Portland Architecture

The Architect's Questionnaire: Jeremy Spurgin

Jeremy Spurgin (Outside Architecture)

 

BY JENNIFER WRIGHT

The latest edition in this ongoing series devoted to architects and their inspirations features architect Jeremy Spurgin, founder and principal at Outside Architecture.

As the firm’s name suggests, Outside Architecture seeks to go beyond traditional boundaries, thanks to Spurgin's background in not just architecture but construction, development and academics. There is a holistic sense of building and craft common to all of Outside Architecture’s work: a clarity of form and a celebration of structure. Relying on an aesthetic that prioritizes stripped-down essentials and rigorous proportion, Spurgin’s work eschews trends for timeless rationality.

Although only five years old, Spurgin's firm already boasts a broad portfolio of both residential and commercial projects, including several custom single-family and multi-family residential projects as well as student housing. Originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Spurgin continues to practice both locally and outside Portland in the Midwest. Outside Architecture is also continuing its work with retailer Baseballism, for which they've already designed 12 flagship stores and 30 pop-up shops across the US.

 

Baseballism San Francisco (Sarah Atkinson), Beaver Creek Cabin (Shawn Records)

 

Portland Architecture:When did you become interested in architecture as a possible career?

 Jeremy Spurgin: Growing up, most of my family was involved in the building trades. I was on job sites at a very early age and eventually worked construction for most of my adolescent and early adult jobs. And, yeah, Legos and Lincoln Logs were my jam as a little kid. I always enjoyed drawing and problem solving. I wanted to be an architect as far back as I can remember, well before I knew what it really involved. I was hooked by the time I got to architecture school where most of the course work was learning about and designing cool spaces, objects and buildings. I fell more in love with the profession each time I learned more about it; starting in high school, then college and grad school, to entering the profession and running my own studio.

Where did you study architecture and how would you rate the experience?

I received my bachelor of architecture degree from the University of Minnesota,. The studios were very conceptual, which helped balance my prior practical exposure to building. I really loved the school’s campus, the architecture building and the design curriculum. At “the U,” I witnessed two bizzare Starchitect behaviors in my final year: Stephen Holl turning his back to the audience during a defense of his would-be-addition to the school of architecture, and Frank Gehry not saying a single word when given an honorary degree at our graduation. It was hilarious and eye-opening about the egos in this industry.

I earned my master's degree in architecture from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The curriculum was a great mix of design and practice, with many talented local architects teaching studios. It was a perfect precursor to entering the profession. Also, at that time a lot of the professors were beginning to get students thinking about energy and sustainability, which I appreciated and ran with.

What is your favorite building project that you’ve worked on?

Riverfront Lofts is a 26-unit, multi-family project in downtown Green Bay, Wisconsin. I completed this project in 2006 while working at Vetter Denk Architects in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The firm acted as architect and developer on this and many other projects. I was fortunate to have done the initial building design, construction drawings and then worked with the individual buyers to customize each residence- a handful who wore helmets to work on Sundays. I even personally did some decorative concrete work within the project. Don’t ask.

The design was solid: tight and clean but not flashy. The section recalled Le Corbusier’s Unite d’Habitation, with skip-stop elevators and interlocking units. No new residential projects had been built in Green Bay in decades, so the project was a kind of test-fit for urban living in the city. As such, we designed a wide variety of unit sizes at different price points, from $160,000 to $1.5 million. Yet no matter what the size, each unit shared the same modern principles and all had large water-facing outdoor terraces. We followed up the project by redeveloping the riverfront boardwalk. Both of which helped spur a major reinvestment in downtown Green Bay that continues today.

 

Riverfront Lofts, Green Bay (Vetter Denk Architects)

 

Who has been an important mentor among your colleagues?

There have really been a lot, but two certainly stand out. John Vetter and Kelly Denk are architects I worked for when living in Milwaukee. John is a very talented designer and communicator. His brain, hands and mouth work really well in unison. I’ve learned so much about both how to design and how to talk about it from John. Kelly has a great technical mind. We talk a lot about detailing architecture and how to think about the financial side of our practice. Both John and Kelly value relationships in a way I hadn’t seen until I worked with them. Each is an ambitious architect, but strong ethics and character dominate their decision-making. Their example guides how I run my practice and lean on both of them frequently to this day.

Lucas Gray is a friend and architecture colleague here in Portland. I use his council more than I care to admit. He’s an alternative thinker which I really appreciate. He has an unconventional way of interpreting the world and he’s typically spot on.

What part of the job do you like best and as an architect what do you think you most excel at?

Detailing. I place design as the main priority of our studio, but even at the early stages I am thinking of how it will get put together. Too often creative, but ungrounded design drives bad detailing and construction. My favorite projects have a series of clean, repeatable details- placing a higher value on composition and tectonics. The approach minimizes the effort of moving from concept to construction and won’t get you laughed out of a job-site trailer.

 

Section of Beaver Creek Cabin (Outside Architecture)

 

What are some Portland buildings (either new or historic) that you most admire?

The Portland Japanese Garden’s Cultural Crossing expansion by Kengo Kuma (with Hacker Architects, Walker Macy and Uchiyama) is hard to beat. It’s inventive and unexpected, yet humble, approachable and familiar at the same time.

The Ziba headquarters by Holst Architecture is a great composition and works well at a variety of scales. I like how brave the fenestration is for a three-story building.

 

Portland Japanese Garden (Stephen Tamiesie), Ziba Headquarters (Holst Architecture)

 

What is your favorite building outside of Portland and besides any that you’ve worked on?

I love residential architecture and gravitate toward that typology. I know it’s cliche, but Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater is one of my favorites and such a great project. If you haven’t been, it truly is worth all the hype. The exterior is bold and aggressive, but still feels united to the landscape. The interiors are severe and rigid, but still feel calm and cozy. The indoor/outdoor connection is so strong and there is a great variety of scales in the home.

 

Fallingwater, Mill Run, Pennsylvania (Brian Libby)

 

Is there a local architect or firm that you think is unheralded or deserves more attention?

There are so many that deserve more attention. I’ve always appreciated smaller firms and there are a few that consistently get my attention. Webster Wilson is a great designer whose buildings really celebrate how they are built. In Situ is doing great work and leading the industry in high performance energy standards. Follow their lead. More well-known, is Fieldwork, who seems to knock it out of the park on every project. They are certainly not unheralded, but I think they deserve more attention.

What would you like to see change about Portland’s built environment in the long term? 

Portland was a pioneer in urban design with the urban growth boundary and light rail. I wish we were still pushing the envelope with our planning. 

I’d love to see stronger public connections to the Willamette. There aren’t enough opportunities to engage the river aside from driving over it. We should be able to walk or roll along the river from Sellwood to Cathedral Park. Maybe we should bury the freeway and better develop the Central Eastside to get more people, businesses and activity to the river. 

I’d also love to see more protected bike lanes and even some non-automobile streets. Streets like North Williams and Southeast Division could be free of civilian vehicles. People and business would go crazy for a truly pedestrian friendly strip.  Walking in Florence, Italy is so stress-free without all the cars. State Street in Madison, Wisconsin is another good example.

Those two first and then a Major League Baseball ballpark.  Don't @ me.

Is there a famous architect you would like to see do work here in Portland?

Good architecture (not just sexy) requires a strong grasp of the regional environment, which is inherently a hurdle for non-local architects. We don’t need some Starchitect doing a “look at me” project that makes no sense in the Pacific Northwest. Lake Flato or Vince James (VJAA) are two stellar firms that would grasp the regional responsibility and deliver a rigorous, beautiful project.

 

Lake Flato's Marine Education Center (Casey Dunn), VJAA's Type Variant House (VJAA)

 

Name something besides architecture (sneakers, furniture, umbrellas) you love the design of.

Pizza - so many decisions and things to get right (pineapple) and wrong (olives). Like buildings, a good pie should be aesthetically pleasing, have structural integrity and environmentally responsible. I love a good thin crust, but my partner is from Michigan, so I’ve come to appreciate Detroit-style. I try not to  discriminate when it comes to pizza.

What are three of your all-time favorite movies? 

I like comedies and most anything with Bill Murray. There are so many hilarious options, but probably my favorite is Stripes, even if it is only half a movie. By the time he cracks the ‘Wiscaaahnsin’ joke and they head into Germany, you can turn it off. I really don’t like stressful movies, but The Deer Hunter is an exception and a favorite. Everything feels so real and even though I’ve seen it dozens of times, every time I watch it shakes me like the first time I saw it. Vision Quest is a guilty pleasure that I love from growing up. It’s so wonderfully, cheesy-bad-'80s with a great soundtrack.

 

 

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Belluschi at his most breathtaking: visiting Saint Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco

Eastern approach to Cathedral of Saint Mary (Brian Libby)

 

BY BRIAN LIBBY

Over the last 20 years, writing about architecture in Portland has inevitably and happily meant becoming familiar with the work of the city’s most acclaimed architect: the late Pietro Belluschi (1899-1994).

I’ve had the good fortune to visit a lot of great Belluschi buildings over the years, whether it’s cultural landmarks like the Portland Art Museum, innovative commercial buildings like the Equitable, or a succession of houses and churches that helped define the Northwest Modern style. Though each design responds to specific site and topography conditions as well as client needs, they share a connecting thread: a cohesive yet never oppressive visual language.

Yet the overwhelming majority of Belluschi’s buildings I’ve visit in person have been here in Portland. Though I’ve been to the Pan Am Building and the Julliard School in New York, as well as the Rohm & Haas Building in Philadelphia, there’s always been so much more. Particularly after he left Portland to become dean of MIT’s school of architecture in 1951, Belluschi began to see buildings built all over the country, especially in cultural capitols like, NYC, Boston and San Francisco.

So recently when I began planning a Bay Area reporting trip, I knew I had to make time to see the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption, designed or at least co-designed by Belluschi and completed in 1971. I’d been meaning to visit for so many years.

It was worth the wait, for St. Mary’s Cathedral, as it’s commonly known, is an uncommonly great building. The pictures I took don't do it justice, but nobody else's seem to either.

Even though San Francisco is one of the most beautiful of American cities, with some exceptional and iconic architecture, I think this building ranks among its finest. Don’t take my word for it. Take it from their urban design and architecture critic, John King, who ranked in his SF all-time top 25 and called St. Mary’s “one of the city's most startling buildings.”

 

The paraboloid-shaped dome of St. Mary's (Brian Libby)

 

Occupying a prominent position on a hilltop between the Japantown and Tenderloin districts, the cathedral straddles a superblock so that streets to the east and west like O’Farrell Street, where I was coming from, become a processional leading there. Set back from the street on all four sides, including a large northern entry plaza, the cathedral begins with a square base that gives way to a huge sculptural form that acts like a traditional dome but is instead comprised of four hyperbolic paraboloids. When I posted exterior photos of the cathedral’s white travertine-clad, quadruple-paraboloid shape to Instagram, more than one person suggested the 1971 building seems to prefigure Frank Gehry’s iconic sculptural architecture such as 1997’s Guggenheim Bilbao and 2003’s Walt Disney Concert Hall. Maybe so: it’s a simpler, more restrained basic geometry by comparison, but enjoys a similarly striking presence.

Inside, the paraboloids create the equivalent of a dome—a soaring volume—but seem to rise higher, their thin concrete shells sloping inward in a kind of coffered pattern, coming together to form a giant cross of stained glass.  As King writes, “Except for a literal cross at the summit, and an ornate bronze entryway, the travertine-skinned structure is modern as can be. Yet its aura is as majestic as any cathedral of old, commanding attention despite the presence of taller towers nearby.”

 

Inside the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption (Brian Libby)

 

And even when compared to the finest buildings in Pietro Belluschi’s portfolio, St. Mary’s cathedral seems to my eyes, or at least after this first visit, as good it gets even for this legendary architect. Yet on paper, it’s only partially his design.

Replacing a nearby circa-1891 Gothic Revival church that had been destroyed by fire in 1962, the new St. Mary’s represented the city’s most important religious commission in a generation, and a mix of both regionally and nationally-renowned names were rumored to be interested, including the great Louis Kahn and Marcel Breuer as well as San Francisco architect Mario Ciampi, who designed the excellent Berkeley Art Museum, John Carl Warnecke, who designed the Hawaii state capitol, several buildings at Stanford University, and John F. Kennedy’s eternal flame gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery.

But none of those architects got the job. Instead, in 1963 the commission went to a trio of local architects: Angus McSweeney, Paul Ryan and John Lee. This met with immediate pushback. In the San Francisco Chronicle, Gerald Adams wrote that “the reaction was a stunned, ‘Who?’” Architecture critic Allen Temko went even further, particularly attacking McSweeney: “One cannot possibly associate his name with a single significant piece of modern architecture.” Things only got worse when a preliminary design was said to be underwhelming. The editor of Worship magazine wrote, “It reminds me of the effort of a camel and a donkey to mate.”

This is the point at which the archdiocese of San Francisco hired Pietro Belluschi to join the team. And Belluschi, anticipating a soaring concrete structure, suggested the team add the great Italian engineer and architect Pier Luigi Nervi, known for his work with reinforced concrete including 1957’s Palazzetto dello Sport in Rome (the latter a forerunner of America’s domed stadiums of the 1960s and ‘70s).

Belluschi and Nervi were a natural fit as collaborators: both Italians born in the 1890s trained as engineers who practice architecture. And they already had enjoyed a kind of collaboration by proxy in Portland: 1960’s Memorial Coliseum. Its lead designer from Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, Myron Goldsmith, had studied under Nervi at the University of Rome for two years on a Fulbright fellowship. But most of the architectural staff at SOM’s Portland office had come from Belluschi’s sale of his firm to Skidmore when he became dean of the MIT architecture school in 1951.

 

Nervi's Palazzetto dello Sport in Rome (Eduardo Pompeo)

 

Aircraft hangar in Orvieto, Italy  (Mario Carrieri)

 

Is the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption truly a Belluschi building? Does it have that Belluschi fingerprint? I certainly think so, although Nervi is there too. When I got home from San Francisco, I consulted University of Washington professor Meredith Clausen’s definitive career survey, Pietro Belluschi: Modern American Architect, published in 1994. Looking through that book at other religious architecture he designed, such as 1966’s Immanuel Lutheran Church in Silverton, the interior wood wall patterns are unmistakably similar to the inside of the concrete parabolic interior as it soars to the building’s crowning cross. I think Nervi helped Belluschi design and engineer the form of the paraboloids, and he had employed a similar language with previous reinforced-concrete-based projects. But I think the vision was Belluschi’s not just because you can see his visual fingerprint in the details and materials (including the travertine exterior), but becuase he was the only accomplished church architect. It’s harder to discern what contribution came from the McSweeney, Ryan and Lee. Belluschi didn’t really have a firm of his own at this point; he was just a consultant officially. So maybe these local guys were the architect of record: the people who stamp the drawings and carry out the details after Belluschi and Nervi came up with the concept.

I actually happened to exchange emails with Clausen about St. Mary’s, after I was surprised to find fairly little about the project in Modern American Architect. She reminded me that one of her other books, Spiritual Space: The Religious Architecture of Pietro Belluschi, includes a thorough account of the cathedral. “It’s one of his finest buildings, to my mind, despite the fact he himself felt the exterior was flawed,” Clausen wrote. “It’s a superb building, one of his best.” I also posed the question of perhaps influencing Frank Gehry. “He undoubtedly knew PB’s work,” she wrote, adding that she plans to ask Gehry during an already-planned upcoming interview for a book on architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable. “I’d be willing to wager he admired him considerably more than people like [Walter] Gropius.”

 

Inside St. Mary looking east and southwest (Brian Libby)

 

Last Saturday I arrived at St. Mary’s in the early afternoon under quintessentially golden San Francisco skies: that almost Mediterranean light that, when the fog and clouds clear, makes the city so exceptionally beautiful sometimes.

As I passed through the ornate bronze entryway, a wedding rehearsal had just completed and members of the extended wedding party were exiting, leaving the entire cathedral practically to myself. I stayed for nearly an hour, sitting in different pews and alternately staring up at the massive volume beneath the skylight-cross or out at the postcard view of the city at the corners of the building’s glass-ensconced base.

Over the years on various travels, occasionally I've had while visiting a great building what I call a moment of wonder: an experience powerful enough to outweigh all the stress and anxiety and logistical headaches and exhaustion of travel. I had it while visiting St. Paul's Cathedral in London, while standing before Whitby Abbey in Yorkshire, while touring Mies van der Rohe's Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, passing through the canals of Amsterdam, looking up at the dome of the Karlskirche in Vienna and standing outside Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater house in Pennsylvania. I can't plan these moments of wonder, for they aren't guaranteed even when visiting the greatest architectural masterpieces. They usually arrive when there aren't many people around. I remember going early to Whitby Abbey, for example just before a bus of tourists unloaded, and the fleeting moment of my time with this 12th century ruin to myself, with the morning sun hitting the ancient stone off the coast of the North Sea, helped make the moment magical.

Now I can add to that wonder-list last Saturday's visit to the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption. Over the final 20 minutes or so, as I relaxed there on the pews and thought about how inspiring this religious architecture was—how resolutely it differed in its spirit from the ugliness of so much American evangelism today—a woman began playing the cathedral's massive pipe organ. I think she was rehearsing for the upcoming wedding, because the first piece sounded like one of those Baroque pieces people choose for a wedding march. But it felt like a soundtrack to my own private communion with the cathedral's architecture.

And lest all this talk of solemn, contemplative ecclesiastical architecture and moments of wonder should seem too stuffy, after returning from San Francisco I learned that the building is rather infamous in one other way. Of course one of its derogative nicknames is St. Mary Maytag for how the exterior forms arguably resemble the interior rotors of a washing machine. But if you'll forgive the crassness, apparently at 2:00pm on sunny days, its shadowing is said to resemble the outline of a woman's breast, and apparently this phenomenon is known as the "two o'clock titty." Judge for yourself.

 

Inside and outside St. Mary's (Brian Libby)

Regardless, I know now that should have visited St. Mary's Cathedral a decade or two ago. It should have been informing how I thought about Pietro Belluschi all this time. All those years I was writing about his work in a way that would be like writing about the Beatles without having heard, say, Abbey Road. Well, now I have. And to borrow from an old saying, this design is one sublime piece of frozen music.

 

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Design calendar: November 16-30

Isam White House (Arciform)

 

BY BRIAN LIBBY

Researching the History of Your House
Ever wonder who lived in your house before you did, or what your house looked like originally? Historians Tibby O’Brien and Morgen Young will discuss how to uncover the history of one's vintage house (as well as any other building). Architectural Heritage Center, 701 SE Grand Avenue. 10AM Saturday, November 16. $12 ($8 for AHC members).

CSI Non-Profit Appreciation and Emerging Professionals Happy Hour
November is a good time to reflect on all the things we are thankful for, and to take a few minutes to find a way to give back to our community. The Portland chapter of the Construction Specifications Institute hosts this presentation by some of the local construction non-profit organizations to hear what they are all about, and see if there is a good fit to donate one's time or expertise to. The evening will double as the latest edition of the Emerging Professionals Happy Hour, an opportunity to meet other professionals in the industry in a relaxed atmosphere. Mutual Materials, 2175 NW Raleigh Street, Suite 203.5PM Tuesday, November 19. Free.

James Templeton Elementary School Tour
The Association for Learning Environments hosts this tour of James Templeton Elementary School, a new facility in the Tigard-Tualatin School District, completed in August 2019. The tour will focus on how differentiated learning environments can take advantage of in-between spaces to create opportunities for a variety of teaching, learning, grouping and levels of autonomy in an elementary setting. James Templeton Elementary School, 9500 SW Murdock Street, Tigard. 4PM Wednesday, November 20. $15 (free for ALE members).

Whiskey and Windows
Inhale the intoxicating scent of fresh cut wood, sip a perfect old fashioned, and join Versatile Wood Products for this annual event, including live music by Charley Adams and a presentation showcasing what goes into creating an entry system along with tours of the company's shop. Versatile Wood Products, 2303 North Randolph Avenue. 4PM Wednesday, November 20. Free.

CoEDI November Planning Meeting
The Portland chapter of the American Institute of Architects' Committee on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion's latest monthly meeting will focus on planning CoEDI’s efforts for 2020. AIA Center for Architecture, 403 NW 11th Avenue. 12PM Thursday, November 21. Free.

Short Term Rental and ADU Workshop
Short-term rental and ADU popularity is on the rise. Are you ready to tap into your home’s earning potential? This workshop, led by Anne De Wolf, owner and principal designer of Arciform, is an exploration of ways to create your own income generating space. Held at Portland’s historic Isam White House, this workshop is perfect for those ready to take control of their financial future. Isam White House, 311 NW 20th Avenue. 5:30PM Thursday, November 21. $10.

Information Session: PSU Master of Architecture and Graduate Certificates
The Portland State University School of Architecture offers two options for master's level study in architecture, together with a graduate certificate in public interest design, a graduate certificate in urban design, and a pre-professional undergraduate degree in architecture. In this information session, potential students can learn about graduate programs in architecture, meet teaching faculty and the director, talk with current students, learn about the curriculum and our teaching philosophy, discover leadership and design-build opportunities, tour our studios and lab facilities, and find out more about the application process for these programs. Portland State University, Shattuck Hall, 1914 SW Park Avenue, Room 235. 2PM Friday, November 22. Free.

Ambition and the Transcontinental Era: Railways, Architecture, and Photography in 19th Century Portland
During the late 19th century, railways, architecture, and photography all developed simultaneously in the Pacific Northwest. The railways enabled the emergence of cities, large and small, as well as a new architecture of urbanization throughout the region. In turn, architects worked to give form and character to growing cities, none less than Portland. In turn, photographers worked to capture these dramatic changes to the landscape of the Northwest. In this Architectural Heritage Center talk, Alexander Benjamin Craghead, curator of the AHC's After Promontory exhibit , will examine this intersection of railroads, architecture, and photography, with a special emphasis on Portland’s unique role as the intended terminus of the second transcontinental railroad. Architectural Heritage Center, 701 SE Grand Avenue. 10AM Saturday, November 23. $20 ($12 for AHC members).

 

 

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Lever Architecture's Redfox Commons leads Portland Architecture Awards winners

Redfox Commons (Lara Swimmer)

 

BY BRIAN LIBBY

In the eyes of the jury, Redfox Commons stands alone. At the annual Portland Architecture Awards, handed out by the Portland chapter of the American Institute of Architects, there are often multiple winners of the night's top prize, the Honor Award. Last year, for example the Honor Award went to five projects. In 2009 and from 2012-16 it went to two projects, and in 2011 the Honor Award went to six projects. In the last decade, only 2010 and 2017 have seen just one project win this top prize.

Indeed, Redfox Commons, which I visited earlier this year and wrote about for a September Portland Tribune column, is impressive. Though the name of the building always makes me think of comedian Redd Foxx and the sitcom Sanford & Son, I was dazzled by the wide-open volumes provided in this pair of 1940s warehouses totaling some 66,000 square feet, as well as the bounty of natural light coming from their skylights and from a glass-ensconced interstitial space between them. The original trusses were sandblasted and remain exposed, becoming a focal point, especially given the new 80-foot clerestory windows that were added to each roof. The exterior is rusty metal, taking on the deep acorn hues. Located near the dramatic colonnaded entrance to the 1905 Lewis & Clark Centennial Exposition, Redfox Commons is also part of a new wave of gentrification that has crossed from residential areas south of NW Vaughn Street and into a heretofore-industrial area.

 

Outside (Jeremy Bittermann) and inside (Brian Libby) Redfox Commons

 

If Lever was the sole Honor Award winner, there will still plenty of other prizes to go around.

The 2030 Award, which is presented by the AIA Portland Committee on the Environment to projects with exemplary sustainable-design credentials, went to two projects. One award, reserved for unbuilt projects, went to the Great Smoky Mountains Institute Second Campus in Townsend, Tennessee by Hennebery Eddy Architects.

The other 2030 Award went to Tillamook Row in Portland's Eliot neighborhood, designed by Erica Dunn and Green Hammer. Tillamook Row, which I visited last December and wrote about in a Portland Tribune column, is the first multi-family residential project in Portland available to renters that achieves net-zero energy usage. Designed according to Passive House standards, the five-building, 16-unit development gets all of its electricity from a rooftop solar array and takes advantage of massive cisterns to harness rainwater.

Tillamook Row (Green Hammer)

The Merit Award, essentially the silver medal, was given out four projects.

The River District Navigation Center, designed by Opsis Architecture, was one Merit Award Winner. A 100-bed homeless shelter located on surplus Prosper Portland-owned land on NW Naito Parkway beside the Broadway Bridge that also offers on on-site medical clinic and an array of other services.

 

River District Navigation Center (Opsis Architecture)

 

Spearheaded by developer Homer Williams and Dame and funded largely from a donation by Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle (as well as money from Multnomah County), it has been a controversial project: Portland Design Commission approval was appealed by a nearby condo owner and the cleanup plan approved by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality was challenged in the Oregon Court of Appeals by developer Jim Winkler, who owns an adjacent office-zoned property.

The design utilizes a premanufactured Sprung structure, stretching heavy-duty fabric over an aluminum frame. Meant to be somewhat easily movable, it's basically a glorified tent. But the fact that it's been sufficiently embellished and its volume carved into with skylights and storefront windows makes this into a pragmatic architecture with dignity and a shelter that feels like emotional as well as physical protection.

Another Merit Award went to the Jarrett Street 12, a rental apartment project of a dozen units designed by Architecture Building Culture and located on North Interstate Avenue along the MAX line.

 

Jarrett Street 12 (Architecture Building Culture)

 

Utilizing modular construction techniques, the project saved money through its reduced construction time. The units were craned into place in just two days. But it's not just quickly built. Jarrett Street 12 is detailed well. The architects get light and shadow from the overlapping facade cladding and slightly offset windows. It's a contemporary building with a subtle hint of the classic base-middle-top configuration. This was one of two awards Architecture Building Culture won from the AIA this year.

A Merit Award also went to the High Desert Residence in Bend, designed by Hacker Architects. As seen in photos, the cedar-clad and glass-ensconced home is a fascinating series of intersecting planes, with a large double-height wall of glass and its overhanging eave stretching to meet upper and lower rectangular wall forms that appear like a series of dominoes or matchbooks. The composition reads as space that's been cut into as much as something that's been erected. But it's not just for aesthetics' sake, or not simply the aesthetics of the house as viewed from outside. These moves help selectively frame views.

 

High Desert Residence (Jeremy Bittermann)

 

Though wholly its own, the High Desert Residence makes sense in the portfolio of Hacker, which has worked frequently in the Bend area, particularly since principal Corey Martin joined the firm—lots of beautiful, gently sculptural wood-clad stuff—and it is comparable to Martin's pre-Hacker houses of the early 2000s. Yet the house in its kinetics and reduced geometry also slightly resembles a house in Portland for the same client by Seattle firm BCJ, known as the Council Crest Residence (which I wrote about earlier this year for Dwell). When the relationship is right, design-savvy clients only enhance the work of talented architects, and sometimes they even become a collaborative design voice of sorts.

Hacker was a double winner on the night, also picking up a Merit Award for Berwick Hall at the University of Oregon in Eugene. This project was one of two winners at this year's Portland Architecture Awards that was actually completed back in 2017, as was the Jarrett Street 12. I believe the rules allow one to nominate a project completed as far as two years back, but I wrestle a bit with whether this eligibility window is too large.

 

Berwick Hall (Jeremy Bittermann)

 

That said, Berwick Hall is impressive. Provides a permanent home for the Oregon Bach Festival and part of the University of Oregon’s School of Music and Dance, the venue is broken into two portions: the office bar and the rehearsal room. Together, they provide space for program rehearsals, recitals, lectures, and receptions, as well as administrative offices and support space for the OBF staff. The rehearsal room in particular seems impressive, which Hacker's awards submittal likened to an instrument itself. Its walls are shaped for optimal acoustics: curved at the top and flat at the bottom, with the top corners pulled back. There are also variable acoustic banners that can adjust sound qualities. Berwick Hall is also energy efficient: 63 percent better than a building designed to simply meet energy codes.

And now for a quintet of winners for the Citation Award, the AIA's bronze medal.

 

Silica (Daniel Kaven)

 

William Kaven Architecture's Silica office building took home one such award. Designed for developer Ruben J. Menashe, The Silica places three stories of leasable office space over ground-floor retail. A concrete base gives way to timber framing above, the wood ceilings and columns revealed through a glass curtain wall. As I wrote about in a 2018 Portland Tribune column, what seemed evident to me beyond the materials and forms was that The Silica gets the details right. Its scale is right for Williams: dense enough for the future, yet modest enough to be congruent with nearby houses.

A Citation Award also went to Lever Architecture's design Oregon Conservation Center, which is the headquarters for the local chapter of The Nature Conservancy. Before Lever (one of this year's quartet of multiple award winners) got involved, this was an eyesore of a Southeast Portland office building, which the architects re-clad in pre-weathered steel while also adding a glass-and-wood-ensconced new addition. At first I was confused as to why the home for an environmental organization like The Nature Conservancy would be clad in what looks like rusty metal. To my eyes, it works better at Redfox Commons, and it seems to give this project more of a post-industrial than an ecologically-minded look. But as Lever's Thomas Robinson reminded me on a tour, very little nature exists in a vacuum. The cladding is a remember that human-made objects will eventually become part of the landscape again. And the steel-clad upper portions now float above the base of the building in a way they didn't before, giving the composition a sense of lightness and breaking down its mass.

 

Oregon Conservation Center (Jeremy Bittermann)

 

A Citation Award went to Building 2 of the Center For Health and Healing at Oregon Health and Science University, on its South Waterfront campus. Connecting to the original Center for Health and Healing with both its third and fourth floors, the building is clad with a glass curtain wall in interlocking patterns that express the building’s interior functions. (The first seven of 15 floors are dedicated to ambulatory care, outpatient surgery, and an outpatient care unit while the next three floors line the perimeter with treatment rooms).

There aren't many cuts or indentations into this fairly monolithic building, and the reflective blue-gray glass doesn't offer much transparency, but it does provide a mirror to the nearby riverfront and to other South Waterfront buildings, and the facade through its patterning has a dynamic quality.

 

OHSU Center for Health & Healing Building 2 (ZGF)

The last two Citation Awards went to an officially unbuilt design and to a completed house in West Vancouver, British Columbia.

Works Progress Architecture won a Citation in the Unbuilt category for 7 Southeast Stark, which is currently under construction at that address, beside the freeway overpasses connecting I-5 and I-84. This type of building could easily be an eyesore, simply because it's more parking garage than office building, with four levels of steel-framed, glass-clad offices sitting atop five levels of concrete parking garage. Yet the WPA design breaks down this mass into what reads as a series of smaller basic blocks, thanks to some semi-translucent screening on portions the parking-garage levels and an upper glass-clad portion that tapers back diagonally from the southwest to the northeast corner. It's almost like a Rubik's Cube with a few of the pieces taken out on two corners.

 

7 Southeast Stark (Works Progress Architecture)

 

Architecture Building Culture received a Citation Award for the Howard residence in West Vancouver. Situated on a triangular property sloping downward from an adjacent railroad track, the boomerang-shaped house wraps around a front courtyard, which southern exposure bathes in summertime sunlight.

The interior is divided into two intersecting wings: a two-story portion that allows one to look down from a mezzanine at a double-height kitchen in the center of the house, and then, past a glass-ensconced hallway along the front courtyard, a single-story wing with three bedrooms cantilevered over a small ravine.

 

Howard Residence (Andrew Latreille)

 

One thought about the jury, which was comprised of Montreal architects Cécile Combelle of Atelier Barda, Kiel Moe of McGill University and Kim Pariseau of Appareil Architecture: I was somewhat surprised to learn that they did not actually come to Portland. My understanding is that the trio stayed in Quebec in order to avoid carbon-producing travel by commercial air.

Is it wrong for the jury not to be physically here for their deliberations? On one hand, having observed a few Portland Architecture Awards jury sessions over the years, I know they don't visit projects in person anyway, even when they do come to Portland. Or rather, they may visit a few projects to confirm the decisions they were already leaning too, but because it's too logistically difficult for them to see all the entrants, they're doing it by looking at pictures anyway. But something about the remote jury deliberations still feels funny. At least when they come here in person they're getting a sense of the larger urban context. And if they want some help deciding on, say, an Honor Award or a Merit Award for some particular project, they do still at least have the option to visit in person. What's more, staying in Quebec means the jury process is no longer a conversation with the community. When the jury has come to Portland in previous years, they've presented their work and observations at an annual jury-critique night. They attended the awards ceremony. It meant that these jurors stood behind their decisions not just figuratively but literally. Certainly it's important for all of us to be mindful of cutting carbon, but there a lot of ways to offset the carbon generated by three people getting on flights. Why not have the AIA commit to planting 50 trees for each juror instead? Or is it really just a fundraising question?

That said, the jury did well, I think. Or at the very least, if I'd have been a member of jury with those three Montreal architects, I'd have supported most all of these projects winning awards

 

 

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Design calendar: November 1-15

Altsource Headquarters, a DeMuro Award winner by Siteworks (Restore Oregon)

 

BY BRIAN LIBBY

Restoration Celebration 2019
Restore Oregon's annual Restoration Celebration focuses on the common threads that weave Oregon’s preservation story: history and culture, engineering and design, craftsmanship and sustainability, politics and policy, and equity and affordability. The dinner and program includes a look at on the work done throughout Oregon to save landmarks on the organization's Most Endangered Places list and an honoring of those who have won DeMuro Awards for restoration projects. Sentinel Hotel, 614 SW 11th Avenue. 6:30PM Friday, November 1. $150 ($125 for Restore Oregon members).

2019 ASLA Oregon Design and Recognition Awards
This annual awards program Oregon chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects honors the year's best in landscape design including the Outstanding Firm Award, the Outstanding Emerging Professional award and the Lord and Schryver Award, the latter of which honors achievement in the profession by a woman, female-owned firm or organization. Melody Ballroom, 615 SE Alder Street. 7PM Friday, November 1. Price undisclosed.

IIDA Oregon 2019 Student Symposium
Join the Oregon Chapter of the International Interior Design Association for an exclusive student interactive networking and development workshop. The event will include interactive and educational activities to support networking and connection building. Fully, 117 SE Taylor Street, Suite 301. 10:30AM Saturday, November 2. Free.

Landscapes and History: A Walk Through River View Cemetery
Nestled in the hillside just above the west end of the Sellwood Bridge lies one of Portland’s hidden treasures, River View Cemetery. Portland's contribution to the 19th century rural cemetery movement was so successful it helped bring about the development of public parks in Portland and elsewhere across the nation. This Architectural Heritage Center tour will visit the final resting places of the rich and famous of 19th century Portland, exploring obelisks, monuments and mausoleums, all set within one of the city's most picturesque landscapes. Tour meetup location revealed with ticket purchase. 10AM Saturday, November 2. $20 ($12 for AHC members).

Portland and New York: Design for Health
Join Ankrom Moisan Architects principal Mariah Kiersey, UO School of Architecture & Environment faculty member Karen Kubey and Holst Architecture partner and Dave Otte for a conversation about Portland and New York built projects designed to support users’ physical and mental health, and where we might go from here. Learn about Blackburn Center, Ankrom Moisan’s newly opened Eastside development that combines a health care clinic with housing, as well as Holst’s Asian Health & Service Center and Kubey’s design-and-health collaborations with New York City agencies. University of Oregon, White Stag Block, 70 NW Couch Street, Room 442. 5:30PM Wednesday, November 6. Free.

Build Small Live Large
The biennial Build Small Live Large Summit returns gathering place for visionary leaders and policymakers to explore smaller homes as a promising local response to housing shortages and climate change. Smaller homes use less energy and materials, add to the supply of housing options in walkable, high-opportunity neighborhoods, offer flexibility as households change over time, and provide homeowners with a way to offset their mortgages with rental income. The two-day summit includes a keynote address on November 7 from Richard Rothstein, a fellow of the Economic Policy Institute, the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Haas Institute at the University of California at Berkeley. Rothstein additionally is the author of The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How our Government Segregated America. The summit also includes on November 8 the Portland's Historic Housing Bus Tour. Portland State University, Smith Memorial Student Union, 1825 SW Broadway. 8:30AM Thursday, November 7. $305 for November 7 events ($230 for students and nonprofit-organization employees, $100 for November 8 tour).

Commercial Provisions of the 2019 Oregon Commercial Energy Code
The Energy Trust of Oregon and the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance host this training session regarding changes to the Oregon Commercial Energy Code. This half-day event will feature four one-hour learning sessions devoted to commercial mechanical provisions, building and lighting system requirements, and scope application to new and existing buildings. The sessions will be tought by Eric Makela, an associate director at New Buildings Institute, and Blake Shelide, a facilities engineer with the Oregon Department of Energy. Mercy Corps, 45 SW Ankeny Street. 9AM Thursday, November 7. Free.

7 on the Eighth
The Oregon chapter of the American Institute of Architects hosts this full of education and fun, wherein attendees can earn seven AIA Continuing Education credits in the Health, Safety and Welfare category in a series of back-to-back learning sessions, including an afternoon speed-education presentation. Breakfast and lunch included. AIA Center for Architecture, 403 NW 11th Avenue. 8:30AM Friday, November 8. $50 (free for AIA members).

An Evening of Mentorship with Women Leaders
The Urban Land Institute's Northwest chapter hosts this series of small group conversations about mentorship and career paths with several women business leaders, Women’s Leadership Initiative. It's an opportunity for emerging professionals to gain mentorship and career advice from several successful local female real estate professionals in Portland. Groups of three to four participants will spend ten minutes with each mentor. Time will be provided at the beginning and end of the evening for unstructured networking. Pacwest Center 1211 SW Fifth Avenue, Third Floor Lounge. 5PM Tuesday, November 12. $35 ($30 for non-member students, $25 for ULI members and those under age 35, $20 for ULI-member students).

CONSTRUCT Recap and Celebration
The Portland chapter of the Construction Specifications Institute hosts this recap of CONSTRUCT, the organization's annual convention and trade show, which this year was held in National Harbor, Maryland. The Portland chapter came home with numerous awards, including the naming of one of the CSI’s three newest Fellows, Cherise Lakeside. Rogue Pearl Public House, 1339 NW Flanders Street. 5:30PM Tuesday, November 12. $10 ($5 for CSI members, free for emerging professionals).

Meeting in the Middle: Lisa Iwamoto
The latest installment in the ongoing Jamie Hendrickson Memorial Lecture Series from Portland Design Pup continues with Lisa Iwamoto, a co-founder of San Francisco's IwamotoScott Architecture. The firm has won over 80 design awards and honors, including 20 from the American Institute of Architects awards at the local, state and national level as well as Architectural Record's Design Vanguard, The Architectural League's Emerging Voices award, and featured in exhibits at New York's Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Vitra Design Museum outside Basel, Switzerland. Iwamoto's talk will look at the firm's beginnings designing installations and speculations, and how these are now meeting in the middle at the scale of buildings and large workplace interiors. Rontoms, 600 East Burnside Street. 6PM Tuesday, November 12. $18 ($12 for emerging professionals, $6 for students).

The Rodney Building Tour + Happy Hour
The Oregon chapter of the Society for Marketing Professional Services hosts this tour of The Rodney, a new LEED Gold-rated luxury apartment building (with one-fifth of the units reserved for affordable housing) designed by Ankrom Moisan Architecture for Vancouver, Washington developer Holland Partner Group. The tour will be preceded by a brief presentation from representatives of the development and architecture firms. The Rodney, 1470 NW Glisan Street. 4:30PM Thursday, November 14. $35 ($30 for SMPS members).

ASID Oregon 2019 Design Excellence Awards
This awards program Oregon chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers, open to all local interior designers, honors the year's best in four categories: residential, commercial, unbuilt and student design work. Rejuvenation, 1100 SE Grand Avenue. $30 ($20 for ASID members, $5 for students).

Design Museum Mornings: Catalyzing Creative Collaboration
As part of Design Museum Portland's Design Museum Mornings series featuring local thought-leaders comes this talk from Eugenie Jolivett Fontana, a digital communications specialist at the Regional Art and Culture Council and founder of Gather & Garner and We Are Here, as she delves into the value of a supportive creative community. Eugenie has made it her life’s work to encourage individuals to collaborate with one another, regardless of discipline or background, in order to unleash their potential and being to reimagine and change the structural face of the creative community. Zapproved, 1414 NW Northrup Street. 8:30AM Friday, November 15. $15 (free for Design Museum Portland members).

 

 

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