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It’s one of those ideas that causes people to pause and say, 鈥淲hy hasn’t anyone thought of that before?鈥�

鈥淚 get that a lot,鈥� said Nicole Schmidt, executive director and founder of krowdsourced, a digital and physical library of building industry materials based in the Pittock Block in downtown Portland.

While building materials libraries are nothing novel 鈥� many architecture and design firms still maintain their own 鈥� the business model for krowdsourced sets it apart. Instead of simply maintaining a proprietary collection of materials, Schmidt, who was the librarian for Ankrom Moisan Architects before moving on to a sales career, wants krowdsourced to serve as both a collection and a middleman. Manufacturers can showcase their products and connect with potential customers, while design professionals gain access to materials they may never have seen before.

鈥淭he question was: 鈥楧o you need to be connected to those people to pick out your materials?’鈥� Schmidt said. 鈥淎nd the answer was overwhelmingly 鈥榶es.’ We rely on the experts to get our jobs done, and we wanted to be the technology flywheel to allow the community to connect faster and easier. It’s about connecting people at the right time to get the best solutions for their projects.鈥�

Krowdsourced got its start slightly less than a year ago via the Portland Incubator Experiment run by ad agency Wieden+Kennedy. Schmidt employs a staff of five and has big plans for the future. They include integrating krowdsourced’s online tools with industry software such as Revit, and implementing machine learning into the online platform.

There are also plans to open a new office in Seattle by the end of the year. Subscriptions are now offered to firms in Washington, Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii and Idaho.

Unlike a now discontinued effort at the University of Oregon‘s Portland branch to establish a free, publicly accessible materials library, krowdsourced operates as a business. It allows access to its collection on a tiered subscription basis. For architecture firms or others in the industry this means being able to sift through tens of thousands of samples from a wider swath of manufacturers than they would have had access to previously.

Online, the choices broaden. The krowdsourced website also serves to connect firms with representatives of an even larger number of materials and manufacturers than are physically present in the library.

鈥淲e focus on building finishes in the library, but the rep finder is much broader in materials,鈥� Schmidt said. 鈥淚t’s searchable by material, whether it’s masonry, metal or whatever, and it allows you to find all that information in one place.鈥�

The goal is for krowdsourced to serve firms unable to maintain their own exhaustive databases of materials.

鈥淚t makes all that information that lives on hundreds of thousands of iPads around the industry consolidated in one place,鈥� Schmidt said.

The krowdsourced website serves an even broader function by connecting clients with sales representatives who then supply information about materials and samples as needed.

In many cases, said Katy Rothert, a sales representative for international manufacturer Willis, this leads to new business relationships that may never have started otherwise.

鈥淚t’s really pretty easy,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 get requests for samples online and sometimes from firms I don’t know. The thing krowdsourced does which is awesome is, when I hit 鈥榬eply,’ I get the designer not krowdsourced 鈥� It’s huge to get past that first step.鈥�

Krowdsourced does not charge manufacturers to list their products online or in the library. On the flip side, firms and other subscribers have various levels of access ranging from use of the online rep finder only, to 24/7 physical access to the materials library.

鈥淓very manufacturer works differently and every firm works differently, so we worked our process to give them maximum flexibility and still run a business,鈥� Schmidt said.

So far, 36 firms in the Portland area have subscribed to krowdsourced. That includes international firm LRS Architects, which has its headquarters in Portland.

鈥淚 am designing a brand new memory care community in Arizona, and I’m tired of looking at all of this stuff in our library,鈥� LRS interior designer Lisa Sneddon said as she sifted through a batch of flooring samples. 鈥淚 came here to get inspired by some products I might not normally see and also get help from the ladies here. They can steer me in the right direction for things I might not have even thought of to use.鈥�

But with materials from 2,000 different representatives in hand, along with hundreds of design professionals from subscribing firms, the heart of krowdsourced will remain the people involved.

鈥淐onnections are what make the industry go around,鈥� Schmidt said. 鈥淭his is a lot of relationship management, and it’s hard. But it’s time; and I feel like the industry is primed for it, not just in Oregon, but across the country.鈥�