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Overview

In the mid-2010s, 16 federal agencies and 1,200 employees worked in this building named for two Oregon representatives, Edith Green, who served the state's 3rd Congressional District from 1955-1974 and Wendell Wyatt, who represented its 1st Congressional District between 1964-1975.

Alteration

The firms of Cutler Anderson Architects, SERA Architects and the Howard S. Wright (HSW) Construction Company collaborated on a large-scale remodeling and renovation effort of the Green-Wyatt Building between 2009 and 2013. This thorough renovation cost approximately $139 million, and was paid from a fund of $5.5 billion obtained from the Federal Recovery Act passed in the wake of the 2008 Financial Collapse. (See General Services Administration (GSA).gov, "Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Modernization Project," accessed 06/01/2018.) It yielded a building with 525,000 square feet. Patrick Brunner served as the General Services Administration's project manager on the Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt, Federal Building remodeling.

The Architect.com's Brian Libby described the dramatic facelift that Culter Anderson and SERA Architects undertook with this 1970s office highrise. While the remodeling yielded a much more transparent and formally intriguing building, it also produced one more capacious and efficient. He wrote: "Thanks to the radical transformation of the 1970s concrete box of an office building by James Cutler, FAIA, and SERA Architects—which traded massive forced-air fans and vents for radiant heating and cooling—the majority of the penthouse level can now be used as offices for one of the building’s 16 residing federal agencies. “This is the difference between a forced-air building and a radiant building,” says Patrick Brunner, who oversaw the project’s construction for the GSA. Clearing away the 18th-floor equipment and recladding the entire structure in a curtainwall that hangs 22 inches beyond the perimeter of the existing building yielded an additional 33,000 square feet of space. What’s more, Cutler’s form-making isn’t just for show, but works toward the project’s ambitious efficiency goals: The renovated building is 55 percent more energy efficient than the original, which was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. A new rainwater harvesting system, which provides water for flushing toilets and irrigation, has enabled a 60 percent reduction in the use of potable water below what is required by Oregon code. Solar thermal panels provide 30 percent of the building’s hot water. And the elevator bank was reduced from eight cars to six due to the installation of a smarter demand-dispatch system that collates riders going to nearby floors. (See Brian Libby, Architect.com, "Edith Green–Wendell Wyatt Federal Building, designed by Cutler Anderson Architects," published 09/26/2013, accessed 08/31/2018.)

Cutler Anderson worked with SERA Architects on the project's innovative system of light-control louvers on the exterior. "To make the aluminum screens work entailed a three-way push-pull, in which Cutler would craft a design, SERA would study its metrics and daylighting ramifications, and curtainwall contractor Benson Industries would weigh in on its constructability." SERA's Lisa Petterson, worked specifically on the new daylighting planning for the tower that, in the words of Libby, "crafted a series of vertical and horizontal exterior shades for the building’s other three sides." (See Brian Libby, Architect.com, "Edith Green–Wendell Wyatt Federal Building, designed by Cutler Anderson Architects," published 09/26/2013, accessed 08/31/2018.)

PCAD id: 22071