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A Seattle-based architecture firm’s idea to incorporate athletic facilities into five Interstate 405 overpasses won an American Institute of Architects‘ Portland .

Lisa Chadbourne, Daren Doss and Stacey McClure of Chadbourne + Doss Architects‘ Seattle office submitted the winning entry in “STITCH: an AIA ideas competition.” It was held to gather ideas to share with the city of Portland about creation of an urban gathering space over part of I-405.

THA Architecture staffers Brad Smith and Alex Zelaya placed second with a joint entry. The team of landscape architects Daniel Liggett, of Rundell Ernstberger Associates in Indiana, and Danny O’Brian, of Scott Byron & Co. in Illinois, was third.

The winner received $500, the runner-up received $200 and the third-place entrant received $100.

A six-member judging panel of Portland-area design professionals and city of Portland staffers evaluated 40 contest submissions, mostly from the Portland and Seattle areas.

Two of the judges – Allied Works Architecture associate principal Chris Bixby and THA Architecture principal Becca Cavell – last week attended a reception for the top placers. Both praised the winning design’s ingenuity. It proposes adding a climbing wall to the Alder Street and 14th Avenue overpass, a velodrome to the Morrison Street crossing, a running track to the Yamhill Street bridge, a swimming pool at Taylor Street and a skate park to Salmon Street.

“This was a beautifully conceived sort of diagram idea that was very compelling,” Cavell said.

Many of the other entries proposed capping the freeway with a plaza space, Bixby said.

“We were interested in schemes that considered the experience from the freeway as well as above,” he said. “It sort of challenged the program saying you don’t need a cap, that maybe you just program the bridges.”

The winning entries and the judges’ top-10 picks are on display at the Center for Architecture, at 403 N.W. 11th Ave. They also will be compiled into a book that will be shared with representatives of the city of Portland and Oregon Department of Transportation.