CLSB Named 2015 AIA COTE Top Ten Project

Portland, Ore. – The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and its Committee on the Environment (COTE) recognized the Collaborative Life Sciences Building and Skourtes Tower (CLSB) for its sustainable architecture and ecological design that serve to protect and enhance the environment. CLSB is one of only ten projects in the nation to receive this honor in 2015.

Opened in South Waterfront last year, CLSB is an allied health, academic and research building for Oregon Health & Science University, Portland State University and Oregon State University. Sustainable design strategies contributing to its Top Ten designation include the transformation of an existing brownfield, high access to public transit, eco-roofs to reduce stormwater runoff, non-potable water for toilet flushing, atrium heat recovery, and low ventilation fume hoods. Innovative material re-use in CLSB includes salvaging oil drilling pipes for foundation piles and repurposing existing site fencing.

As one of only two projects in the U.S. over a half million square feet that has been certified Platinum under the LEED NC v2009 rating system, CLSB is predicted to have 45 percent energy savings thanks in part to its thin profile that maximizes daylighting from two sides.

Learn more about this project’s sustainable design features.

SERA Architects partnered with designers CO Architects to provide leadership in project management, BIM integration and sustainability design. CLSB incorporates classrooms, lecture halls, laboratories, retail space, and underground parking, and the adjoining Skourtes Tower houses OHSU’s School of Dentistry clinical, training, and research spaces. Together, the buildings comprise approximately 650,000 gsf of new construction in 12-stories.

Now in its 19th year, the COTE Top Ten Awards program is the profession’s most rigorous recognition program for sustainable design excellence. The program celebrates projects that are the result of a thoroughly integrated approach to architecture, natural systems and technology.

CLSB is SERA’s second project in two years to be awarded Top Ten status. In 2014, The Edith Green – Wendell Wyatt Federal Building in downtown Portland, Oregon, was honored for its own sustainable transformation. SERA worked with Cutler Anderson Architects on that project to integrate high performance strategies that include its iconic exterior of green glass and vertical aluminum fins.

This year, CLSB will be honored at the AIA 2015 National Convention and Design Exposition in Atlanta.

About SERA Architects, Inc.

SERA is a 117-person Architecture, Urban Design & Planning, and Interior Design firm based in Portland, Oregon. The firm specializes in sustainable placemaking at all scales, through high-performance design and planning for workplace, mixed-use housing, hospitality, higher education and civic clients. In 2015, SERA expanded its presence to Silicon Valley, California.

Contact: Shelby Schroeder, Marketing Communications Coordinator, SERA Architects, Inc.
503-445-7393 | Email