Building Design

The first edition of Portland's "Resource Guide for Bird-friendly Building Design" is now available. The document guides architects and developers in the incorporation of innovative bird-friendly elements into their design approaches

Portland has been a recognized leader in the integration of built and natural environments, and as a result we have a robust and highly valued urban wildlife population. But built landscapes can pose unique hazards for the 209 species of birds found in Portland, and researchers now estimate that up to one billion birds die as a result of window collisions in the U.S. every year.

Architects and designers are increasingly engaged in the important work of adapting our design thinking to help solve contemporary environmental challenges, and have been successful at identifying synergies between bird-safety and other design objectives. Bird-friendly building guidelines have already been developed in NYC, Toronto, Chicago, Minnesota and San Francisco.

Portland's resource guide is a customization of American Bird Conservancy’s 2011 template Guide, and the culmination of collaborative work between Audubon Society of Portland, the City of Portland, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), with funding from the USFWS Urban Conservation Treaty for Migratory Birds program.