Located in the heart of Portland’s historic Old Town District, this 58,000-square-foot, five-story office building broke several Living Building Challenge (LBC) records. The PAE Living Building is fully certified under the rigorous LBC sustainability program of the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) and demonstrates replicable and cost-effective solutions, creating pathways for others. Designed to last for 500 years, the approach marries the look and feel of a historic neighborhood with the highest possible energy performance and sustainability standards. The project also is one of a very few spec office buildings and the only Living Building engineered beyond code minimums for hospital-level seismic resilience. The densely reinforced shear-wall core surrounded by glue-laminated timber (glulam) columns and beams and concrete-topped cross-laminated timber (CLT) floor diaphragms should allow the building to survive a magnitude-7.5 quake with barely a scratch.
