay for themselves, but even small savings in a building the size of One Seneca Tower can be significant.
Speak Your Mind