The equitable building - the genesis of modern air conditioned buildings.

The Equitable Building, which opened on 1January1948, in Portland, Oregon, was the first of a new architectural form. Technically and aesthetically it was radically different from any previous structure. It was a fully air conditioned building, clad with sheer aluminium curtain walling and huge expanses of sea green tinted sealed glass. It was fully electric with heat pumps providing heating and cooling from underground aquifers. The architect was Pietro Belluschi, an Italian immigrant who originally trained as an engineer and the mechanical engineer was J. Donald Kroecker, a highly respected local engineer. The genesis for the building was a wartime project in one of the leading architectural magazines. The editor invited a number of leading architects to produce designs for a range of different projects that might be built once wartime building restrictions were lifted. Belluschi produced a design that subsequently formed the basis for the Equitable Building. Kroecker designed an innovative system that was energy efficient and took advantage of the local geology and availability of hydro electric power. Nothing like this had ever been built before and it became the model for more famous buildings such as the United Nations Building, Lever House and perhaps even Mies van der Roe's Seagram Building.