Indigo | Twelve West

Portland, Oregon, United States

As Portland’s downtown continues to see tremendous development with new builds and renovations, the West End neighborhood has long been seen as having major potential for growth. Indigo | Twelve West was conceived as a flagship building that could not only unite the 30-block area with the rest of downtown and ignite development there, but also serve as beacon of sustainable building design and provide the framework for an environmentally friendly neighborhood.

Designed as a mixed-use commercial and residential space, the 23-story high rise provides its tenants an environment that uses sustainable building design concepts to promote a high-quality living and working space. Glumac provided MEP Engineering services for the project. Rooftop wind turbines were incorporated to provide enough energy to fully power the building’s elevator system. The nearby Brewery Blocks EcoDistrict was tapped into to provide Indigo | Twelve West with chilled water for its interior cooling system, which consists of passive chilled beams that more efficiently maintain thermal comfort levels. Rainwater recovery systems and a vegetative roof were installed to service office toilets, the fire protection system, and help cool the facility in the summer months. Low-e glass that covers the entire building shell also helps control the interior climate by reflecting as much as 74% of heat from sunlight and allowing for a greater level of daylighting – all of which contributes to energy savings. Solar thermal panels provide 24 percent of the building’s hot water. The system lowers the building’s natural gas
consumption, which lowers both the economic cost to the owner and the ecological impact of gas emissions.

Glumac’s energy modeling efforts helped Twelve West secure more than $300,000 in rebates from the Oregon Energy Trust. Floors 2-5, which house the Portland offices of ZGF architects, earned LEED Platinum certification. The building was also named to AIA’s Top Ten Green Projects in 2010.

Size: 552,000 square feet
Project Cost: $138 million
Completion Date: 2009
Architect: ZGF Architects
Contractor: Hoffman Construction
Services: MEP Engineering

Images courtesy of Doug Scott
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