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CLI Updates

Changing the look and the laws of Woodburn

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Though the CAPACES Leadership Institute building is still a ways away from complete, it’s already changing the “look” of the town.

There’s the vaulting roof line launching out towards Young Street.  And the dozens of cubic yards of “growing medium”—special soil—which volunteers have lifted and spread onto the living roof on two recent Saturdays.

Today, the building’s fifteen-foot high north wall stares blankly at Young Street.  We envision that façade with a stunning 500-square foot mural.

But even if the building were finished today, we couldn’t paint it.  Outdoor murals are not allowed under Woodburn’s sign ordinance.  That’s where changing the laws comes in.

On Monday, November 14th, some 25 movement leaders and community members attended the Woodburn City Council’s regular second-Monday meeting at City Hall and waited for Mayor Kathy Figley to call out item 5c on the agenda.  It read simply, “murals.”  At our request, the Mayor had directed City staff to prepare a background briefing on mural ordinances in other Oregon towns and cities and she had informally surveyed Council members’ receptivity.

Muralist Hector Hernández presented images of his multi-story works which grace FHDC housing project in Salem and Independence.  Several young adults described their pride and satisfaction as participants in indoor mural projects.  The audience listened intently as Councilors batted around competing consideration—inspiring, tourist-attracting art vs. poor quality or “controversial” images.  The “First Amendment” was repeatedly cited.

To the central question “should the Council explore fashioning an ordinance?”, the consensus was a cautious “yes.”  They instructed the City Attorney to prepare a legal analysis and, legality permitting, signaled that the Planning Commission could iron out the details.  Community members are stepping forward to active engage this process.

The Institute will surely facilitate greater Latino civic participation in Woodburn and is already doing so, even before the Institute building has doors in place to open.  It could be that on November 14th, a future City Councilor caught his or her first glimpse of city government in action.  We may someday recall how, in 2011, our campaign for outdoor murals contributed to changing the look, the laws and the legislators in Woodburn.

Be sure to check out the latest construction photos

 

Work brigades continue most Saturdays.   Sign up to volunteer!

 

“capacesleadership.org”: Brand New Website

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These periodic updates have focused on the tangible progress we’re making to bring the CAPACES Leadership Institute fully to life.  For example, every day the building has some new put in place.  This past week, it was the roof’s “TPO” waterproof membrane, installed thanks to donated labor and considerable donated material provided by McDonald and Wetle in East Portland.  And on Thrusday, the Institute wrapped up its first course, “CAPACES 101”, a five-sessions for new leaders and leaders new to our movement.  The second offering of CAPACES 101 begins today with a new small group.

As hundreds of supporters can attest, seeing the Institute’s building-in-progress or meeting CAPACES organizations leaders in person best transmits the essence of the Institute.  Most supporters, of course, simply cannot come and visit, much less come by often.  Therefore, as promised, we’ve created a vehicle to bring the Institute’s evolution to you.

At www.capacesleadership.org you can now find images, stories, information, background and more about the CAPACES Leadership Institute:

  • See photos of the latest construction progress;
  • Find this e-update—and past ones that form the “first draft” of this journey’s narrative;
  • Read brief and engaging accounts from behind the scenes, like the profile of the Institute’s chief construction consultant, Gene Wixson, of Green Hammer;
  • Sign up for construction brigades;
  • Use the “Donate” link to make a tax-deductible contribution securely online;

To get started, we assembled mostly the basics.  In the weeks and months ahead, we’ll be inserting more back story and expanding content on the Institute’s programs.  We expect that the site will eventually become a platform for the Institute’s program that’s as virtually vibrant as the in-person activities already are.  OK, almost as vibrant.

We gratefully acknowledge the team who brought www.capacesleadership.org to life:  Barry Amundson, Abel Valladares, Kathleen Pequeño, and Phil Pearson.

We hope you’ll use capacesleadership.org to stay current, connected, and to help us draw in others.

October Construction Update

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For the last month we have gotten up early and stayed up late running, pushing, kicking and swinging hammers left and right on our project. Our building, so recently begun, has in four short weeks become something very special: the nation’s first Passive House office building. Right down to the fully insulated floor, the progress we have made could not have been possible without the generous support of people like Pedro Martinez, our volunteer “Masonry Master,” and the more than six hundred others, children and adults, who have donated their time.

Our accomplishment has surprised even ourselves, but we are far from being done. In the next two weeks we need your support working inside our building–all the way to the trusses. Please consider donating your time to our worthy cause!

Contact Javier Lara at: Javierl@pcun.org or 503 997 4387 today!

Volunteer Profile: Gene Wixson

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Imagine a built environment which has the power to inspire its surrounding community, as well as its builders and inhabitants. Imagine that the construction of a single office building could teach some of the country’s most disenfranchised laborers the skills necessary to join the “Green Building” workforce. Meet Gene Wixson.

Gene builds ultra high performance buildings. Sounds cool, right? It is cool. Ultra high performance, or Passive House, buildings are so efficient that they can actually produce as much energy as they consume. In a Passive House building, because the insulation and roofing are so progressive, the main energy cost is actually hot water, and electrical plugs. As of August 2010, there were only 13 such buildings in the US. Add one more.

Gene is a Construction Manager for Green Hammer, a Portland based design firm specializing in ultra high performance building, and he is currently working with PCUN on the CAPACES Leadership Institute (CLI), which, aside from providing the CAPACES sister organizations with a headquarters from which to train tomorrow’s Latino leadership, will be the nation’s first office building built to the Passive House standard. Gene’s role on the CLI project is many faceted; he does everything from coordinating the needs of the architects with those of the structural engineers to arranging with suppliers and manufacturers for supplies. According to Gene, finding manufacturers who design products significantly better than code is one of the most difficult challenges the CLI campaign faces, but it is also a challenge he feels will improve the position of PCUN and the Latino workforce they represent by helping them to build connections in an area of the “Green” industry that is seeing steady growth.

Gene specialized in Environmental Studies at Lewis and Clark College, where he succeeded in writing LEED into the campus building standards in 1996, but he has been a builder much longer than that. From working on “Heritage” buildings in the Antarctic to working with PCUN today, Gene has always been interested in the cutting edge of design. His experience on contracting jobs has also brought him into contact with the large Latino contracting workforce, and this has given him a deeper understanding of how his work with the CLI will strengthen our community. Working on the CLI project is a teaching opportunity for Gene and his Green Hammer associates, a chance to increase the job skills of the Latino framing crews that have had virtually no exposure to ultra high performance design, but will ultimately build the CLI structure from the ground up. This is a chance that Gene relishes. Gene says, of his work on the CLI project, “I love that this is a group of people who may not have work next month, who may not even be in this part of the country next month, but are still willing to donate their time and skills toward putting together what will be the coolest building in the country. That inspires me.”