The Edith Green – Wendell Wyatt Federal Building is a

high rise A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdiction ...

structure in downtown

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

, United States. Opened in 1975, the 18 story-tower is owned by the

federal government A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

. The

international style The International Style is a major architectural style and movement that began in western Europe in the 1920s and dominated modern architecture until the 1970s. It is defined by strict adherence to Functionalism (architecture), functional and Fo ...

office building has more than of space. Designed by the

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill SOM, an initialism of its original name Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, is a Chicago-based architectural, urban planning, and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings. In 1939, they were joined by enginee ...

architecture firm, the building is named after Wendell Wyatt and

Edith Green Edith Louise Starrett Green (January 17, 1910 – April 21, 1987) was an American politician and educator from Oregon. She was the second Oregonian woman to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and served a total of ten terms, fro ...

who both served in the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

History

The Green – Wyatt building was constructed in the 1970s by

Hoffman Construction Company Hoffman Construction Company is a privately held construction company founded in 1922 based in Portland, Oregon, United States. History Lee Hoffman (May 15, 1850 - August 8, 1959) moved to Portland in the 1870s with his family and worked const ...

under a $20 million contract. The new building opened in 1975. On June 21, 1989, an

arson Arson is the act of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, watercr ...

fire in the lobby caused $300,000 in damages, mostly from the sprinkler system that kept the night-time fire contained to the lobby area. Firefighters returned in February of the next year when a person trapped in an elevator inadvertently set off the fire alarm. Also that year, the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service moved out of the building and into Oregon's World Trade Center. The building suffered another fire in February 1993 when a discarded cigarette caused $25,000 in damage to insulation in the basement. All the occupants were evacuated during the late morning fire that had three alarms called, but was easily extinguished with a single bucket of water. At that time the building was valued at $120 million. In April 1995, the building was evacuated due to a bomb threat that suggested what happened at the Oklahoma City federal building would occur in Portland. No bomb was found, but the government later added additional security measures to the building that housed 1,200 workers in response to the bombing in Oklahoma City. Loriann J. Debray was later sentenced to three months in jail by federal judge Helen J. Frye for the incident. The new protective measures at the building included adding metal detectors and security guards, elimination of visitor parking in the building's basement, and other vehicles entering the building must show government identification. Edith Green - Wendell Wyatt Federal front 2012 Building2

Edith Green - Wendell Wyatt Federal front 2012 Building2

The building was targeted for another bomb threat in October 1995, but no bomb was found. On the one year anniversary of the

Oklahoma City bombing The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, United States, on April 19, 1995. The bombing remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history. Perpetr ...

, a piece from the

Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was a United States federal government complex located at 200 N.W. 5th Street in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. On April 19, 1995, the building was the target of the Oklahoma City bombing by Timothy McV ...

was added to a memorial across the street at

Terry Schrunk Plaza Terry Schrunk Plaza is a park located in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. Located in between the Edith Green – Wendell Wyatt Federal Building and Portland City Hall, and adjacent to the Plaza Blocks, it is owned and operated by the fe ...

, which includes an underground parking structure for the Green-Wyatt Building. That structure was the planned assassination site of Charles H. Turner in the failed plot by members of the Rajneeshees in 1985 to kill Turner, the U.S. Attorney for Oregon who worked in the building. In May 2001, the building was closed for a day after power transformers blew out and knocked out electricity. A similar incident closed the building in February 2004. Green – Wyatt was closed again on September 11, 2001, in the wake of the attack on the World Trade Center in New York and the attack on the

Pentagon In geometry, a pentagon () is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple polygon, simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagon may be simple or list of self-intersecting polygons, self-intersecting. A self-intersecting ...

. The building started a $133 million overhaul to improve efficiency and make the building more environmentally friendly in 2009.

SERA Architects SERA Architects is an American architectural firm headquartered in Portland, Oregon, with a second office in Oakland, California. It is the fifth largest architecture firm in Portland, offering architectural, interior design, and urban design and ...

was the architect for the improvements with Cutler Anderson Architects as the Design Excellence consulting architect, which included a new exterior to the structure.

PLACE studio Place may refer to: Geography * Place (United States Census Bureau), defined as any concentration of population ** Census-designated place, a populated area lacking its own municipal government * "Place", a type of street or road name ** Ofte ...

was the landscape architect. Funding for the project came from the

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) (), nicknamed the Recovery Act, was a Stimulus (economics), stimulus package enacted by the 111th U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in February 2009. Developed ...

. Seattle based Howard S. Wright Companies was the construction manager with the project designed to achieve a

LEED Platinum Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating systems for the design, constructio ...

rating. The building re-opened in May 2013 after the $139 million remodel with an entirely new look that included a large solar panel on a tilted roof. The Building was named by the American institute of Architects' Committee on the Environment as one of the top 10 sustainable projects of 2015.

Protests

As the main presence of the federal government in Portland, it is often the site of protests against the government. These protests have included marchers against U.S. aid given to

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

in February 1988, veterans protesting the lack of funding for medical services provided by the

Veterans Administration The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing lifelong healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers an ...

in January 1989, to those marching for a ban on testing nuclear weapons in August 1989. Other groups have rallied to end homelessness, as well as the

Gulf War , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...

against

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

in 1991 when nine protesters were arrested at the building. The bombing of Iraq in December 1998 led to further demonstrations, as did the invasion of Iraq in 2003 when seven protesters were arrested in March. The George Floyd and police brutality protests in Portland were centered near the building.

Details

The 18-story building has of space and stands tall. Built of concrete and steel, the high-rise is in the international style of architecture. It was designed by the architecture firm of

. Tenants of the building include the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management, among others. Operated by the General Services Administration (GSA), the building also houses a G.S.A. Café. Parts of the building are also used to exhibit art works. Past exhibits have included those by Black artists during

Black History Month Black History Month is an annually observed commemorative month originating in the United States, where it is also known as African-American History Month. It began as a way of remembering important people and events in the history of the Af ...

and works by disabled artists.

Namesakes

The building is named after former members of Congress

(1910-1987) and Wendell Wyatt (1917-2009), who both left Congress in 1975. Wyatt was a native Oregonian who studied law at the University of Oregon before joining the FBI and Marine Corps. A veteran of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he served as Congressman from

Oregon's 1st congressional district Oregon's 1st congressional district is a congressional district located in the U.S state of Oregon. The district stretches from Portland's western suburbs and exurbs, to parts of the Oregon coast. The district includes the principal cities of ...

for ten years as a Republican. Green grew up in Oregon and became a teacher after studying at

Willamette University Willamette University is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college with locations in Salem, Oregon, Salem and Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1842, it is the oldest college in the Western United ...

, the University of Oregon, and Stanford University. A Democrat, she spent nearly 20 years representing

Oregon's 3rd congressional district Oregon's 3rd congressional district covers most of Multnomah County, including Gresham, Troutdale, and most of Portland east of the Willamette River (parts of Northwest and Southwest Portland lie in the 1st and 5th districts). It also in ...

References

External links