Oregon Convention Centre

The conference that I attended was held at the Oregon Convention Centre (OCC) which is the largest convention centre in the Pacific Northwest with over 1 million square feet of floor space. It has 255,000 square feet of exhibition space, 50 meeting rooms, two grand ballrooms, & an 800-space parking garage - so, it is pretty big. To give you an idea of the size, I had some spare time one lunch-break & thought that since the weather was really nice (sunny & 80 degrees) that I would take a walk around the outside of the center. This took me half an hour!

In 2004, OCC became the second convention center in the US to be LEED-rated & the first to receive certification under the LEED for Existing Buildings program. LEED stands for 'Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design' & is the Green Building Rating System™ used as the US benchmark for the design, construction, & operation of high performance 'green' buildings.

Portland is a very environmentally aware city & is proud of the way that by considering the environment & sustainability issues they have created a community that people want to live in. The convention centre carries on this ethos. In addition to the Eco-friendly MAX light rail connection right outside the venue, the centre has several other green features. Large windows are used so that natural light provides maximum illumination to hallways & lobbies to reduce the need for electricity. The innovative Rain Garden is designed to look like an elegant water feature but is actually used to remove pollutants from the rain water that drains from the center’s massive roof. The water moves through a cleansing series of waterfalls, settling ponds & native grasses before entering the nearby Willamette River.