Hmm. why does it remind me of one of those shots seen on "Life After Humans" on the History Channel...

I can get sweet 100 tomato plants to grow over 20 feet up the side of my house using the opposite kind of pruning that I did 30 years ago in the closet on another green plant.

There's a modest one of those on the wall of the hotel Modera downtown. It's pretty cool. Nothing that should be getting public subsidies however.

The Hatfield Courthouse cost only 129 million.

I used to work in the federal building, before the days of stuffy bored security staff, and just cannot see the justification for a 135 million dollar remodel. Except of course if "stimulus" is intended to be for useless stuff so as not to compete in markets where folks make useful stuff.

Part of a $135 million remodeling.... how much a part? And the maintenance cost, is that part of the stimulus monies?

Try to remember this the next time a politician says we don't have enough money and need to close schools and kick granny into a snow bank.

Dear god, what an incredible waste of money. I can kinda see a eco-roof (even though painting the roof white saves more energy), but what is this? Are they just looking for way to p!ss off taxpayers?

What does it take for officials to recognize severe recession and adopt a tighter spending approach?

Isw there anything that would curb such blatant bafoonery and waste?

It's shockingly green and shockingly un-green at the same time, and a monument mocking the excesses of the green/sustainable movement. I had an idea to turn the Memorial Coliseum into a giant community composter, but if this gets built they should convert the rest of the building to composter. It would save a lot of time and transportation costs.

perfectly in line with the "words of the decade"...."green....sustainable"....and, true words for all time around here: silly, absurd, stupid, inane, an abomination, unacceptable, WTF, WTF, WTF.

Lunatics on the loose running the asylum. Just plain awful!

A vertical green space for rats, mice, birds, and other critters to nest in. Brilliant. Just wait until some rodent loses his footing from 100 feet up and hits a pedestrian.

"the city's climate is Mediterranean, with warm to hot temperatures from late spring to early fall and little rainfall"

HUH?!

"Just wait until some rodent loses his footing from 100 feet up and hits a pedestrian."

You mean Sam Adams will be living in the plants?

Everyone knows how good climbing vegetation is for the structural integrity of buildings -- not.

Many of the green roofs built in the last few years are already leaking like sieves -- an emerging story having something to do with the recently discovered destructive impact of freezing and thawing.

These greenies are so incredibly in tune with the impact of natural forces, it's unbelievable.

When I first read this, I just shook my head. I could hear the theme to the old MTV show "Jackass" from here: "Hi! I'm Johnny Knoxville, and this is 'Performance Art Horticulture'!"

If my memory serves me right, this so-called "green" rebuilding will cost way more than building a completely new building from scratch. Maybe the next time "Streetcar Earl" is in town someone need sto step on his neck about this BOONDOGLE. It smells even worse that the WES tarin.

There are enough rats on the downtown streets and they are going to provide a home for more? Who thought this on through?

It's a gimmick that might be pretty to look at, but doesn't lessen the building's ecological or resource impact in any way. In fact, it increases it.

It's humorous, though. First, the architect, sans, any thoughtful consideration:

The architects' plans call for seven vertical "vegetated fins" to jut at acute angles. The fins would be the metal framework for planters and the greenery sprouting from them.

Then, the local firm trying to implement it:
Eggleston's firm, SERA Architects, is working on some questions that weekend gardeners never have to figure out: what plants will grow readily at more than 200 feet in the air and how to water, fertilize, weed and prune at that height.

That's right: first, somebody designs it and budgets for it and the Feds pay for it...then somebody else tries to figure out if it can even work.

But, like most projects of this type, the business interests are quick to issue a statement in support and exhort the visionary leadership:
The president of a trade group that promotes green roofs and walls said the Green-Wyatt installation is likely to be the most extensive in North America so far. "The GSA has been a real leader in the use of green roofs and walls," said Steven Peck of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities. "It's nice to see the government leading by example."

good grief-how much money? How about just using that money to develop new industry here in the USA...industry that will provide good paying jobs and produce something useful.....WTF!

I am surprised that SERA architects went along with this non-sustainable effort. I know, its a job.

First, there are windows on the green-wall facade. How, with vegetation just inches away from the windows are they cleaned, maybe even opened if that is allowed?

How can maintenance of vegetation as well as the building facade be executed without any space-like how can facade leaks be addressed?

Like anything, eventually both the trellis structure, exterior wall and windows will need replacement-how can that be performed and cost effectually compared with a typical facade?

Since west facades in Oregon are usually beneficial to solar performance of buildings (note no shading problems from buildings to west-its a park, what is the solar loss/gain from vegetation shading?

Since the vertical vegetation is over 200 ft high, enormous amount of rain will collect, drain down to the sidewalk below-will this be a free shower for pedestrians, cars traveling/parked along the street?

Why should a building and its occupants lose a view to a park?

Is this really a thought-out, common sense project, or just a Green-Forget-The-Cost fiasco?

Just a fellow solar architect practicing for over 38 years and asking.