Portland Architecture

Two Portlanders among winning team in Los Angeles transit ideas competition

An interdisciplinary team including two Portlanders, architect Aaron Whelton of AAW Studio and planner Jacob Brostoff of the city of Portland, took first place in an ideas competition sponsored by the Southern California Institute of Architecture (Sci-Arc) and The Architect's Newspaper.

The competition, entitled "A New Infrastructure: Innovative Transit Solutions for Los Angeles," invited designers to imagine LA's transit solutions for 30 to 50 years in the future. Judges included some heavy hitters of Los Angeles architecture, such as Thom Mayne, Eric Owen Moss, and Neil Denari.

The winning entry, called "Más Transit" is according to the press release "a regional high-speed rail system for Los Angeles with a landscape to match. Promoting dense, organic development, it diversifies the communities in the built environment, making travel less necessary, easier and more predictable, and bypassing roadway congestion through a new raised infrastructure." 

Looping around the city, with connections to subways, light rail and buses, MásTransit links local and inter-regional commuting, providing frequent service that will also sync up with the California High Speed Rail network. San Diego via m·sTransit is less than an hour away, including transfer times; San Francisco is less than three hours away."

Now if we could only get some people started on imagining regional high-speed rail for the Pacific Northwest. At the very least, there needs to be a high-speed line connecting Portland and Seattle. Really, it ought to also include connections to Vancouver (BC), Bend, Tacoma, Olympia, Salem and Eugene or maybe even to Medford and San Francisco. Much more than a new bridge for the Columbia River and Interstate 5, we need high speed rail. However, maybe rail could also be incorporated into this crossing.

Meanwhile, congratulations to Whelton, Brostoff and the rest of their team. 

Skylab, ZGF, Holst projects earn year-end honors

Interior Design Magazine has awarded Skylab Architecture a 'Best of Year' award for the design of the branding agency North. The 10,000 square foot office situated in the Lane-Miles Standish building (formerly home to an 85-year old printing business and now on the National Register of Historic Places) took the Best Small Office category.

North sought a new kind of office that would reduce or eliminate the traditional cubicle and stretch the parameters of working in a creative environment. The design responds to alternative social interactions with a series of breakaway modules for working, eating, collaborating and lounging. A stacked, cantilevered think module reveals a newly articulated view of the West Hills through clerestory windows in the building. A series of interspersed glass and metal panels define the edit module, two soundproof rooms without doors. Taking a universal icon for quick creative thought, the media module is post-it note yellow.

The magazine also honored Zimmer Gunsul Frasca for its design of the University of Oregon Athletic Medical Center. "When student athletes first enter this sports-therapy and training facility," writes ID's Nicholas Tamarin, "they're greeted by a zigzagging white Corian bench that unravels like a roll of sports tape. And that's just the beginning of the athletic imagery Zimmer Gunsul Frasc Architects created for this 15,000-square-foot center. A seating area features four sandblasted glass screens depicting students in various athletic poses, images made from the names of the school's former athletes, while an adjacent oak wall is branded with the names of the school's most important coaches. The school's "O" logo is depicted in a large relief comprising 3,000 aluminum rods that pierce a glass wall in the nutrition bar. Even there, the stools boast leather covers laser-cut with sport statistics."

This was Interior Design’s third annual Best of Year Awards, with winners in 62 categories from a pool of nearly 1,300 entries. An award ceremony was held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York on December 4th, 2008. The winners are featured in the December issue of Interior Design.

Meanwhile, online design magazine Cool Hunting has selected Holst Architecture's Clinton Condominiums as one of the 'Top 5 Buildings of 2008'.

"The building's minimal interiors combine attractive design with eco-consciousness in a way that's right at home in the Pacific Northwest," wrote Cool Hunting's Doug Black. 

The other four winners were all European architects or firms: Englishmen Nicholas Grimshaw (for an experimental media center at Rensselear Polytechnic Institute in upstate New York)  and Thomas Heatherwick (a cafe in Littlehampton, England), Dutch architect Trude Hooykaas (for the Kraanspor dock-to-office development), and the French company Abilmo (for their 'Pop-up Hotel' rooms).

This award also feels like somewhat of a vindication for the Randy Rapaport-developed Clinton condos. There has been some hostility from neighbors who feel the bold modern look doesn't fit its context, or that the project turns a blind eye to Division Street, or regret the historic home displaced from the site. And to extent, there's some validity in those claims. Nevertheless, I marvel at the Clinton Condos every time I see the building, particularly its jewel-like front facade and its sumptuous mahogany trim at ground level.

Portland Spaces hands out inaugural Root Awards to Skylab, Holst, BOORA and more (including a chicken coop)

On Wednesday night at the Portland Art Museum, Portland Spaces magazine gave out its first annual Root Awards in about 25 different categories.

After a sponsor presentation from Nike on their new recycled basketball shoes, master of ceremonies for the event was performance artist Andrew Dickson. I've loved Dickson's work for years, such as his "Ebay power seller" routine at the TBA Festival. However, I had to laugh a little at how things have panned out for Dickson. A couple years ago I reviewed for The Oregonian a performance of Dickson's in which he wrestled over the course of an evening with whether his having done a single contract job for Wieden + Kennedy advertising was "selling out". (I didn't ever think it was.) Now, though, that issue must be resolved, because he's now on staff at W+K, and with all due respect to Andrew, this one time starving artist is even looking, dare I say it, maybe a little plumper now. (But then, who am I to talk as a balding, increasingly heavier short guy?)

The Root Awards were given out in three principal categories: Home, Work, and Play, with additional 'Masters' lifetime achievement awards and a special extra category.

The workplace-oriented awards went to four projects. Communitecture, Mark Lakeman's venerable (and quintessentially hippy-Portland) firm, won in the 'entry' category for its Sisters of the Road Cafe - a well deserved honor for a humble food kitchen. Skylab won the 'office' category in designs for the branding company North (pictured above), while Holst Architecture was honored for the main conference room at the new AIA/Portland Center for Architecture. BOORA Architects won the 'lounge' award for the communal work spaces in the firm's own new offices.

The home-centered awards were the biggest category with 11 honors. The overall 'home' award went to architect Nathan Good for his Canon Beach Residence (pictured). This choice surprised me for a couple reasons. First, Nathan is based in Salem now, which I'd think would disqualify him. Second, the runners up were Skylab's M1 house and Giulietti/Schouten's Walnut House, both of which I found far more visually compelling. But Good's project is a net-zero energy house, which the jury understandably found impressive. And it's not like he's not deserving; that project is terrific. I was just aesthetically more jazzed by the other nominees. The comment from juror Iris Harrell may also be telling: "Very Oregonian, very green, very beautiful in a timeless, earthy way." Smacks just a little of Oregon cliche.

Also in the home category, the 'building' award went to the Orchid Street City Homes, a LEED Platinum-rated duplex by Building Arts Workshop. I'm not sure how this category differs from the one Nathan Good won, but the Orchid project is impressive. 

Meanwhile, other awards in this category: Arciform won the 'interior' award for their 'Ranchel' remodel (I prefered finalist Jessica Helgerson for the Zahoudani Residence). Architecture W won for their 'Stump House' in Northeast Portland. I wrote about this house recently for an upcoming Dwell magazine issue and loved it. The home is expected to also earn a Platinum LEED rating and features a remarkable solar heating system. 

Continuing the home category, BOORA Architects won the 'room' award for its Kitchel Residence, while remodeling company Neil Kelly won the 'kitchen' category for its Ganzini Residence. This was another case were I preferred a different finalist: Paolo Design Group for its 'Tile quilt of many colors' kitchen. Neil Kelly also won the 'bathroom' category for its Young residence, although again I preferred Corso Staicoff's Penthouse Bath project.

The 'outdoor' category honored Go Yurt Shelters for its Modern Green Yurt, while the 'yard' category bestowed its prize on the Chicken Sedan by Harley Cowan, a chicken coup which also won the AIA/Portland People's Choice Award. The architect sitting next to me was rolling his eyes with exasperation when the chicken coup won, but its charm is easily apparent. Not to put all my eggs in one basket or ruffle anyone's feathers, but I for one am glad the jurors weren't chicken about singling out this project. Maybe they were just winging it.

Sienna Architecture and architect Jeff Lamb won the 'crafted detail' award for their Del Castello Penthouse. This is another hugely impressive project which I had the good fortune to check out while writing a recent article for Luxe magazine. Jeff basically created an entire art gallery in this Vancouver penthouse's foyer.

The 'furniture' award within the homes category went to Jason Andrew Designs for the Genevieve chest of drawers (pictured), but the other two finalists--The Joinery's 'studio chair' and JHL Design/Modern Organic Architecture's Beam Chaise--were also excellent. Portland seems to have a bright future in furniture, which fits our city's interest in craft.

I also briefly wanted to mention Decca Deca Architecture. They didn't win any awards, but they were nominated for several.

But damn, it's tiring me out just writing all these award results. Good thing there was a full bar while these things were being given out! Hey Randy, aren't there 20 or 30 more honors you'd like to bestow while I take a nap? After all, I didn't see a 'closet' or 'cupboard' category in the home awards. How about honoring laundry rooms, or garages while we're at it? Or maybe another dance routine? (There were modern dances performed by Linda Austin and others in between categories.) Just teasing of course - it was a nicely run affair. Awards shows are just natural targets for ridicule, I think, because it's inherently weird quantifying work like this, and because it makes for a long evening, even in a best-case scenario.

The 'play' category first honored architect Von Tundra in the 'eat/drink' award for Sip (pictured), a juice cart renovated from a 40-year-old trailer. The 'retail' award went to Communitecture for The Rebuilding Center. I absolutely love this project, with its facade of mismatched windows and building parts. But wasn't it built a few years ago? I wondered if that occurred to Ziba Design, which had both of the other finalists for this award, for its Umpqua Bank flagship and its South Waterfront Discovery Center. Oh wait - the Discovery Center is years old too.

The 'hospitality' category was a hotly contested one given the number of new hotels and hotel renovations happening here lately. The award went to Hotel Deluxe, a renovation of the beloved Mallory Hotel by Hennebery/Eddy, which beat out the also excellent Hotel Modera by Holst and Corso Staicoff and the mediocre-looking Lions Gate Inn by Robert Knowles Construction. Even so, the jury's favorite hotel may have been Hotel Murano in Tacoma by Corso Staicoff, which received the 'Portland, World' award for work done outside the city.

Continuing the 'play' section though, honors went to the University of Oregon White Stag Block by Fletcher Farr Ayotte for the 'learn' category (educational projects), beating out SRG Partnership's ultra sustainable but tame-looking Mt. Angel Abbey Annunication Center and BOORA's Reynolds 4 Corners School (the latest Heinz Rudolf gem).

The 'landscape/community' award went to Opsis Architecture for the Firstenburg Community Center. Opsis really has a knack with public buildings; I still wish they'd been chosen for PSU's new recreation center downtown.

For all the sustainable building projects in Portland, the 'sustainability' award went not to a piece of architecture, but a new type of wind turbine by Oregon Wind called the Helyx HE-40. It beat out GBD Architects OHSU Center for Health and Healing, a LEED Platinum project that is maybe the greenest large medical building in America.

Finally, the 'rising star' award went to three six honorees: Cecily Ryan of Skylab Architecture (proving Jeff Kovel is not the only star at that firm), interior designer Travis Weedman of Compressed Pattern Design Studio, architect-turned sculptor David Laubenthal of DJL Studio, Works Partnership Architecture, and Eric Kaster of Eleek. 

And the 'masters' lifetime achievement awards went to architect Joachim Grube of Yost Grube Hall (pictured in his gorgeous self-designed West Hills home, included in a previous Street of Eames tour) for his work in developing countries (he was also a late-career Pietro Belluschi collaborator), interior designer Mirza Dickel, and builder James Frank. Frank is a former cabinet maker who has helped give some of Rick Potestio's sophisticated designs their essential craftsmanship.

Looking back on the awards overall, even though I joke about so many 'home' category awards and so many overall, I enjoyed seeing the work of many small design firms and companies doing architecture but also furniture, interiors, landscaping, and sustainable product design. A select few firms have now won both AIA or IIDA (interior design) awards and Root Awards this year, such as Corso Staicoff and Works Partnership.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go soak these typing fingers in ice.

Allied Works, Brett Crawford win top AIA awards, Works Partnership and Vallaster & Corl are multiple winners

Architect Brad Cloepfil's firm, Allied Works, took the top prize at Saturday's AIA Design Awards, held at the newly opened Nines hotel in the former Meier & Frank building. The Honor Award, as it's called, went to Allied's design for Booker T. Washington high school in Dallas.

As with Allied's legendary Wieden + Kennedy building in Portland as well as its new Museum of Art & Design in New York, this is a rehab of an older building that re-imagines it. The arts-oriented high school (pictured above left), attended by musicians Norah Jones, Roy Hargrove and Erykah Badu (as Tim DuRoche notes on the Burnside Blog), was originally built in 1922. Allied added 170,000 square feet that includes two theaters, science labs, dance studios, and a costume design shop. The form takes a series of floating planes, clad in grayish brick with a random-looking pattern of vertical window strips that makes the facade look a bit like an inside-out barcode. This project was on hold for years; Cloepfil had already completed most of the design when I interviewed him for a profile in 2003. So it's good to see it finished.

Brett Crawford Architecture + Planning won the night's other Honor Award, in addition to a Sustainability Award, for the 1310 Condominiums in Southeast Portland. (My apologies - I initially had Allied's as the only Honor winner.) 

The 1310, also featured in the January Portland Spaces issue, is clad with handsome Okume wood panels and an innovative rain-screen system, as well as numerous passive sustainable features from natural ventilation to skylights and tankless hot water heaters.

Although no project by Works Partnership won a built award (none were submitted), the firm was one of only two double winners in the architecture category. (The IIDA also honored interior design in the same ceremony, and Portland firm Corso Staicoff was also a multiple award winner.) The firm won in the Unbuilt category for 300B, a theater and club being developed by Randy Rapaport and Beam Development's Brad Malsin.

In the jury critique session held at the AIA's Center for Architecture on Friday night, the trio of jurors--while not divulging any winners--clearly seemed enamored with this project. Shaped like a black cube, its facade on the top and sides has a series of organic looking fissures cut for windows and skylights. Although it's unclear if this theater will get built, Rapaport in particular seeks a bold, eye-catching design. While in the past working with Holst Architecture, Rapaport is now very much into Works Partnership, as Beam has been for some time.

That same firm also won an Unbuilt award for Grow.PDX (right), a 19-unit housing development proposed for the St. Johns neighborhood near Cathedral Park. In the rendering, Grow.PDX looks a little bit like a 22nd century version of a 1960s public housing project.

Another Merit award went to Mahlum Architects for its latest Providence Health System clinic. Although not known as a high-end design boutique per se, Mahlum has a long history of fine sustainable buildings. At Friday's critique session, the jury made note of this project's "plasticity" and "layers of light" - that it was a modest building with complexity and beauty. 

"We looked for decision making in projects," said juror Marlon Blackwell of the University of Arkansas of the awards selection process. "What resources did you have and how did you use them?" To receive an Honor Award, the top prize, a project has to be "resolute at the scale of the city, of the site and street, and of the hand," Blackwell added. "Very often architecture is not a big move so much as a game of inches."

A Craftsmanship Award went to Fletcher Farr Ayotte's design of the University of Oregon's White Stag block, which recently also received LEED Gold certification from the US Green Building Council.

No stranger to the AIA awards, the venerable Thomas Hacker Architects took home a Merit Award for its Humanities Complex at the University of California/Santa Cruz. The firm's Atwater Place condos in South Waterfront were apparently shut out for an award. But look for Hacker's Mercy Corps headquarters and Cyan apartments to compete for awards in the next year or two. Thomas Hacker Architects is also celebrating its 25th anniversary this week.

Another out of town project by a local firm, the WestTown on 8th condos in Eugene by to Vallaster & Corl won a Merit Award as well. The firm, which is among the most venerable condo designers in town, also received a Citation Award (one notch lower than Merit, two lower than Honor) for the Jefferson Condos on SW 18th and Jefferson pictured at right. ("Fish don't fry in the kitchen, beans don't burn on the grill.") I've been a fan of this elegantly curving brick building in Goose Hollow, a throwback to the effortlessly beautiful fabric buildings of Holland, since it was first completed last year.

Some of the most acclaimed and/or biggest firms that have won a lot of design awards in the past, such as Holst Architecture, Skylab or even Zimmer Gunsul Frasca, weren't honored as much this year - although Hotel Modera, which Holst worked on, was honored by the IIDA for its interiors by Corso Staicoff. In the jury critique session on Friday, the jury alluded to not having a full sense of Modera from the photographs; although that apparently didn't bother the separate interior awards jury.

At Friday's critique session, the jury also had some words about Portland - although only (as usual) after a longer period talking about their own work. I'm always slightly frustrated by the crit session for this reason. I like hearing the jurors tell their own stories, but by the time they get to talking about Portland and Portland projects, there are only a few minutes left. And that time got spent talking largely about little practical details of the proposals and how the jury went about their selections.

Talking about Portland, though, they (unsurprisingly perhaps) made note of the city's streetscape and attention to public-facing facades. "We saw some really good facades," juror Ron Radziner of LA's Marmol Radziner & Associates said. The jury also expressed surprise at not seeing more single-family houses or retail designs entered in the competition - although more of those were present in the IIDA awards. The jury speculated that Portland is more civic minded, and perhaps that is why there were more mixed-use projects entered and fewer houses, the latter of which would comprise a lot of most other design award competitions. 

BetterBricks Awards honor top green practitioners

Last Friday morning in a crack-of-dawn breakfast ceremony at the Hilton, the BetterBricks Awards honored members of Oregon's design and construction community for their efforts in creating energy-efficient architecture.

BetterBricks, a nonprofit initiative of the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, is also a sponsor of this website. Hopefully this post will not seem like advertorial-style promotion for BetterBricks. But I deemed the awards a relevant story to report.

The awards were given out in six categories: (1) owner/decision-maker, (2) architecture, (3) engineering, (4) facility management/building operations, (5) advocate and (6) emerging leader. Continuing a trend from past years, honorees came from Gerding/Edlen Development, architecture firm SRG Partnership and mechanical engineer Interface Engineering, as well as a few other sources.

The owner/decision maker award went to Mark Edlen, head of Gerding/Edlen Development. This was probably a no-brainer for the jury, considering that Gerding is not just Portland's most active and large-scale green developer, but one of the nation's.

The architect winner was John Schleuning of SRG Partnership. Schleuning is the 'S' in the firm's acronym, and has guided SRG through decades of very solid design work. I actually associate Kent Duffy as much or more with SRG's most significant projects of recent years than Schleuning, but Duffy's boss is a guiding hand for the whole firm and has an impressive long track record. Duffy has previously won a BetterBricks award anyway. SRG doesn't have as high a profile as other comparable medium-sized firms. They've largely sat out the condo boom of the last several years, for example, instead focusing on public buildings such as libraries and universities. Even so, much of SRG's biggest projects include leading edge green design, such as the Lillis Business Complex at the University of Oregon and an expansion of the Mt. Angel Abbey campus beside Alvar Aalto's masterful library there.

The engineering award was a tie, between John Gray of Interface Engineering and Mike Kaplan of Kaplan Engineering. Again, I'm not sure how BetterBricks chooses what individuals from these firms receive the prizes. When I wrote about Interface's work on the GBD Architects designed, LEED Platinum OHSU Center for Health & Healing, for example, it was Andy Frichtl from that firm leading the charge. But Frichtl is a past winner for Interstate, so I guess they decided to spread it around. Regardless, Interface is a strong force in Portland green building because the mechanical engineering they offer is hugely responsible for an efficient structure: they create the guts of the building that uses energy to heat and cool the structure.

Salem Public Schools' David Furr and Kathleen Hill were the facility management winners, while Renee Loveland of Gerding Edlen Development was recognized as this year's top advocate. Dennis Wilde of Gerding is usually considered their big long-term sustainability advocate, but he's also a past winner. Naomi Cole, sustainability coordinator for Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership, was honored as this year's emerging leader. She must indeed be emerging: I've visited ZGF countless times and have never met Naomi or heard her name. But ZGF does increasingly impressive work with strong sustainability credentials, particularly when working with Gerding Edlen.

Meanwhile, congratulations to all the winners. And as we look ahead, who are some of the developers, architects, engineers and other players deserving of recognition?

John's Landing to parachute landings: John Gray is Architecture Foundation of Oregon's latest honoree

The Architectural Foundation of Oregon has announced its annual Honored Citizen. And no, this doesn’t have anything to do with a discounted meal at Shari’s restaurant and pie house. Instead, it’s a kind lifetime achievement award for those who have made a lasting contribution to the built environment, either here in Portland or elsewhere in the state. Past honorees include urban naturalist/advocate Mike Houck, architect Robert Frasca, philanthropist Jean Vollum, and landscape architect Barbara Fealy.

Although he won a Bronze Star in World War II parachuting behind enemy lines with the Army’s famed 82nd Airborne division, locally developer John Gray is best known for resort projects like Sunriver in central Oregon near Bend and Salishan on the coast just south of Lincoln City. Each is a remarkable and lasting demonstration of how Gray patronized talented, noteworthy local architects like Van Evra Bailey and John Storrs, the latter of whom designed Salishan.

In Portland, Gray was also a developer of John’s Landing, named not after himself but the B. P. John Furniture Company, the largest of several furniture manufacturers along the west side of the Willamette. John Storrs’ designs helped Gray and others transform the area into Portland’s first riverside residential and commercial development.

As it happens, I’ve been thinking about John’s Landing lately because I’ve been getting weekly acupuncture treatments on Southeast Macadam. (Remember when they used to call South Waterfront “North Macadam”, by the way?) Although one certainly has to respect and applaud the way John’s Landing was redeveloping relatively central riverfront property decades before it became widespread, I don’t find it a pleasant place to spend time. 

It’s unfortunate: This is a major arterial highway, and cities have to have them. Even if there were a streetcar all the way to Lake Oswego and lots of commuters were using it, we’d still need a four-lane road going south from Portland. And because of the hilly terrain, there aren’t that many alternatives. It’s not as if there are other streets on a grid to diffuse the traffic. So I don’t blame drivers in this regard or the need for the highway going through here. 

However, this is not a pedestrian friendly place, either in the relationship of the sidewalks to the busy street or the architecture.  Some of the houses in John’s Landing are very nice, and so is Willamette Park. But from OPB’s ugly and banal corporate headquarters to the car dealerships to the lowest-common-denominator restaurants (excepting the yummy breakfast spot Café du Berry and a couple others), it’s unfortunate that in pedestrian-friendly Portland that south Macadam doesn’t feel more pleasant to walk or shop at. I don’t mean to say that it’s a hopeless string of strip malls and fast food, but John’s Landing could use a dose of North Mississippi and even the Pearl. Don’t you think?

This is not meant to take anything away from John Gray, either. Quite the contrary. He was a visionary, it seems, and one who patronized some of the best local architects of their time. Particularly if one lived in Oregon during the 1970s or 80s, when there was far lest development on the coast or east of the Cascades, places like Salishan and Sunriver were distinctive places that felt as much like California’s famed Sea Ranch development: modern but born from nature and a sense of place. 

And John’s Landing seems capable of taking on new life given how the space between this neighborhood and Portland is filling out (South Waterfront), including perhaps a streetcar to be extended through. What could we do with John’s Landing to compliment the strides that John Gray and his architects made in the last generation? And to whom can this airborne builder pass the baton to?

ZGF, McKean Lead Design Award Winners

On Friday night, the AIA/Portland chapter (a sponsor of this site) held its annual design awards gala. Ten awards were given out, seven for built projects and three for unbuilt ones.

The top award you can win from this ceremony is the 'Honor Award', which went to two projects: Zimmer Gunsul Frasca's design for the University of Oregon's Athletic Medicine Center in Eugene and Paul McKean's Neal Creek House near Hood River. The two projects couldn't be more different. One is a palace for premiere Oregon Duck athletes, bankrolled in large part by Nike co-founder Phil Knight and other affluent donors. The other is one architect's little house for himself and his family. One's by the biggest firm in town, the other by a sole practitioner.

Of the Neal Creek House, the jury commented that they were "taken by the way this building sits on the landscape and found it to be an example of elegant and innovative use of space on a very restrictive budget." The project is "humble in its concept, very tight in plan and beautifully executed with a vertical circulation for the meadow up into the house."

The UO project, said the jury, was "extremely well executed with an interesting program. It is spatially rich and complex, which is difficult to do within a purely interior space." Jurors also "appreciated the transparency within the space and how it embraced the athletic history through colors, graphics and unique branding. This clearly was an expensive project, but the money was spent very, very well." And the green-and-yellow color scheme naturally looks better than black and orange. (By the way, would somebody tell Nike that black isn't an Oregon Ducks color? And that football players don't need faux diamond plating to look tough?)

I'm also happy to see ZGF winning a top award because it's another validation of the improved caliber of design that has come out of one of the city's top firms. ZGF has been responsible for many key buildings in Portland as well as the MAX train. Head principal Bob Frasca is at the very least a minor legend. But while these designs are a collaborative affair, the UO project and other recent designs such as the Eliot Tower confirm the talents of a younger generation at ZGF headed by architects like Eugene Sandoval.

Recently a vitriol-spewing curmudgeon named John commented on this site that there is no beautiful contemporary architecture made today. Each of these projects, as well as past AIA award winners such as Rick Potestio's Lair Condominiums, Holst's Belmont Lofts, or Brad Cloepfil's 2281 Glisan building provide more than enough retort.

Aside from the two Honor Award winners, local firm Works Partnership picked up both of the Merit Awards, which are the second-tier of honors (followed by the Citation Awards). Their renovation of the Olympic Mills warehouse in the Central Eastside (pictured) dazzled the jury for its creation of several interior courtyards to introduce natural light as well as its seven-story interior stairwells clad in wood screens. Works Partnership's unbuilt Encased Houses project also won a Merit Award, and its unbuilt mixed-use housing project on NW Upshur won a Citation Award.

Works Partnership, headed by Bill Neburka and Carrie Schilling, is a young firm but has won AIA design awards before. They've also really put their stamp on the Central Eastside more than any other Portland firm with their renovations for Beam Development of the East Bank Commerce Center and its adjacent River Avenue Commerce Center, joined now by the Olympic Mills project, which dwarfs those buildings.

Rising-star architect Jeff Kovel and his firm Skylab walked away with top honors last year for their mixed-use building on 12th Avenue downtown. This year Skylab won both a Citation Award and Sustainability Award for its design of the new Nau apparel store in Bellevue. Look for Skylab to be a major player at next year's awards, either for the cool lounge they're designing atop the renovated Meier & Frank building, or the bold condo tower planned for near the Crystal Ballroom.

The Nau store actually seems somewhat tame for Skylab, but the award is an indication of the largely untapped potential of retail design in the US. If you ever go to Japan, it won't take long to notice that their retail outlets are light years ahead in terms of the theatricality of design. Then again, considering Nau's brand identity is one of woodsy integrity and high performance, the simple palette of wood and concrete is probably appropriate. After all, it works very well for design icon Apple in their retail outlets.

Other award winners: the always solid Hennebery Eddy won the latest of its numerous awards over the years for its Historic Barn at the City of Wilsonville Memorial Park. And Colab, whose portfolio includes an incredible Dubai skyscraper and, locally, the very impressive Brandon House just south of the North Mississippi area, won for its design of Split wine bar in Tualatin (pictured). Also, the Mayor's Award for Design Excellence went to the Community Campus at New Columbia by Dull Olsen Weekes, and the People's Choice Award went to another Dubai project: the massive Al Bateen Wharf Hotel + Residences by Otak.

Congrats to all the winners.

An Arts Award and A Cover Story

Two more accolades to report on this week: First, Zimmer Gunsul Frasca has received a 2007 Governor's Arts Award from the Oregon Arts Commission. Here's the blurb from the press release:

"The firm has a long history of to integrating artists into its design teams, not just because a percent for art program mandates it, but also because the ZGF architects truly appreciate what artists bring to their projects. It has worked with the Regional Arts & Culture Council on numerous public art projects and often hired artists without any public art requirement. ZGF has also taken a leadership position with RACC's new Work for Art workplace giving program. ZGF was an early adopter of the program and consistently raises the most money each year out of the dozens of workplaces large and small that participate in Work for Art."

The award seems only peripherally related to design itself, specifically as it relates to art, but as it happens ZGF also seems to be doing good work, brought about by a nice balance of old principals like Bob Frasca with an influx of young designers. However, take the honor as you will; a fellow honoree was Oregon Art Beat, which has the sensibility (in my biased opinion) of a well meaning but out of slightly touch yokel.

Meanwhile, Portland's own Brad Cloepfil has his name on the cover of this month's Metropolis magazine as one of "4 Emerging Stars" (the others being Piero Lissoni, Bernard Khoury and Kieran Timberlake). The title of Andrew Blum's piece is "The Elementalist" and the subheading crows, "Brad Cloepfil's emerging body of work may symbolize a shift away from glib shape-making toward a more timeless and lasting architecture."

I'll bet that is music to Brad's ears. I first interviewed him five years ago for Architecture Week magazine, and I remember in that piece him talking firmly about how postmodernism was "an aberration" in the otherwise continuing history of modern architecture. He very much saw Allied Works as a continuation of what people like Louis Kahn and Mario Botta (for whom Brad worked) were already long since doing. When I profiled him for the NY Times a couple years later, the message was all the more about using a language that is elemental and timeless.

Blum also delves into past/current projects of Allied's like the Seattle Art Museum, the Museum of Arts & Design, and our own Wieden + Kennedy building.

Speaking of W+K, if you get a copy of the magazine, make sure to check out the full-page photo of its interior by Sally Schoolmaster. (I believe Allied used Sally for a few different projects, and I have long thought her work is first-rate.) In my copy, the photo was mistakenly placed after another article, isolated by itself. But it's a gorgeous shot that shows a panoramic view of the building's remilled timbers, angular concrete and natural light.

One of Allied Works' upcoming projects is an office building for Disney. Coincidentally, there was also an article in today's Oregonian about how the Portland office market is heating up. Apparently, a new crop of office building projects from a variety of developers could eventually be in the works. How about an Allied office building in Portland to carry on the tradition of the Standard Plaza and Big Pink?

Not likely, though, of course. These are mostly conservative business people putting these projects together, people thinking real estate and profit margin more than timeless architecture. I'm afraid they probably wouldn't be anywhere near aware enough of architecture to understand the opportunity that exists design-wise; they'll surely go with a service-oriented firm and an on-time, on-budget focus. The best you can hope for is that it'll be sustainable; at least green design the mainstream is starting to get.

PNCA Receives $15 Million Gift

The Pacific Northwest College of Art announced it has received a $15 million donation from local philanthropist Hallie Ford, which the school will use mostly to fund a visiting artist program.

The donation dwarfs PNCA's previous high of about $500,000 a few years ago. And while the funds won't be used on architecture per se, the donation speaks to the school's increasing presence in the community. Under the leadership of president Tom Manley, PNCA is striving mightily to form the heart of Portland's art and design scene.

As such, there's plenty of reason to imagine what the future might hold for PNCA in terms of brick and mortar.

One of PNCA's ongoing collaborators and supporters is local star architect Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works, who has conducted master planning for the school. One would think Allied would have an inside track if the school were to design and build new facilities.

At the same time, PNCA has what I think is a very cool building in the Pearl District, a converted warehouse space which Holst Architecture (including then-employee Randy Higgins) designed several years ago. PNCA doesn't own the building, though. It's owned by a member of the Goodman family, the parking magnates. That ought to change. I'd like to think some kind of deal could be worked out where the building is sold to the school at below-market value.

PNCA has also considered moving its campus to elsewhere in Northwest Portland, such as Old Town or the northern Pearl District near the Fremont Bridge. This would be exciting in that it'd give the school a chance to express itself and custom-design its digs, but I think they've got an ideal location now. The question to me is more one of how PNCA could leverage some of the nearby space for expansion down the road. And might we eventually, finally, get a new Allied Works building in Portland out of it?

Either way, I think the Pearl District is much better for having a kind of institutional/artistic ground zero, something to balance out all the condos and to really act as a gathering place for hometown and out-of-town creative minds.

Coming to a Coffee Table Near You: BOORA TBA Projects Featured In Taschen Architecture Series

One of my favorite publishers in any genre, but especially among architecture and design books, is Taschen. They bring design, art and nostalgia to the masses in smart, elegant packaging and with eclectic taste ranging from surf photography to ancient architectural theory to Japanese advertising posters. And recently, the publisher has been pressing a series of titles focusing on architecture in individual countries. Previous editions focused on design Meccas like Holland. Now, the US edition is out, and it features one Portland representative: BOORA Architects' designs for the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art's Time-Based Art Festival in 2004 and 2005.

In 2004, it was a temporary 200-seat theater, cabaret stage, bar and cafe, using recycled and other simple materials: scaffolding, pegboard, plastic buckets. In 2005, BOORA produced an event complex (pictured in these official shots supplied by the architect - no amatueur photos here) by creatively using scaffolding and orange plastic temporary fencing and a few lights and plants.That one was particularly impressive visually, comparable to the Maryhill Double project near Maryhill Museum in Washington by Annie Han and Daniel Mihalyo of Lead Pencil Studio.

The book is called simply Architecture in the United States, and it features "15 to 20 architects--from the firmly established to the up and coming--with the focus on how they have contributed to the very recent architecture in the chosen nation." About the TBA project, author Philip Jodidio writes, "The involvement of BOORA, including hundreds of hours of free design and execution work, represents an explicit acceptance of the fact that architects cannot content themselves with building 'timeless' structures for wealthy patrons. The temporary and effervescent nature of this initiative might in a sense be closer to performance art than to architecture in the usual sense, but it underlines the ways in which contemporary architecture has evolved."

So how come we get a kind of mini-landmark, a local structure that transcends the usual constraints of budget and formula to become something far more impressive than the sum of its parts, and it's only around for about ten days? I'm mostly joking. I mean, our neighbors in Seattle have more so-called architectural gems or landmarks, but I'd certainly wish for the facade of the Experience Music Project to disappear eventually (although I love Hendrix and the museum).

I would love to see someone take the BOORA/TBA projects and turn them into some kind of recurring presence. Maybe the sight of those orange buckets, scaffolding and plastic mesh fencing could become the physical identity of some art or theater group that stages performances in all kinds of unexpected places by bringing the architecture along as a kit of parts.

One other funny thing about the recent publication of Architecture in the United States is that, as I understand it from reading a recent newspaper report, PICA has decided to go with an existing brick-and-mortar space for its after-hours eat/drink/entertainment venue: the Wonder Ballroom and adjacent Cafe Wonder in Northeast Portland. It's great to see TBA heading to Northeast, and perhaps it's asking too much of BOORA to design these kinds of spaces every year. But it's also a little sad to think of these temporary spaces missing from this year's TBA, because their design and construction was itself the embodiment of time-based art.

Incidentally, one of the other Taschen titles I own is called Modernism Rediscovered and consists of architectural photographs by midcentury legend Julius Schulman. The one photo in that book of a Portland building is of Memorial Colisseum. I must say, though, that it does look good. And some of its bones, in an odd way, remind me a little of the scaffolding of BOORA's 2005 event complex.

8NW8 Wins Inaugural Terner Prize

The inaugural I. Donald Terner Prize was awarded on January 31 to the 8NW8 affordable housing project designed by SERA Architects and developed by Central City Concern.

The Terner Prize, which comes with a $25,000 award (dinner on CCC, anyone?), recognizes successful and innovative affordable housing projects and their leadership teams. It’s administered by the Center for Community Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley. Massachusetts congressman Barney Frank was the keynote speaker at a symposium and luncheon in Washington, DC to honor the winning teams.

“In terms of what it provides its residents—attractive space that nurtures a sense of community—8NW8 is heartening,” said Terner Prize Jurist John King, urban design and architecture reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. “But it’s also a real contribution to the urban streetscape and skyline of a city with markedly high standards. Anyone who passes by the building benefits, whether they someday draw on its services or not.”

8NW8 created 180 units of transitional and permanent affordable housing; 120 SRO units serve residents earning 30% or below the average median income and 60 studio apartments serve residents earning 50% or below. I wrote about this project a couple years ago, and remember talking with Paul Jeffreys and John Echlin there about the building’s durable and innovative construction methods. I also love the curving glass frontage at ground level. There's a nice whimsy to this building, but also a quiet dignity achieved through its solid, earth toned materials.

Congratulations to SERA, general contractor Walsh Construction and Central City Concern.