Built by Zidell tells the story of the Zidell family's unlikely and impressive environmental clean-up and remediation of their 33 acre property on Portland's SW Waterfront. Completed in 2011, and almost 20 years in the making, the project conducted in collaboration with Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, has proven to be an effective and innovative model for protecting human health and the environment from persistent pollutants such as PCB's, metals and asbestos.

​The Zidell family is now developing their SW Waterfront property themselves, ensuring it will be done with the public and the city of Portland in mind. So far plans include the completion of the Greenway (first proposed in 1968) as well as public access to the Willamette river.

When I think about the Zidell way, I think about simply doing what we say we are going to do.” - Jay Zidell

From Director David Bee:
The Zidell family had completed the incredible remediation of their property and were concerned that the story of the massive 20 year effort would be lost to time. Once a new neighborhood was built along the SW Waterfront- with new streets, buildings, and parks,- would anyone even remember that there was once an industrial site there that had been cleaned up? The Zidells spoke with their project manager and lead environmental scientist, Paul Fishman, who suggested they contact a filmmaker to produce a film. Paul mentioned the project to me one day in 2015 when we ran into one another on the street.
My interest in the the Zidell story was immediate, beginning with the industrial steel, the barges, the deep Portland history. Then I discovered the Zidell family value: their generosity and how they took responsibility for cleaning up their own mess. And then the environmental science- and the incredible innovation involved in cleaning up the Willamette river! I quickly realized that all of these aspects had a part to play in telling the Zidell story. They would all somehow need to be woven together in order for the film to have the breadth I had envisioned.
As a filmmaker, I did in time discover that the Zidell story is really about the vibrant future of a rapidly changing Portland, Oregon. The family history, the success in business, the employee numbers, the WWII piece, the barge building, and ultimately the remediation of the land and river, is a culmination of so much that is great about our city. My intent with Built by Zidell was to take that rich past and articulate it forward so that it might provide a bridge for positive conversation, greater understanding, and the forging of new partnerships today.
I am grateful to have had this opportunity to present the amazing Zidell story and am tremendously proud of the film made with my amazing collaborators.