Hennebery Eddy Architects, a Portland-based firm, is known for designing sustainable, people-centered spaces across the Pacific Northwest. The firm’s projects prioritize environmental responsibility, historic preservation, and long-term functionality, establishing it as a standout in the industry.

With a diverse portfolio spanning civic, educational, and commercial architecture, Hennebery Eddy blends innovative design with practicality. The firm’s work often includes revitalizing historic buildings while creating modern, energy-efficient structures that serve today’s needs and prepare for the future. Notable projects include the Oregon Supreme Court Building, which combines seismic retrofitting with historic preservation, and the KEX Hostel, a vibrant, energy-efficient renovation of a 1911 building. Similarly, the Astoria Public Library renovation showcases the firm’s ability to blend modern design with historic character.

As a JUST-certified organization, Hennebery Eddy emphasizes equity, transparency, and social responsibility. The firm is also committed to mentorship, pro bono projects, and supporting the next generation of architects. This community-driven approach has shaped spaces that foster creativity, connection, and long-term impact.

Hennebery Eddy continues to demonstrate that thoughtful design can create spaces that inspire and serve the needs of both today and the future.

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When Ankrom Moisan Architects designer Sam Yerke has an initial idea for a project, he often sketches it out on paper.

“Everyone has certain way of thinking through ideas, and some people do it by hand,” he said. “I have to draw it out to really imagine it – to test whether they’re good ideas.”

A love of drawing influenced Yerke’s decision to study architecture, and putting pen to paper continues to play a role in his work at Ankrom Moisan’s Portland office. This ranges from sketches while studying different building design options to more finished architectural renderings that he draws with colored markers.

“When I was younger, I wanted to find a profession where I could draw and make money,” Yerke said. “I’ve always been drawn to the tactile experience of drawing by hand as opposed to using a computer.”

Despite the prevalence of digitally produced architectural renderings, hand-drawn varieties still fill a niche in the industry, according to Yerke and Portland-area architectural illustrators.

“The fact that it’s still around is a sign that it has benefits that digital media does not,” he said. “It has a warm, cozier feeling that people are drawn to.”

Sometimes, clients prefer this look to computer-generated renderings. Oftentimes the rougher appearance of a drawing or watercolor painting, compared to a photo-realistic digital rendering, better conveys to clients and the public that a building design is still in progress, illustrators said. In the early stages of design, drawn or painted renderings help set the scene, look and feel of a project. They also are easily relatable to a wide audience and can be powerful motivators for raising donations during capital campaigns for projects.

“It’s a way of personalizing it,” said Martin Kyle-Milward, a St. Helens-based architectural illustrator who contracts with Portland-area architecture firms. “Most people still respond to hand-painted, hand-drawn (works). They can tell. Some of these (digital) renderings now – it looks like you’re looking at the building, but it doesn’t have a soul.”

The advent of digital renderings cut into the business of independent architectural illustrators, but the industry is evolving. Kyle-Milward, who for more than a decade has produced mostly watercolor renderings for architecture firms, said in recent years he’s been called in earlier in the design process when the project is still purely conceptual.

“Now, it’s more we do the work before the architect inputs (the design) into the computer,” Kyle-Milward said. “You do sketches so they can show potential clients … We provide the pretty pictures for the promoters – the money people.”

Dawn Carlton, a staff designer at Portland-based Hennebery Eddy Architects, specializes in watercolor renderings and usually produces one or two a year. Those serve specific purposes, such as convincing a potential client to hire the firm to design a project, she said.

“For proposals where there isn’t a design yet, it’s an idea,” she said. “So a watercolor illustration is a little looser.”

That loose quality can be exactly what a project design team is looking for in an initial rendering, especially if it will be distributed widely or used for fundraising, Carlton said. This was the case in a project for the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation when exhibits weren’t set yet.

“We want to show what it can be and let it inspire others’ imaginations,” she said. “Sometimes with digital renderings they’re so photo-realistic they give the impression that everything is final.”

Traditional architectural illustration techniques have remained constant, but computer 3-D modeling, paint and photo editing programs are changing the industry, said Richard Hoyen, a Portland-based watercolor architectural illustrator. More designers are producing renderings that merge traditional drawing and painting techniques with computer-generated graphics, he said.

“I’ve seen some pretty good hybrid work where the boundaries are blurred,” Hoyen said. “That intrigues me because it has the best of both worlds.”

For presentation-quality renderings, architectural illustrators often start their work with a building outline printed from a digital 3-D model before drawing details – such as landscaping and people – that bring the image to life. Illustrators then scan finished drawings or paintings into a computer where they can digitally manipulate the renderings using programs like Photoshop.

“It’s really a mixture of digital and traditional tools,” Yerke said.

Illustrators in collaboration with the design team put a lot of thought and consideration into choosing the best angle, lighting and time of day for a planned project in a rendering. They give the same care to the “entourage,” paying close attention to the clothing, hairstyles and ages of the people populating the rendering.

“What you’re evoking is the spirit of use and the people that are there,” Hoyen said. “All these things can be shown long before you’ve designed the space itself.”

This is one reason why a drawing or painting prevails as a catchy way to convey the story of how a space will be used, he said.

“Part of it is the flexibility,” Hoyen said. “It does have a style. It’s always somewhat suggestive rather than literal. It’s one of those things about illustration that’s always intriguing.”

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It’s no secret that Oregon Health & Science University has compiled short lists of firms still in the running to design and construct two new buildings in Portland’s South Waterfront District. However, university officials have declined to name these finalists that responded to a request for proposals in August.

Now, industry sources say six teams of architects and general contractors are vying for the projects.

Industry professionals, who requested anonymity, confirmed that the three teams moving ahead in the interview process to design and build the $340 million Center for Health and Healing South are ZGF Architects with Hoffman Construction, NBBJ and GBJ Architecture with Turner Construction, and SmithGroupJJR and Mahlum Architects with Mortenson Construction.

Sources said teams interviewing for the contract to design and build the $160 million Knight Cancer Research Building are ZGF with Mortenson Construction, SRG Partnership with McCarthy and Andersen Construction, and Perkins + Will and Hennebery Eddy Architects with Skanska.

The university anticipates having a design-build team in place for the Center for Health and Healing South in mid-December and one for the Knight Cancer Research Building by early January 2015.

The estimated 675,000-square-foot Center for Health and Healing South will hold ambulatory surgery services and outpatient clinics for cancer treatment and cardiovascular surgery. It also will house the clinical trials for OHSU‘s Knight Cancer Institute, an 80-bed guesthouse, a conference center, a central utility plant and a parking garage.

The approximately 330,000-square-foot Knight Cancer Research Building will have research labs, administrative offices, a conference center and parking. Plans to construct the center got a boost last year when Nike co-founder Phil Knight promised to give $500 million to the Knight Cancer Institute if OHSU could raise $500 million more in two years.

Construction is scheduled to start on both buildings is scheduled to start in March 2016 and finish by July 2018.

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While New York-based architect Jonathan Dreyfous was in Portland to judge the Design Awards for American Institute of Architects’ Portland chapter, a “Keep Portland Weird” sign reminded him what was lacking in this year’s entries.

“I was looking for some weirdness, some idiosyncratic-ness,” he said Friday during an awards presentation at the Gerding Theater.

Dreyfous, a partner with New York-based CDR Studio Architects, wasn’t the only member of the judging panel who admitted to greater expectations for the projects that Portland-area architecture firms submitted for design awards. Judges Gladys Ly-Au Young, a principal with Seattle-based Sundberg Kennedy Ly-Au Young Architects, and Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne said they had hoped to see more innovation, attention to urbanism and high-level design for both exteriors and interiors.

“We were looking for projects that showed tremendous social transformation – something that was more forward-thinking for Portland,” Young said.

Judges chose not to give out any awards in the unbuilt category because they wanted to see more creativity among the entries. They lamented the glut of private multifamily projects and longed for more public ones.

“We thought that side of the ledger was underwhelming,” Hawthorne said of the unbuilt category. “We were ready for projects that had a different idea for the interior. I think because so many of the projects were developer-driven they were a bit safe.”

A “tidal wave” of private multifamily development in Portland led to worries among the panel that architects were spending too much energy on projects’ exteriors to the detriment of their interiors, Dreyfous said.

“The exterior becomes the billboard for the building and we are concerned about the interior living up to the facade,” he said.

The panel’s response wasn’t all negative. One project that garnered significant praise from the judges was the Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building renovation designed by Portland-based SERA Architects and Cutler Anderson Architects. The project received a merit award for what the judges considered a thoughtful transformation that incorporated many sustainable elements.

“We felt the designers worked really well to break up the massiveness of the building,” Young said. “You see the old and the new work really well together.”

Hawthorne said he has been following closely the debate on the future of the Portland Building, which suffers from structural issues and leaks. He noted that it could benefit from a renovation similar to the one for the Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt building.

“This was the same exercise of remaking a building,” he said. “All of those questions are being tested and examined in this project.”

The judges were impressed by several projects designed by Works Partnership Architecture. The Portland-based firm earned a merit award for the Bowstring Truss House and citations for the 33rd & Division Apartments and Overton 19 multifamily projects, all in Portland.

The judges said they were particularly blown away by the Bowstring Truss House after touring it. A former industrial building in Northwest Portland was renovated into a living space.

“A lot of the details that we were impressed with in photographs came through when we walked the space,” Hawthorne said. “It was one of the strongest projects we looked at.”

THA Architecture received a merit award for Discovery Hall – a science and academic building at the University of Washington’s Bothell campus. The judges said that consideration given to surroundings came through in the design.

“There’s not really a front side or a back side,” Young said. “All sides are well thought through.”

ZGF Architects received a citation award for Pearl Izumi‘s North American headquarters in Louisville, Colo. Young said she appreciated the unified approach.

“The interior and exterior are by the same firm so they really feel like the same hand,” she said.

The panel awarded two citation awards specifically for interiors-focused projects. The first went to Architecture Building Culture for the Lubavitch Center of British Columbia in Vancouver, B.C. They praised the understated design of the center for a Jewish organization.

“I’d like to commend the clarity of what it’s doing for the space,” Dreyfous said. “It’s very simple.”

Hennebery Eddy Architects took home the same honor for a renovation of the Shute Park library branch in Hillsboro.

“Rather than tearing down the building, it uncovered the strength of the building,” Dreyfous said.

Also at Friday’s event, Portland Mayor Charlie Hales praised the work of the city’s architecture community.

“It’s a great privilege to be mayor of a city where people appreciate excellence in urban design and architecture,” he said.

Hales then revealed the winner of the Mayor’s Award for Design Excellence: the Stephens Creek Crossing affordable housing complex in Southwest Portland, designed by MWA Architects.

“It is inviting to the people that live there and the people that will visit,” he said. “More importantly, they created a neighborhood there. This, to me, is one of the best examples of how you can create community in new projects.”

Honorable mentions for the Mayor’s Award went to SERA Architects’ Marriott Residence Inn, the Reed College Performing Arts Building designed by Opsis Architecture, The Emory apartments designed by ZGF Architects and the A Dialogue Street Seat by Scott | Edwards Architecture.

This year’s AIA Portland Citizens’ Medal for Design Excellence, selected through a public vote, went to Architecture Building Culture for the Roberts Creek Cabin single-family residence in Roberts Creek, British Columbia.

Also announced Friday were the recipients of AIA Portland’s 2030 Challenge Design Awards. They recognize sustainable design and honor a challenge from nonprofit organization Architecture 2030 for all new buildings and major renovations to be carbon neutral by 2030.

Hennebery Eddy Architects’ Ash + Ash won in the single-family category. The Kiln Apartments, designed by GBD Architects to meet passive house standards, earned the honor in the multifamily category. The Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt building renovation won the office category and the Central Oregon Community College Health Careers Center, designed by Yost Grube Hall Architecture, earned the institutional honor.

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Design Week Portland, set to kick off Saturday, includes a slew of architecture-related activities and events.

The festival’s , featuring interactive installations by creative agency SET, will take place Saturday from 7 to 11 p.m. at Staver Locomotive, 2537 N.W. 29th Ave. in Portland. This will be followed by a series of events related to all aspects of design and hosted by a variety of organizations through Oct. 11.

The American Institute of Architects‘ Portland chapter is among the participants in the festival, and has several activities planned, AIA Portland Executive Director Robert Hoffman said. One is a film series exploring issues related to urban density and infill development taking place Oct. 6-9 starting at 6 p.m. at the Center for Architecture, 403 N.W. 11th Ave. in Portland. The AIA chapter also will host a self-guided tour of eight contemporary Portland homes on Oct. 11 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

During the festival, the winners of a design contest to create patio seating on parking spots in front of the Center for Architecture will be on display. The two winning Street Seats designed by Hennebery Eddy Architects and Scott | Edwards Architecture were installed this week in preparation for the festival, Hoffman said.

Inside the center during Design Week, visitors will be invited to vote for their favorite projects vying for the Citizens’ Medal for Design Excellence as part of the 2014 AIA Portland Design Awards taking place Nov. 7, he said.

The Confluence Project, a series of public art installations at significant points along the Columbia River, and Project Cityscope, a nonprofit that aims to bring the design community and the general public together, will host architecture-related events during Design Week Portland. An interpretive walk to the Confluence Project’s will take place on Sunday from 10 a.m. to noon. The project at the confluence of the Columbia and Sandy rivers was designed by renowned architect Maya Lin.

Works Partnership Architecture principal Carrie Strickland and Rick Potestio of Potestio Studio will participate in an Oct. 8 Project Cityscope design presentation. The event will start at 7 p.m. at Rontoms, 600 E. Burnside St. in Portland.

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The design for a new fire station in east Multnomah County takes prominent cues from its rural setting.

“What we landed on in terms of design was the agricultural feel,” Hennebery Eddy Architects principal Michelle Vo said. “It made sense as something to guide the design.”

Multnomah County Rural Fire Protection District No. 10 a little over a year ago hired the Portland-based firm to design the replacement of Fire Station 76 near the intersection of Southeast 302nd Avenue and Dodge Park Boulevard in Gresham. Crews with Portland-based general contractor Bremik Construction last week started building the project estimated to cost between $4 million and $5 million.

Last fall, the fire station’s understated design – inspired by nearby barns, greenhouses and other agricultural structures – garnered an Unbuilt Citation Award from the American Institute of Architects’ Portland chapter.

The Hennebery Eddy design team took a minimalist approach to the 9,570-square-foot building in reverence to the natural beauty surrounding it, including views of Mount Hood, Vo said. This appealed to the AIA Portland Design Awards jury, she said.

“The jury did mention the super clean floor plan,” she said. “It’s just so simple. There are some really simple material choices and the opportunity to open up to Mount Hood.”

Fire district officials have long sought to replace the existing Fire Station 76 built in the 1960s, said Michael McKeel, chairman of the district’s board. The approximately 2,400-square-foot station is susceptible to mold, has a failing septic system and is inadequate to meet today’s standards for emergency response services, he said.

Because the existing station’s location is constrained, the district purchased a 5-acre site across the street to house the new station and training grounds, McKeel said. The project is scheduled to finish in spring 2015.

During initial design stages, Hennebery Eddy staffers took photos of agricultural buildings in the surrounding area for inspiration and shared them with fire district officials. The design scheme made perfect sense for the rural district, McKeel said.

“Farms need fire and emergency services too,” he said. “It needs to reflect the architecture of the area. We made it look like a lot of the barns out there.”

The station’s dual functions will be reflected in the design, Vo said. A corrugated-steel-clad, barn-like structure with bays will hold trucks and other firefighting equipment, and a shorter attached building will house firefighters’ living quarters, a board room and offices.

“We have the low living quarters that’s trying to recede into the landscape, but also bringing it to the public in a way that is inviting,” Vo said.

For the living quarters’ siding, Hennebery Eddy staffers chose to use reclaimed wood – from a Troutdale barn – that will be charred by Salem-based Barnwood Naturals via a Japanese technique. Fire district officials initially were taken aback by the approach, but quickly warmed up to the idea, McKeel said.

“When Hennebery Eddy ran that by us we said, ‘That’s kind of odd,’ ” he said. “Because it’s a fire station it’s kind of interesting because it’s treated with fire.”

Many of the design considerations also involved optimization of emergency response times, Vo said. The station will be oriented so that bays are closest to the nearest intersection and living quarters are closely connected to the garage so firefighters can quickly suit up and get on the road. When a call comes in, the kitchen stove will turn off automatically and red lights will turn on in the bunk rooms to give firefighters’ eyes time to adjust.

Scott Lewis, division chief with the Gresham Fire Department, which staffs the fire station, emphasized response times during the design process.

“It’s about getting the firefighters to the (equipment) and out the door quickly, so the flow of the building is key,” he said.

Fire Station 76 replacement

Location: Southeast 302nd Avenue and Dodge Park Boulevard, Gresham

Cost: $4 million to $5 million

Construction start date: August 2014

Anticipated completion date: spring 2015

Owner: Multnomah County Rural Fire Protection District No. 10

General contractor: Bremik Construction

Architect: Hennebery Eddy Architects

Landscape architect: Otten Landscape Architects

Engineers: Nishkian Dean, KPFF Consulting Engineers, Interface Engineering

Other associates: Architectural Cost Consultants, Barnwood Naturals

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When Scott | Edwards Architecture principal Peter Grimm started designing mid-century home renovations several years ago, he was immediately struck by the architectural style.

“A lot of that stuff is kind of cool again,” he said. “It’s an interesting aesthetic. It’s kind of fresh … The geometry is really serving the occupants.”

Homes in pockets of the Portland-metro area are now considered historic because they were built during the 1950s and ’60s in mid-century modern style. As the properties age, renewed appreciation for the style and demographic shifts in ownership are driving a surge in renovations. Commercial and public buildings from the era also are being renovated so that original architecture is preserved.

“It is a remarkable era, that post-war 1950s and ’60s,” Grimm said. “(Building owners) have high-quality space that is due for an update or a restoration.”

Mid-century buildings are younger than most historic properties, but Portland-area architects who’ve contributed to their renovations say they still need plenty of work. Insulation is either slim or nonexistent and single-pane windows often need to be replaced. Many properties have never had their interiors or mechanical systems upgraded. Some of the building materials were experimental and have begun to deteriorate; others, like composite asbestos panels, are now considered hazardous.

“These were the first use of these materials and some of them worked and some of them didn’t,” Hennebery Eddy Architects principal David Wark said. “Then it’s about finding an appropriate substitute material.”

The Portland-based firm’s work with mid-century buildings includes a renovation and a penthouse addition to The Reserve. The downtown Portland office building, formerly the Federal Reserve Building, was designed by renowned modernist architect Pietro Belluschi.

FFA Architecture and Interiors, meanwhile, has worked on upgrades of mid-century buildings for the National Park Service, associate partner Barbara Clement said. One, the Hoh Rain Forest Visitor Center in Olympic National Park in Washington, was built in the early 1960s during a building boom for the federal agency, she said.

“It’s a building that’s being treated as historic even though it’s considered mid-century modern,” she said.

Restoring the original building materials is much more important in renovations to older historic properties than mid-century modern structures, Clement said.

“It’s not about the material as much as the form of the architecture, preserving that modern character,” she said. “That’s been an interesting change of how we’re working as historic architects.”

Restore Oregon, a Portland-based organization that advocates for preservation, has spent a lot of time educating people about the historic value of mid-century properties, Executive Director Peggy Moretti said. It’s still rare for a mid-century modern building to be on the National Register of Historic Places, and Restore Oregon is encouraging more home and commercial building owners to get their properties listed, she said. A listing qualifies a building’s owner for federal tax credits that can help pay for a renovation that preserves historic character.

“Where we are as an organization is in that awareness mode of, first of all, think of your building as historic (and) then you can tap into historic tax credits,” she said.

More mid-century properties are receiving historic designations. About a year ago, the Oak Hills neighborhood in Beaverton was added to the national register as an excellent example of a 1960s master-planned community. In 2009, Portland’s Veterans Memorial Coliseum, completed in 1960, was saved from demolition and added to the register.

Portland architect Peter Meijer pushed for the listing for the coliseum. He is president of the Oregon chapter of Docomomo, a growing organization that advocates for the preservation of buildings, sites and neighborhoods exhibiting modernism.

“Mid-century modern is in the mainstream now,” he said. “There are several generations of modern architects who were trained in the modernist movement. There is a real surge in affinity to that type of architecture.”

Today’s architects have a much easier time relating to a modernist’s building than a much older historic one, Meijer said.

“The spaces themselves lend themselves to current architecture, so that’s why you’re seeing a renewed interest (in renovations),” he said. “When you get mid-century modern where the lines are clean, the renovations are much more compatible.”

Grimm said he’s designing several mid-century home remodels in the Portland area. He expects more such work as aging homeowners sell the structures to young families.

The open floor plans and airiness of mid-century modern homes remain desirable, Grimm said. They’re also easier to expand than are houses from other eras, he said.

“I’ve done a couple additions where we were able to do some fun geometry,” he said. “It’s hard to add onto a Cape Cod or a colonial (home).”

Work with mid-century homes has enlightened Grimm.

“It’s so different to live and work in a mid-century building than a prewar building because they really released the structure,” he said. “For me as an architect, it’s a great lesson.”

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