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A chance meeting during a tour of Franklin High School in Southeast Portland for architects interested in a campus modernization project led to a first-time partnership.

While walking through the school, SERA Architects associate principal Alene Davis and Dull Olson Weekes-IBI Group Architects associate principal Karina Ruiz saw an opportunity for the firms to work together.

鈥淲e started talking and immediately saw synergy,鈥� Ruiz said.

Davis and Ruiz realized they could leverage DOWA-IBI Group’s extensive experience designing K-12 schools and SERA’s expertise in historic restoration for the $80 million update of 99-year-old Franklin High School. The strategy paid off when Portland Public Schools hired the two firms to design a project to preserve and modernize the school’s historic buildings, as well as construct additions that respect the existing architecture.

Combining design talent is becoming increasingly common in the Portland area. These local partnerships allow firms to better meet client needs.

鈥淢ore and more of our clients are demanding a level of expertise and collaboration,鈥� Ruiz said. 鈥淚 think more and more this is going to be the model where you bring together experts no matter what firm they’re with.鈥�

Besides Franklin High School, recent collaborations involving Portland architecture firm partnerships include LEVER Architecture and LRS Architects for the ArtHouse mixed-use building on the North Park Blocks, and GBD Architects and THA Architecture for the Pearl West office tower under construction in the Pearl District.

There are many advantages to partnering with nearby firms, GBD President Phil Beyl said.

鈥淚n our industry, it’s really challenging for us to line up the right talent at the right time for the right project,鈥� he said. 鈥淒epending on when a project comes in the door, a firm can be in great shape to respond or not so great shape.鈥�

Instead of hiring more staffers to take on Pearl West, GBD partnered with THA, which has offices just blocks away, Beyl said. The firms have collaborated in the past on the Multnomah County Library‘s Hollywood branch and two condominium projects in the South Waterfront District.

鈥淲e didn’t have the right people available, and we just had the perfect opportunity to get the right people from THA,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e proposed a team approach to this building and it worked really well. What’s wonderful about Portland is there is a tremendous amount of collegiality. We believe in sharing people.鈥�

Collaboration between DOWA-IBI Group and SERA staffers with different perspectives and experiences has been one of the greatest benefits of the design partnership for the Franklin High School modernization, Davis said. Although technology allows the firms to easily share digital plans, the project team’s greatest design solutions have come out of face-to-face meetings, she said.

鈥淵ou just want to sketch something real quick and show it to the person next to you,鈥� she said.

That is one reason why two SERA employees have spent the past nine months working out of DOWA-IBI Group’s office. The arrangement has helped the team work to ensure that the remodeled and expanded school can reopen in fall 2017, Davis said.

鈥淚f time is no object, it doesn’t matter if you’re together or not,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut when you need an innovative solution quickly, you need to get everybody together.鈥�

SERA associate Craig Rice said his workstation at DOWA-IBI facilitates collaboration between the two firms by allowing him to lean over his shoulder and quickly confer with team members.

Early delegation of each firm’s part in the project has smoothed the process, Rice said. SERA staffers are responsible for preservation and restoration of the existing school building while DOWA-IBI staffers design the expansion.

鈥淲e’re not overlapping,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ecause of our clear delineation of scope it’s easy to work independently.鈥�

Delegating a highly detailed and complex project with so many different facets among staffers from both firms has been helpful, Ruiz said.

鈥淚 think that delineation of tasks is really critical,鈥� she said.

For Pearl West, THA staffers took the lead in the initial design of the building skin. Then GBD staffers gradually became more involved in other details of the project, THA principal Will Dann said.

Partnerships are especially helpful for the smaller firm, he said.

鈥淚t’s like having more employees,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t allows smaller offices to do bigger projects. It’s the wave of the future.鈥�

Increased partnership between Portland architecture firms fits into a larger industry trend, Dann said.

鈥淭he work that we do as architects has gotten considerably more collaborative over the years,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e realized that we all collaborate in our offices and there are creative people in other offices we can collaborate with.鈥�