The Edith Green – Wendell Wyatt Federal Building is a high rise structure in downtown

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous ...

, United States. Opened in 1975, the 18 story-tower is owned by the Federal Government. The international style office building has more than of space. Designed by the

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is an American architectural, urban planning and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings in Chicago, Illinois. In 1939, they were joined by engineer John Merrill. The fir ...

architecture firm, the building is named after

Wendell Wyatt Wendell Wyatt (June 15, 1917 – January 28, 2009) was an American attorney and Republican United States Representative from Oregon's 1st congressional district who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1964 until 1975. ...

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, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

History

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

Hoffman Construction Company Hoffman Construction Company is a privately held construction founded in 1922. It is headquartered in Portland, Oregon. It also has an office location in Seattle. With a revenue of US$1.4 billion in FY2017, Hoffman was the 4th largest privatel ...

under a $20 million contract. The new building opened in 1975. On June 21, 1989, an arson 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 Helen Jackson Frye (December 10, 1930 – April 21, 2011) was an American judge and attorney in the state of Oregon. She served as a judge of the Oregon Circuit Court and later as a United States federal judge, United States district judge of the ...

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. 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 terrorism in the United States, domestic terrorist truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, on April 19, 1995. Perpetrated by two anti-federal go ...

, 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, at 9:02 a.m. the building was the target of the Oklahoma City bombing ...

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. Description and history Located across from City Hall, the park is named after former Portland mayor Terry Schrunk and neighbors the Plaza Blocks consisting of C ...

, 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. The building started a $133 million overhaul to improve efficiency and make the building more environmentally friendly in 2009. SERA Architects 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 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 package enacted by the 111th U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in February 2009. Developed in response to the Gr ...

. Seattle based

Howard S. Wright Companies The Howard S. Wright Companies provide pre-construction services, construction, construction management, and design-build services for a wide range of project types and industries, primarily within the ten western states of the United States. In ...

was the construction manager with the project designed to achieve a LEED Platinum 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 (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

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 life-long healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers a ...

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 The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...

against

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

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 annual observance originating in the United States, where it is also known as African-American History Month. It has received official recognition from governments in the United States and Canada, and more recently ...

and works by disabled artists.

Namesakes

The building is named after former members of Congress

(1910-1987) and

(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, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, 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 liberal arts college with locations in Salem and Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1842, it is the oldest college in the Western United States. Originally named the Oregon Institute, the school was an unaffiliated ...

, 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