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POWER LIST: ARCHITECTURE

Whether for an office space, educational building or public works facility, Hacker’s focus on sustainability, nature and landscape tends to leave an impression.

Most notably, the firm has been working on transforming the way people see libraries. Principal David Keltner said that they used to be built like storage units for books with a few nooks here and there for reading. Instead, the firm is trying to champion the idea that libraries are a place that people can gather in a meaningful space.

The new Ledding Library in Milwaukie merges this thought with an emphasis on sustainability. Set back in a green patch adjacent to the city’s downtown, the library meanders through a string of mature trees next to a pond. To meet the high sustainability goals, the firm did not design a ceiling and instead left wooden structural joists exposed.

More recently, Hacker transformed Oregon Episcopal School’s new gymnasium into a mass-timber structure with dramatic views of an old-growth forest.