Hillsboro Civic Center scores LEED gold rating

The Hillsboro Civic Center, originally designed to earn a silver certification under the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system, last week was granted a LEED gold rating from the USGBC.

The project is the seventh in Oregon to earn the USGBC's gold rating under LEED.

Hundreds of Oregon projects have been designed to meet LEED standards, but to date just 24 projects in the state have been certified by the USGBC.

The civic center, designed by the Portland firm LRS Architects Inc., joins the Seattle City Hall as the only city halls in the country to be certified gold under LEED.

According to LRS' Michael Jones, who shepherded the project through the USGBC's certification process, the USGBC gave consideration to the project's redevelopment of an on-site brownfield and diversion of 90 percent of construction waste from landfills.

The 168,000-square-foot Hillsboro Civic Center is 42 percent more energy-efficient and consumes 38 percent less water than the average building of its size.

The Oregon division of Skanska USA built the civic center, which was developed by the Beaverton firm Specht Development Inc. Construction began in May 2003 and was completed in July of this year.

Engineers included WRG Design Inc., KPFF Consulting Engineers and Interface Engineering.