Happy Bday Stinkulus

WONDER WHY I DESPISE EVERYTHING ABOUT OREGON?
Renovations for Federal Building as Expensive as New Building ($133 million)
Taxpayers in Oregon may be surprised to learn that the largest stimulus project in their state is not a new road or bridge, but a $133 million makeover for the federal building in downtown Portland.14 The money will go toward ―greening‖ the Edith Green/Wendell Wyatt Federal Building in the hope of making it a model for energy efficient government offices in the Northwest.15 That said, for $133 million some may wonder why they did not simply tear it down and start over.
It is not yet clear how all of the money will be spent—those decisions will largely be made by a contractor to be hired by the General Services Administration.16 For now, agency officials expect to construct a type of vegetative skin—made of plants—on the exterior of the building, to help with heating and cooling costs.17 Vegetative facades on buildings, however, are a little studied field according to some experts.18
In 2007, a new federal building was constructed in downtown San Francisco with similar state-of-the-art energy efficiency features for $144 million—nearly the same cost to merely renovate the Portland Federal Building.19 Both buildings are eighteen stories tall, built with energy efficient technologies, and house federal agency offices. The major difference is that the San Francisco building is much larger, with an additional 100,000 usable square feet in comparison with its counterpart in Portland.20
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