Building Dream Careers
The tour bus pulled up to $2 million- dollar homes to show construction students the possibilities of what they may build one day. Home Building Foundation and Home Building Association of Greater Portland invited the summer cohort of Constructing Hope to see top-of-the line houses in August at the 2024 NW Natural Street of Dreams. Toll Brothers four luxury homes at Hosford Farms provided jaw dropping sightseeing for the tour. Students wandered up and down the stairs of the three- story homes, taking in the tastefully designed rooms, and the bucolic views of rural farmland behind the homes.
While the “wow” factor was an important part of the tour, the trainees also received education. Casey Phillips and Kira Taylor from Energy Trust of Oregon led a “lunch and learn” session to describe the building science behind the beauty. HBF and HBA are providing opportunities to teach prospective builders about sustainable construction as a part of a multi-year grant from the Portland Clean Energy Fund. Constructing Hope, Oregon Tradeswomen, Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center and Portland Youth Builders trainees are receiving enhanced building science education to encourage people most affective by climate change to learn how to improve their communities. All of the training programs focus on low income participants, most of whom are people of color.
Energy Trust’s Casey Phillips explained to trainees how today’s more insulated homes come with challenges “You have a tight house. Yes, you will be reducing your energy costs because your heating and cooling systems don’t have to run as often, right? … If we don’t address ventilation, and we have a tight house, yes, our bills are going to be lower, but you might start having some indoor air quality issues. If you can’t get moisture out-what does moisture do to a house? A lot of bad things, right?” Phillips and Taylor drove home their message by taking the students through the homes to explain the high performance features up close.
The students also toured some more affordable housing by seeing one of three townhomes built on a 50 by 100 lot in St. Johns by Fish Construction NW. The home featured luxury features, such as a gourmet kitchen, and a spacious master suite. NW Natural’s Lacey Garrett helped point out energy efficiencies in the home such as an on-demand water heater, a 96% efficiency furnace, and a thoughtful blend of natural gas and electric features. HBF found the trainees are very interested in “green” construction. Nardo Gandarella told us “I like the different type of climate controls…that was really cool”. Others mentioned they liked learning how new homes were more energy efficient.
Career exploration proved another key component of the tour. Builder Jeff Fish gave the trainees many encouraging tips about how to pursing jobs in residential construction. His words of wisdom sparked interest by some trainees to follow in Fish’s footsteps. Trainee Dion Camel peppered Fish with questions about development, asking; how much did the land cost? How much did each unit cost to build? and most importantly, what kind of profit to builders make? As Camel told us “I’m trying to get to the bottom of it, I want to find information”.
Constructing Hope and the guides all gave the Street of Dreams tour high marks for providing information and inspiration. With the successful tour behind us, HBF and HBA are committed to working in tandem to offer experiences like these. If you’d like to help, go to BuildHopePDX.org to donate to HBF’s Workforce Development programs, or to volunteer your time.