A first look at Ziba's new Holst-designed headquarters [updated]

On Wednesday afternoon Sohrab Vossoughi, founder of Ziba, and John Holmes of Holst Architecture led a tour of Ziba's new Pearl District headquarters. The multidisciplinary design and branding agency is set for an August move-in.

First we stood outside the building, where the west-facing facade is particularly dramatic. Looking like a picture frame, it consists of metal panels that protrude slightly from the rest of the facade. The building is set back from the street slightly, which allows an extra buffer of wood slats parallel to the sidewalk, pairing nicely with the glass to create a warm, transparent feeling at the pedestrian level. Setting the building slightly back from the street also allows a cantilevering effect with the metal picture frame portion of the upper west facade; it stretches to the property line without infringing public space but still creating a subtly dramatic look.

Holmes and Vossoughi often spoke of deliberate contrasts such as this: between warm wood and cool, crisp metal, or between vast public areas and more intimately-scaled meeting areas, and between luxurious materials and more affordable ones. To some degree, this is a language that virtually any developer, owner or architect could be speaking as they walk you through a contemporary building. But the proof of the Ziba headquarters was right there. It is, at least at first blush, an exceptionally impressive space, but not a pompous one. That's probably not an easy balance to pull off.

The north side of the building, like the west-facing picture-frame facade, is also dramatic, with a two-story glass curtain wall on the second and third floors where Ziba will set up shop (there is retail space on the ground floor).

As Vossoughi and Holmes talked outside, they would take turns talking. "I think what John means to say," you'd hear Vossoughi begin. But they seemed to make a good partnership, with Ziba really seeking to not only create high quality architecture, but to have the design rigidly rooted in function.

"It's really very simple," Vossoughi said. "It's one box on top of another. A metal box floating on a pedestrian plinth."

Inside, after coming up a somewhat large concrete stairway draped in wood panels, one enters the dramatic public areas, double-height and bathed in natural light. This area is called "the street", and it feels a little bit like an airport concourse or other vast public building space such as the glass curtain wall at Memorial Coliseum. In his post about Ziba on the PORT blog, Jeff Jahn compared the natural light permeating the space to the work of legendary 20th century Finnish architect Alvar Aalto; one of only two United States buildings he designed is the Mt. Angel Abbey Library here in Oregon. I'd have to agree: the bountiful yet somehow still soft feeling light in this building made me think of Aalto before any other architect.

The "street" area also includes a series of several conference or meeting rooms, or "pods", that actually take up much more space than the office portion of Ziba. As their business changed from product design to something broader, involving bits of marketing, interior design, communications and other disciplines, Ziba found its employees were spending an overwhelming amount of their time in common areas where teams, or "tribes" as Vossoughi called them, can work together on various projects. So the desk areas at Ziba are very small, compact and all out in the open, just a series of workstations along common counter areas, with no cubicle divisions - even Vossoughi's is tiny and completely open - and pushed towards the back of the space (seen in the first photo immediately below). The pods alternate with open desk areas, and the whole sequence of spaces is connected by a series of sliding doors. In that sense, the interior also felt reminiscent of Japanese architecture.

 

The Ziba HQ even has a series of small private spaces for clients to unwind in before or after one of their intensive days-long research sessions. Say a client can flies in from another city and arrives in the morning with a long work session scheduled at Ziba but no opportunity to freshen up at his or her hotel. The client can just hop into one of these rooms straight from the taxi and take advantage of the client rooms before meeting: take a shower in one of the private bathrooms, watch a flat-screen TV, recline on a sofa and reach for a beverage in his or her nearby fridge. Before you know it they'll be putting a mint on your laptop.

Oh, and did I mention there's an auditorium as well? That's on the far east end of the building. One entrance to the auditorium from the offices is clad in angled wood, and looks like the entry to a chapel - recalling Pietro Belluschi's midcentury churches. Inside, the concrete bleachers are reminiscent of the Allied Works-designed Wieden + Kennedy headquarters, as is the public deck nearby overlooking the Pearl District. This is not to imply copying in any way, of course. The auditorium will be a great addition to the neighborhood. And if the W+K auditorium is a little more dramatic, Ziba has a lot more interesting new exterior than the renovated warehouse facade for the ad agency. Again, though, we're talking Mercedes and BMW here. They're both excellent.

The economy obviously is very tough right now, but so far Holst Architecture has not laid off a single employee, I'm told. Just as importantly, the firm has seized the opportunity to branch out from the mostly residential buildings they've done in recent the past, such as the Belmont Lofts, Clinton Condos, Thurman Street Lofts and 937, and the the larger scale renovations the firm did further back in the last decade like Ecotrust and the Pacific Northwest College of Art.

 

If I compared Holst's Ziba headquarters to Allied Works' W+K headquarters just now, perhaps there's also a comparison to be made in careers. W+K launched Brad Cloepfil into a new level of international recognition that made possible high-profile commissions like the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, the Museum of Art & Design in New York, and the University of Michigan Museum of Art, and the Clifford Clyfford Still museum. Perhaps Ziba could become the calling card for Holst as they branch out of Portland, potentially, with a new level of scale, project types and recognition.

If any firm is ready to be the next famous Portland architecture firm after Brad Cloepfil and Allied, it's Holst Architecture. Ziba may have only been under construction for the last year, but Holst has been building to this moment for well over a decade. It's nice to see them grab the brass ring.

And of course this project isn't just a Holst design, but a collaborative project with the clients. Because Ziba is a design firm too, this was more of a collaboration than most. And while Holst is capable of doing an excellent building without Ziba, it also seems clear that Ziba pushed Holst to do some of its best work.

A few years ago I was at Holst's office talking with principal and co-founder John Holmes about his frustration over a project that was being killed due in part to city and neighborhood politics over height and design. Exasperated, I remember John saying, "I just want to draw shit, you know?" I think Holmes, Jeff Stuhr and the Holst team want to create real beauty, and Holmes in particular is a true visual artist. At the same time, Ziba seemed to add to this project the rigor of function: every aspect of the buiding and its materials having a purpose. Although it's not to say Holst is without rigor, or that Ziba can't appreciate beauty for its own sake, that creative tension seems to have contributed to the breakthrough of this superb building.

It's also encouraging how this building will give Ziba more of a real presence in town. For too long the company has occupied a Pearl District storefront with reflective windows and not even a sign in front. If Portland is going to become the international design capital that its leadership is seeking, we need top local design companies like Ziba sitting out on their front porch, so to speak, instead of staying inside with all the shades drawn. Both literally and metaphorically, that has now changed, and Ziba is basking in light.

Comments

[dyob]

It's great to see a building that is designed in and out for a specific end user, rather than a developers expectation of the mainstream market need. Seems quite dramatic inside as well as out, however, those sweeping north views will unfortunately become another Hoyt tower someday.

[Randy Nishimura]

Just a small point: Aalto had two projects realized here in this country: the library at Mt. Angel, and the Baker House dormitory at M.I.T.

Great report on Ziba's new headquarters. Sounds like a perfect combination of an enlightened, sophisticated client and a talented team of architects.

[billb]

hmmm , a huge wall of north glass , not very green , not very responsible , kinda a big ego statement , eh?

[wen]

north facing windows provide the best light, ask any artist.

[Jonathan]

It's Clyfford Still, btw.

[Andy]

"hmmm , a huge wall of north glass , not very green , not very responsible , kinda a big ego statement , eh?"

Are... are you serious?

[david]

billb,

What are you talking about? This is not North Dakota. We work in a mild climate. The program for the building creates large quantities of heat from computers and people. Cooling is the largest factor. Heating concerns are minimal. I guess they could have opened some southern glazing that would have been well protected by the building directly adjacent on the property line.

Ego? did ZIba or Holst not respond to your resume? Maybe you are right. I guess we should really be offended by ZGF as their new office has large glass on all four elevations, all the way from the sidewalk to the top floor and beyond the parapet..have they no shame? And then we should look at those puff-chested Mercy Corps workers with their wall of EAST facing glass as if Mount Hood was their own.

[Aneeda]

I have a friend in the condo across the street who runs her air conditioning all winter long because her unit is too hot. Go figure.

[billb]

david , I am with you on the hideous ZGF bldg. A great example of 21st century thinking is right down the street in the U of O center. But , while I respect both ZIBA and J.Holmes et al , this is
an un-green 20th century design with huge useless spaces for the
puff-chested ego.
And no , I don't need a job doing this kind of thing.

[h-lin]

the billb coefficient of building performance: [f]

C(b+I) = [f]

C:confused
b:bitter
I:incurious
f:feckless

[convolooted]

billb,

Yeah, I'm with you. I've always wondered why the LEED rating system gives credits for connecting the building occupants with the outdoors through the introduction of daylight and views to the outside, as well as potentially decreasing the amount of artificial lighting required when natural light is used.

...just seems silly to me.

[sut]

Questions of ego aside, I think billb is correct that this building will be a poor energy performer. Glazing has very little r-value so no matter if it hot or cold the active mechanical systems will have to work to keep up, although the fact that it is an internally load dominated building will take a bit of the sting off the heating bill. You still have to make the building habitable when people arrive in the morning, though. I also think daylighting and views are extremely important, but that's not the issue here - there are many ways to have plenty of both without full glazing.

I'm not saying there aren't valid reasons for the glass wall - there are many factors must be balanced in any design. I am a little surprised at the vicious personal attacks prompted by a reasonable and valid criticism, though.

[wen]

I don't think billb's statement about the facade being a big ego statement is reasonable or valid at all.

[poop]

i find it amusing that some architects/critics assume the path to righteousness and/or professional respect is proclaiming everything around them is bad. criticism for the sake of criticism only exposes how little you actually know.

[sut]

Perhaps. While I like the building's appearance, I do think that it is pretty much screaming, 'look at me'. I personally suspect that this is more about marketing for a firm that specializes in design (Ziba) than any architect's ego.

[Andy]

sut, I think people are getting hung up on the "kinda a big ego statement" remark. It's kind of a weird frame of reference to take. When you think of all the swoopy dollops of ice cream being planned all over the Middle East and China right now, to call something that frankly looks and feels this utilitarian "a big ego statement" just comes off as a bit silly, "confused, bitter," etc.

[Aneeda]

The design to me is pretty subtle and also very elegant. Kudos to Holst and the client. Is there an interior courtyard to this building?

[h-lin]

I haven't seen the energy model for Ziba. Nor do I know the mechanical system or skin assemblies. So, I'm loath to comment on this building's green-cred. Clearly, in any building, there is a give and take between heat loss, natural lighting, views, high-performance glazing, internal loads, client desires, and so on. It's never truly a simple equation: big glazing area = poorly performing building.

I'm with poop regarding the general tone around here. I submit, though, that it's actually a dismissive/ignorance-is-bliss posture rather than self-promotional criticism. It is easy to poo-poo the efforts of others. A careful, reasoned conversation built on understanding, takes much more commitment and compassion.

Regardless, buildings are designed and built with many forces at play. Astonishingly, very few of these forces are under the direct control of the architect.

I think Ziba looks good and was clearly done with care and skill.

[Double J]

It is allegedly going to be Leed Gold certified so Im bot certain all this fizz over the curtain wall will hold up.

Yes glass is still one of the ballsier materials but it's ballsy in a refined way.

Lastly, any employer that recognizes the importance of natural light upon their employee's health and mental acuity is alright in my book. Working in a dungeon stinks, espc. when the only people with windows have them as status or power symbols. Ziba isn't like that.

[Double J]

that's "not" certain not "bot" certain

[Paul]

It's a great looking building and I agree about having tons of natural light being a positive thing. After all, with electricity at least you have the option of generating your own on site or buying renewable clean energy. I say go for the windows. I can't stand living or working in caves.

It's a funny comment about the ego. I mean, it's a pretty subtle building and Portland is filled with mediocre newer buildings. I'd like to see more risks taken with design here. Ballsy = interesting. Cheers!

[EJ]

Congratulations to ZIBA for investing in the city of Portland as their home. A world class design firm. For anyone who knows anything about them the word ego would not be mentioned accept to highlight it's absence.

[scott]

maybe all of you should get a life and fight for your own design work. quit the hate.

[raven]

truly a bunch of wankers for design critics in this town.

[Nathanael]

I live a block from this building and had to look up Holst as soon as I got home. I have a feeling the people that are most critical of this building probably haven't actually seen it. It's stunning to say the least, I would consider myself lucky to be working with either Holst or Ziba in the future.