Archinect - News

Oregon researchers build prototype mass timber home that ‘fits together like gingerbread house’

2024-11-07T11:13:00-05:00

A research team in Oregon has unveiled a mass timber prototype home that seeks to showcase a sustainable, energy-efficient alternative to traditional home construction. Designed by the TallWood Design Institute, a collaboration between the University of Oregon and Oregon State University, the 760-square-foot project was unveiled at an open house event on November 7th.

Image courtesy of the University of Oregon

The home, built from locally sourced mass plywood panels produced by Freres Engineered Wood, aims to address key issues such as affordable housing shortages, wildfire resilience, and economic sustainability. Unlike conventional timber construction, the home is constructed of mass plywood panels shaped to fit together like pieces of a gingerbread house, the team says.

Image courtesy of the University of Oregon

Through the project, the team imagines a future where a home could arrive in a flatpack ...

The University of Oregon's College of Design Fall '24 events feature Julie Eizenberg, Nader Tehrani, Billy Leddy, and the Reynolds Symposium

2024-09-09T19:56:00-04:00

Class is back in session at the University of Oregon School of Architecture & Environment. As part of our ongoing event highlight at Archinect Partner Schools, let’s take a look at what’s in store at the College of Design in Eugene and Portland for the Fall 2024 semester.

The events start with the timely workshop on "Overcoming Academic Perfectionism," which takes place on September 12th, followed by lectures from Billy Leddy of Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects on October 14th in Eugene and Thomas Robinson of LEVER Architecture on October 16th in Portland. Back in Eugene, the Reynolds Symposium takes place from October 18th to the 19th featuring keynote speakers Evan Reis and Nicholas B. Rajkovich. You can register for the symposium here.

L'Angolo Estate Winery by LEVER Architecture. Image courtesy: LEVER Architecture

The month of October continues with a lecture from Barry Richards of the Rockwell Group on October 23rd and another from Maura Rockcastle on October 25th. NADAAA’s Nader...

ZGF's groundbreaking mass timber airport terminal design debuts in Portland

2024-08-15T18:50:00-04:00

A groundbreaking transportation infrastructure project from ZGF, the new Portland International Airport (PDX) Main Terminal in Oregon, has just opened after a five-year and $2.15 billion renovation.

Image courtesy Ema Peter Photography

The design features a 9-acre (3.5 million board feet) prefabricated mass timber roof and will eventually allow the airport to serve 35 million passengers annually by 2045.

Image courtesy Ema Peter Photography

While doubling its existing capacity, ZGF says they achieved a 50% energy reduction throughout the project by incorporating an all-electric ground-source heat pump.

Image courtesy Ema Peter Photography

ZGF partner Gene Sandoval said: “We had a tall order to evolve a terminal that’s essentially multiple buildings pieced together since the 1950s—and double the capacity while designing an experience passengers and employees will love as much as the original.”

Image: DROR BALDINGER FAIA

A total of 49 separate skylights combine with the roof's lattice st...

Portland State architecture students create a demountable stage structure for Pickathon Festival

2024-08-02T19:58:00-04:00

Oregon's annual Pickathon Experiential Music Festival is in full swing, and a highlight is the return of a timber stage design created by students at the Portland State University School of Architecture. Their Cherry Hill stage is one of nine incorporated into the festival’s 12 “neighborhoods”, playing host to 18 different acts through Sunday, August 4th, in the Portland suburb of Happy Valley.

This year's stage joins previous student designs that were made from repurposed apple bins (2022), steam-bent dimensional lumber (2016, 2018, and 2023), cardboard tubes (2015), shipping pallets (2014), and wooden trusses, which were later reused to make sleeping pods for the Clackamas County Veterans Village outside Portland in 2017.

Image courtesy Marc Stein/Portland State University

Students working on its design claimed Kengo Kuma as their influence, stating, “His ability to use very simple wood repetitively to make a beautiful, grand sculpture is amazing.”

Image courtesy Marc Stein/Portl...

Five timber projects by LEVER Architecture: Your Next Employer?

2024-06-17T10:57:00-04:00

Following our previous visit to New York-based Valerie Schweitzer Architects, we are moving our Meet Your Next Employer series to Portland, OR this week to explore the work of LEVER Architecture.

Founded in 2009, the firm has become recognized for its innovative use of mass timber, including designing the first building made from US-produced cross-laminated timber with Albina Yard in Portland. Previously, our editorial has featured the firm’s report developed with Atelier Ten which sought to combat common myths about mass timber construction, in addition to its participation in the world’s tallest full-scale building earthquake test in San Diego which featured a 10-story building made of cross-laminated timber.

Over on Archinect Jobs, the firm is currently hiring for several positions at their Portland studio. For candidates interested in applying for the position, or anybody interested in learning more about the firm’s output, we have rounded up five projects featuring timber by LE...

Four projects with unique geometries by Waechter Architecture: Your Next Employer?

2024-05-20T11:58:00-04:00

Following our previous visit to Massachusetts-based Murdough Design, we are moving our Meet Your Next Employer series to Oregon this week to explore the work of Waechter Architecture.

Launched in 2007, and based in Portland, the firm has built a portfolio orientated around clarity of composition, material, systems, and experience. In a 2019 edition of our Studio Snapshot series, founder Ben Waechter told Archinect: “Since the beginning, the focus of the office has been on design clarity. I think this will always be the case. What’s changed over time is how good we are at achieving it. We are always improving. Our approach is to refine and distill—rather than reinvent—ourselves.”

Over on Archinect Jobs, the firm is currently hiring for a Project Designer to join its Portland office. For candidates interested in applying for the position, or anybody interested in learning more about the firm’s output, we have rounded up four projects by Waechter Architecture that exemplify the firm’s ...

Schools and communities in the Pacific Northwest hope for improved building code standards for earthquake preparedness

2024-01-04T08:35:00-05:00

Current seismic codes require public buildings to be built strong enough so they don’t fall down in a quake. Now, some emergency preparedness advocates want to raise the bar. Not only should essential buildings resist collapse in a strong earthquake, but also newly constructed schools, in particular, should be built so in the immediate aftermath they can be counted on to serve as relief centers.

The article mentions the AIA Oregon chapter’s efforts to push lawmakers towards adopting more stringent building codes in preparation for a cataclysmic 9.0 Cascadia earthquake. Some relatively cheaper proactive measures, such as tsunami towers, are being enacted, but the 1,000 or so schools thought to be at risk for collapse statewide just a few years ago still need to enact drastic changes whose costs are proving too much of a burden for local administrators to get behind.

“A lot of districts have been building schools and not doing this,” local Portland-based architect Jay Raskin explains. “Every year we go without requiring that schools be capable of being used as shelters is a year we miss providing shelter for the surrounding neighborhoods during a Cascadia earthquake.”

Another vote on the Oregon legislation is not expected until at least 2025.

Snøhetta to redevelop site of the second-largest waterfall in the US

2023-08-16T11:27:00-04:00

Snøhetta has unveiled a master plan to revitalize Willamette Falls in Oregon City. The second largest waterfall in the United States by volume, the site has been obscured by infrastructure for over a century, with Snøhetta’s plan centered on making the area more publicly accessible.

Image credit: Snøhetta

The master plan includes a riverwalk that begins at the entrance of Oregon City’s historic downtown and culminates at the waterfall’s peak. Imagined as a sequence of "islands" crafted from basalt, steel, wood, and concrete, the riverwalk is designed to be an immersive experience where visitors can witness the power of the falls up close while also feeling the mist and appreciating the landscape's changing tones.

Image credit: Snøhetta

By encompassing the city’s historic downtown, the project hopes to revitalize Main Street, which once served as a major avenue but today dead-ends at the entrance to the waterfall site. Under Snøhetta’s plans, the street will become the gateway for the ...

Construction underway of major timber roof for ZGF’s Portland airport expansion

2023-06-29T11:26:00-04:00

Construction is underway for the expansion of Portland International Airport. As we reported last year, the ZGF-designed expansion will include a roof formed of 2.5 million feet of timber. New images of the scheme by roof installers Mammoet show components for the timber roof being moved into place on the construction site.

Image credit: Mammoet

The roof was fully prefabricated between the airport’s active runways over the course of a year and comprises twenty roof panels in five distinct shapes. Prior to being moved into their final position, the panels were disconnected into approximately football-field-sized pieces in order to minimize disruption to airport operations. At midnight on the day of each move, the runways closed for the one-mile transport of the panel from the fabrication site to the construction site.

Image credit: Mammoet

Each panel was installed using stationary skidding propelled by strand jacks and lowered with the skidding jacks onto column isolators. The next set...

The U.S. is about to begin the largest dam removal project in history

2023-03-16T09:00:00-04:00

Preconstruction work is underway on the largest dam removal and river restoration project in U.S. history. The $450 million project will take out four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River in Oregon and California to restore habitat and passage for migrating fish. Removal work will begin this summer, starting with Copco 2, which should be gone by this fall, according to ABC 12. The other three dams — Copco 1, the Iron Gate Dam and the JC Boyle Dam — will be removed by the end of 2024.

The projects were approved late last fall in the interest of protecting the local salmon population and other wildlife in the region. Local tribes will plant 19 billion seeds in the wake of the removals in order to boost the region's ecosystems, according to local public radio.

The removals are among the $3 billion worth of dam projects being funded under the new Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, though experts still say it isn’t enough to address the 15,600 dams across the country that are currently classified as “high-hazard potential structures” by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2021.

Featured architecture projects from female-led firms based in the American West

2023-03-01T15:20:00-05:00

As we enter Women's History Month today we begin to highlight some of the work produced by female-led firms, to complement our existing stories and profiles.

Pioneering women in the profession continue to make their mark and shift our industry into a more inclusive direction. When you look at a realized design project, however, it's not always clear who the team of leaders and designers are behind that work. To kick off a celebration of women, Archinect launches a new series featuring built projects led by female-owned and operated firms.

For our first installment, we've started with 13 architecture firms based in the American West that have posted projects to their Archinect Firm Profile. Feeling inspired? Check out the job opportunities at female-lead firms in Archinect Jobs.

B+B House by Design, Bitches
The firm is led by Catherine Johnson and Rebecca Rudolph in Los Angeles, CA

B+B House. Image © Yoshihiro Makino. Learn more about the project here.

Armstrong Ave Residence by Robi...

Meet ‘band of makers’ Skylab Architecture: Your Next Employer?

2022-10-24T11:52:00-04:00

Following last week’s visit to Los Angeles-based LAUN, we are moving our Meet Your Next Employer series to Portland, OR this week to meet self-described “band of makers” Skylab Architecture.

Since its founding two decades ago, the firm has grown into a 30-strong team of architects and designers working on a mixed-use portfolio including residential, retail, and workplaces. Most recently, our editorial featured the firm’s Serena Williams-themed office building located at Nike’s World Headquarters in Oregon.

From their office in Portland, the firm is currently hiring for several positions on Archinect Jobs. For candidates interested in applying for a position, or anybody interested in learning more about life at an architecture studio, we spoke with Skylab principal Robin Wilcox for a behind-the-scenes look at the firm.

Snow Peak USA Flagship and Headquarters by Skylab

How did Skylab get started?

Skylab began with a spec house, 1680 Montgomery, before rolling the profits into the ne...

University of Oregon's College of Design awarded more than $16 million in federal funds to bolster timber application in construction

2022-09-19T15:14:00-04:00

The University of Oregon has been awarded more than $16 million in federal funds as part of a grant to the Oregon Mass Timber Coalition from the Build Back Better Regional Challenge.

A total of $41.4 million was awarded to the coalition by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration. $24.6 million is heading to the TallWood Design Institute, a collaboration between Oregon State University and the University of Oregon that aims to advance mass timber construction and other wood product building approaches. Oregon State University will receive $8 million.

Previously on Archinect: Mass timber, clean energy, biotech, and Indigenous communities are among the biggest winners of the $1 Billion Build Back Better Regional Challenge

At the University of Oregon, the funds will be split between two programs in the College of Design, with $14.6 million going toward the Oregon Acoustic Research Laboratory and $2 million for an affordable housing prototype using mass tim...

Jobs at architecture firms in Portland, Oregon: 6 exciting companies currently hiring

2022-09-16T13:58:00-04:00

If you are looking for architectural job opportunities in the Pacific Northwest region — and Portland, Oregon in particular — don't miss this week's curated employment highlight from Archinect Jobs with a selection of current openings for architects, interior designers, urban designers, and marketing managers.

To look up specific job titles from the architectural profession, consult Archinect's Guide to Job Titles series. Also, follow our Archinect Tips series to improve your portfolio, resume, interviewing skills, and increase your overall chances of getting that next job.

Skylab Architecture seeks a Project Design Architect and Senior Design Architect
"We are seeking a Project Designer/Architect to join our team. This position requires a hands-on approach to working with the design, consultants, and contractor teams. Comprehensive experience working on all aspects of architectural design practice is beneficial including responsibility from the development of design concepts to draw...

2.5 million feet of timber used to construct roof on ZGF’s Portland airport expansion

2022-07-22T14:14:00-04:00

Construction has commenced on the ZGF-designed expansion of Portland International (PDX) Airport. The defining feature of the main terminal project, set to be completed in 2025, is a new lattice roof formed by 2.5 million feet of timber.

Image courtesy of ZGF Architects

The scheme was conceived from a desire by the airport to create a more cohesive passenger experience and to bring a sense of unity to the airport after 70 years of expansions and additions. ZGF’s answer was a singular terminal building housed under one undulating, mass timber roof, accompanied by an interior strategy which prioritized biophilic design, interior landscaping, daylighting, and natural materials.

“Upon entering the new terminal core, visitors are invited to take a walk in the forest,” the architects say. “Views to the airfield, daylight, interior landscape, and art recalling the region’s natural beauty are present throughout the passenger journey.”

Image courtesy of ZGF Architects

The roof is inspired by ...

See inside Nike's new Serena Williams-themed office building

2022-07-20T19:18:00-04:00

Portland-based Skylab Architecture has shared new photos of its recently-completed signature office building dedicated to an American tennis legend (and design aficionado) and located at Nike’s World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon.

The more-than-one-million-square-foot Serena Williams Building, anchored around a 12-story tower, was designed to help the sportswear giant maximize creative workflow and efficiency inside a new 2,750-person office whose focus is similar to recent workplace designs for other large corporations that are equally bent on re-instilling collaboration in a post-pandemic world.

Photo: Jeremy Bittermann

According to the architects, the theme of the “warrior muse,” a nod to the building’s namesake, served as material inspiration throughout the LEED Platinum-certified facility’s art-filled collection of workplaces, conference rooms, dining areas, laboratory spaces, and other coworking amenities.

Photo: Jeremy Bit...

Take a first look inside Adidas' new North American Headquarters

2022-05-25T18:13:00-04:00

When it premiered last fall, LEVER’s new building for the Adidas North American Headquarters in Oregon was talked about as a potential game-changer for an industry still struggling to find answers about the future of workplace design. Celebrated as one of the most inspiring corporate office concepts in recent memory, the effort was included in the 2022 Wood Design Awards and recently got the profile treatment from FastCompany.

Photo: Jeremy Bittermann.

In collaboration with San Francisco's Studio O+A, LEVER was able to erect two new buildings on the apparel giant’s existing Adidas Village campus just north of Downtown Portland in University Park.

Photo: Jeremy Bittermann.

One, a six-story glass-curtain facade design called the Gold Building, features a variety of collaborative work considerations such as flexible workstations, a café, and several maker spaces contained within what the firm deems as a “unique hybrid structural system” composed of pre-cast concrete columns and girders, ...

Richard Neutra-designed Oregon home hits the market at $3,750,000

2022-05-23T14:26:00-04:00

A Portland house with a provenance like no other is for sale. The revolutionary dwelling was designed 82 years ago by modernist architect Richard Neutra for lily hybridizer Jan de Graaff and his wife, Peggy, heir to the Macy’s department store owner who died on the Titanic.

The home, originally constructed in 1941, is located at 1901 South Comus Street. It was listed on Thursday, May 19th through Oregon-based real estate company The Hasson Company with an asking price of $3,750,000.

The three-level residence is celebrated for its embodiment of Neutra’s International style with its floor-to-ceiling windows and custom wood built-ins. It is one of only two Oregon homes designed by Neutra, who was commissioned by the de Graaffs to design a house for their modern furniture and art collection.

The house spans 6,887 square feet and sits on a 0.85-acre lot, offering unobstructed mountain, city, and river views. It features five bedrooms and four and a half bathrooms.

Nike’s intriguing experiments in architectural ideas, projects, and jobs

2022-04-21T11:42:00-04:00

What do the Centre Pompidou and the Bauhaus have in common? Beyond their seismic impact on the architectural discourse of the 20th and 21st centuries, both in fact served as inspiration for versions of Nike Air Max sneakers.

In 2019, the global sports retailer debuted the Air Max 270 React, whose bold colors paid homage to the influential Bauhaus movement. One year previous, a special Air Max edition with colored tubes along the seams and fabric lines was released as a tribute to the Centre Pompidou. The tribute was not without reason, given that the original Air Max 1 was itself inspired by the designer’s visit to the Pompidou, most notably the shoe’s signature Air bubble element.

Related on Archinect: Would you wear these Bauhaus-inspired Nike shoes?

The Bauhaus and Pompidou versions of the Air Max are part of Nike’s long-standing use of architectural principles and elements to showcase and evolve its brand. Several Nike-commissioned projects have been featured on Archinect in the...

LEVER Architecture to design new home for Portland State University's School of Art + Design

2022-04-13T14:15:00-04:00

Portland, Oregon-based design firm LEVER Architecture has been selected to design a new space for Portland State University’s School of Art + Design. LEVER was selected from a group of 11 firms competing for the project.

The multiple-award-winning firm, which was recently named the Jury’s Choice winner in the 2022 Wood Design Awards for their work on the Adidas North American Headquarters, has designed an array of innovative projects that also include Meyer Memorial Trust, the Artists Repertory Theater renovation, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. LEVER is known for its use of mass timber as a sustainable building material, its research focus, and its client-centered design approach.

“Portland State is thrilled to be working with LEVER on this important new building for our campus,” said Portland State University President Stephen Percy. “The new home for the School of Art + Design will serve as a beacon for the important role our creative community plays in the Po...

Tsunami Towers are about to spring up along the Pacific Northwest shorelines

2022-02-08T12:37:00-05:00

“The fact of the matter is that if a tsunami occurs tomorrow, we are going to lose all of our children,” said Andrew Kelly, the superintendent of the North Beach School District, which includes Ocean Shores. Mr. Kelly is one of a growing number of local officials who are calling for a network of elevated buildings and platforms along the Northwest coast that could provide an escape for thousands of people who might otherwise be doomed in the event of a tsunami.

Voters in the Washington state community of Ocean Shores will decide today on a measure that would install a pair of tsunami towers that can hold up to 800 people. Residents in the immediate shoreline region would have only ten minutes to escape potentially 100-foot waves propelled by a quake in the shallow offshore Cascadia subduction zone. The state estimates that around 70,000 people would be trapped in low-lying areas that have no bluffs or tall buildings which can be used as an escape.

The elevated steel platforms can be placed on top of parking garages, schools, and other structures to achieve a safe vertical distance from the inundation, although many such buildings in the area are not sufficiently seismic-ready to withstand magnitude 9.0 tremors. Washington has proposed 58 such towers, which cost around $3 million each to construct. To date, only two structures have been completed: one at a facility operated by Oregon State University, and the other, at Ocosta Elementary Sc...

Inside Olson Kundig’s LeBron James Innovation Center for Nike

2021-10-05T14:01:00-04:00

Nike has offered a glimpse inside the Olson Kundig-designed LeBron James Innovation Center, located in Beaverton, Oregon. The 750,000-square-foot facility, which opened this week, will be used by the global sports brand as a base for research, prototyping, and testing for both data analysis and products.

Image via Nike

The building will house 700 employees dedicated to material and product innovation. Outside, a 500-foot-long 15% incline ramp folds down to an entrance plaza underneath the building’s imposing cantilever. The interior, in addition to housing a state-of-the-art sports research lab, features a restaurant named after LeBron’s mother Gloria Marie James, complete with a mural depicting highlights of the sports star’s career.

Image via Nike

The cantilevering top floor of the center hosts the Nike Sports Research Lab, an 84,000-square-foot facility, home to the world’s largest motion-capture installation with 400 cameras. The lab also houses a full-size NBA basketball court, ...

Michael Green Architecture, Oregon State University debut mass timber innovation lab

2019-10-14T19:55:00-04:00

Oregon State University (OSU) has opened a new 17,500-square-foot research and fabrication lab designed by Michael Green Architecture (MGA) dedicated to mass timber design, engineering, fabrication, and construction.

The A.A. "Red" Emmerson Advanced Wood Products Laboratory, as the space is known, brings together university and industry partners that include OSU's colleges of forestry and engineering and the University of Oregon's College of Design to create the TallWood Institute. The lab is the cornerstone of a new Oregon Forest Science complex on OSU's Corvallis campus, also designed by MGA. The interdisciplinary partnership, according to OSU's website, will focus on the "advancement of structural wood products and mass timber design in constructing high-rise and other multistory buildings."

Exterior view of the A.A. "red" Emmerson Advanced Wood Products Lab. Image courtesy of TallWood Institute.

In a press release announcing the opening of the complex, TallWood Design Institute ...

“We never could design a building as beautiful as the trees,” Oregon celebrates the legacy of architect Pietro Belluschi

2019-08-11T07:00:00-04:00

Every day, people work, live and pray inside Pietro Belluschi’s light-filled, modern creations. The legendary architect shaped Portland’s skyline with revolutionary structures like the Commonwealth Building, which generated tinted glass-and-aluminum lookalikes across the globe. In August and September, educational and celebratory events spotlighting Belluschi’s impact will take place in Portland to honor the 120th anniversary of his birth.

America's obsession with highway "boondoggles" continues

2019-07-02T16:44:00-04:00

The United States Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) has unveiled its annual list of "highway boondoggles," a list of "budget-eating highway projects" that will "harm communities and the environment, while likely failing to achieve meaningful transportation goals."

The proposed North Houston Improvement Project would wipe out thousands of homes. Image courtesy of Texas Department of Transportation.

The organization reports that the projects contained within the 2019 list will cost more than $25 billion to build, "sucking money away from road repair, transit, and other local needs."

Studies have shown that rather than alleviating traffic congestion, highway widening projects actually incentivize people to drive and ultimately cause an increase in traffic congestion.

Another view of Miami's proposed Interstate-295 expansion. Image courtesy of Florida Department of Transportation.

The top highway boondoggles for 2019 include:

The "Complete 540" project in North Carolina that aims to ...

Oregon legalizes "missing middle" housing

2019-07-01T13:50:00-04:00

Oregon legislators took a historic leap toward greener, fairer, less expensive cities Sunday by passing the first law of its kind in the United States or Canada: A state-level legalization of so-called “missing middle” housing.

In a rare show of bipartisan cooperation, both of Oregon's legislative houses have voted to eliminate single-family zoning across the sate, legalizing so-called "missing middle" housing, including duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, and row houses.

If signed into law next month by Oregon governor Kate Brown, the bill will allow up to two housing units on all residential lots located within cities that have at least 10,000 residents. For cities of 25,000 residents and up, the bill allows up to four units per lot, including row houses and cottage clusters.

Missing middle housing was largely common in American cities prior to the invention of zoning codes in the early 20th century. In the century since, a pervasive focus on single-family residential areas, coupled with the long-term effects of racial segregation and redlining, has limited housing options for Americans while also eroding a key economic stepping stone for immigrants, first-time homeowners, retirees, and other groups. As a...

Portland to study downtown subway

2019-06-28T14:50:00-04:00

Metro Oregon and Portland's TriMet are studying the possibility of creating a new below-ground transit route through the city's downtown.

Planning for future growth, the organizations are working to link the Lloyd Center shopping mall on the eastern banks of the Willamette River with Southwest Portland through downtown. The transit authority currently runs approximately 40 trains per hour during the busiest times of the day across the downtown area, a figure that will need to increase by at least 50% in coming decades to accommodate projected population growth.

The new route could, according to Metro Oregon, reduce travel time through downtown Portland by up to 15 minutes while adding 15,200 daily riders to the city's transit system.

TriMet is planning to hold community meetings as it moves to initiate a formal process for approving and constructing the tunnel.

Does your job search include lush forest scenery, ample bike paths, and Nike? Check out these Oregon-based architectural job opportunities

2019-01-25T12:05:00-05:00

Looking for a taste of the Pacific Northwest? Oregon offers a little bit of everything. For those searching to work in an city filled with green landscapes, parks, eco-friendly coffee shops, and a charming city culture, Portland is the place.

Below are 8 Portland-based firms looking to hire the perfect candidate for their team.

Yost Grube Hall Architecture seeks a Project Manager, Senior Marketing/BD Director, and two other candidate positions
Yost Grube Hall Architecture is a growing design firm seeking energetic, self-motivated, creative people looking to work in an open, team-based environment.

Waechter Architecture is seeking an Architect/Designer
Waechter Architecture is seeking a designer with 1-3 years of office experience who will work as part of a team, assisting project leads with all aspects of project work from design to construction administration. Each person i...

Oregon pioneers new wooden high-rise building codes

2018-08-28T19:20:00-04:00

Earlier this week, the Oregon Building Codes Division announced a statement of alternate method (SAM) that makes Oregon the first state to allow for construction of wooden high-rises without special consideration. Previously, Portland, Ore., was the first American city to issue a permit for an all-wood high-rise, Project’s 12-story-tall Framework.

The statement of alternate method (SAM) was developed over two years by a committee created from the International Code Council’s Board of Directors. The committee proposed 14 suggestions concerning cross-laminated timber standards and best-practices, which were all accepted by the Oregon Codes Division.

Cross-laminated timber is a new building material made by layering pieces of lumber in alternating directions and bonding them into panels. The material is strong enough to replace structural steel and concrete, and thick enough to resist burning.

William Kaven unveils design for tallest Portland building

2017-11-14T18:26:00-05:00

William Kaven Architecture recently revealed their proposed design for the US Postal Site redevelopment project in downtown Portland, Oregon. Currently in the conceptual design stage, the firm has fleshed out major goals for Portland's central site. William Kaven have proposed a multi high rise project with two lofty towers at it's center exceeding a height of 970 feet, and making them the tallest structure in Portland.

The master plan includes approximately 5 million square feet of sustainable new development with a mixed use of retail, office, hospitality and residential. The leading towers would be interlinked by a glass-enclosed botanical bridge spanning across the North Park Blocks. William Kaven intend this skybridge to be an iconic addition to the city's skyline providing dramatic aerial views and becoming a destination for downtown Portland.

Co founder Daniel Kaven proclaims expansive goals for Portland stating, "The towers are large enough to serve as a headquarters for a...