The June Key Delta Community Center will be unveiled to the public Wednesday, August 8th – 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at 5940 N. Albina Ave.
But perhaps its biggest moment in the sun will come in little over a year from now, when it could officially become the city’s first living building.
After two years of construction, city officials led by Mayor Sam Adams on Wednesday will host a grand opening ceremony for the building, a former North Portland gas station and brownfield transformed into a community center by the Portland Alumnae Chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc.
The project is a participant in the International Living Building Institute’s Living Building Challenge, which asks architects and builders to erect structures that minimize their impact on the world around them.
Before a building can be certified as a “living building,” it must be occupied for a year.
Portland Development Commission spokesman Shawn Uhlman said the certification process for the June Key Delta building can’t begin until all its components are in place. The building’s solar energy system has yet to be complete, he said.
Nonetheless, the city will celebrate its grand opening on Wednesday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at 5940 N. Albina Ave.
“The June Key Delta Community Center delivers on the city’s goals of increasing job opportunities for a diverse workforce, supporting education, and creating the nation’s greenest construction sector,” Adams said in a news release.