May 02, 2014
A quartet of Portland business leaders will join PDC executive director Patrick Quinton on a business development trip to Colombia from May 6-11. The team will introduce Portland’s “We Build Green Cities” expertise to the rapidly urbanizing South American country, which is eager to use its growing financial resources to develop its infrastructure for the 21st century economy.
Lucas Posada, GBD Architects; Kirk Davis and Craig Briscoe, Glumac; and Mauricio Villarreal, Place Studio expect to highlight their current work on the Hassalo on Eighth project in Portland’s Lloyd District, which illustrates Portland’s unique approach to economic development, sustainability and district scale solutions.
Quinton said, “The sustainability experience that is deeply embedded in the Portland story is a smart match for Colombia’s expertise in building large scale housing. This trip is our opportunity to both introduce developers to Portland firms who can bring green building expertise to projects in Colombia, and to highlight our own urban development projects here in Portland to interested Colombia investors.”
The itinerary begins in Bogota with Quinton’s presentation on “A Vision for Green Growth” at a conference sponsored by UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development), Fostering the Green FDI Opportunity in Latin America & the Caribbean.
The Portland team will have the opportunity to discuss specific projects in both Bogota and Medellin, related to district scale urban development, in meetings with representatives of government, academe and private business; and will be featured presenters at the kickoff of the Colombian Green Building Council’s Sustainability Week on May 7.
Kirk Davis, Glumac, said, “The We Build Green Cities team has had considerable success sharing our approach in Japan and China. Now we’re looking forward to taking the Portland story to South America.”
