Rows of cardboard boxes filled with building material samples in the library at the University of Oregon‘s Portland center don’t look like much – yet.

But head librarian Karen Munro has grand plans. Soon the samples will be organized and displayed on shelves to serve as visual and tactile references for architecture students and Portland-area design professionals.

“The challenge is taking it from a big pile of stuff to a collection with some order,” Munro said. “We know a materials collection is pretty important for architecture students … It really comes out of the curriculum – the professors asking students to handle materials.”

There is an extensive materials library at the University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts in Eugene, but the Portland satellite campus lacked a similar counterpart, she said. As a result, the UO Portland Library and Learning Commons about a year ago began accepting material sample donations from architecture firms and building supply manufacturers.

This spring, the collection got a large boost when MulvannyG2 Architecture decided to donate its Portland materials library to the university. The firm is closing its Portland office and so its library needed a new home, MulvannyG2 spokeswoman Jessica Biel said.

“We’ve had a long-standing relationship with (the University of Oregon),” she said. “It was the perfect place to donate that.”

MulvannyG2’s donation fueled a renewed push to establish a materials library at the Portland campus, said Nathan Erwin, a graduate architecture student and co-president of the university’s Portland Student Action Council.

“We got this influx of materials (and) it kind of sparked that this was something that we could expand on,” he said. “Because we got this big donation, it really opened up our eyes.”

Unlike the Eugene materials library, which has a heavy interior design focus, the Portland collection will cater to students studying urban and sustainable architecture, Munro said. Instead of fabrics and other interior materials, much of the Portland collection consists of exterior finishes and wood, glass, stone and metal building components.

Physical access to these types of materials will prove invaluable to Portland architecture students, especially as they complete their thesis projects, Erwin said.

“It really takes a lot of research,” he said. “Having that (library) downstairs helps students not play guess and check. A lot of times with renderings, the materials don’t come through as they would in real life.”

Despite advances in digital rendering software, associate architecture professor Nancy Cheng said she emphasizes to her students the advantage of physically handling and comparing building materials.

“In order to understand what your design would look like, it’s really great to touch and feel the materials that you will be using,” she said. “We want to make sure what we’re designing is appropriate. Having samples gives us a sense of the physical properties as well as the aesthetic properties.”

Shelving and other furniture to accommodate the Portland materials collection should arrive later this summer, Munro said. Unlike the library books, students will continue to borrow the samples using the honor system instead of formally checking them out.

Munro will visit building materials libraries at other universities – perhaps the University of Texas at Austin, California Polytechnic State University and Harvard University – to research displays.

“It requires different expertise than managing, say a book or movie collection,” she said. “We are doing it here really informally at the moment.”

Many architecture firms have their own materials collections, but Portland-area architects may turn to the UO library, which is open to the public, to find samples that they don’t have in-house, Munro said.

“It would be potentially good resource beyond the school,” she said. “We’ll see if this collection sparks some extra interest.”

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The decision by MulvannyG2 Architecture to close its Portland office at the end of June stems from a repositioning effort to serve large corporate clients, according to CEO Mitch Smith.

The global firm believed it was best to centralize staff at its headquarters, currently in Bellevue, Wash., to serve clients like Costco Wholesale, he said.

“Our presence in Portland wasn’t as important as providing the right resources to those type of clients,” he said. “It just made sense to consolidate our operations in our corporate office.”

Although MulvannyG2 will vacate its Portland office space at 601 S.W. Second Ave., about a half dozen employees will remain in the area and work from home, Smith said. The others – about 20 or so – have either transferred to one of the firm’s other offices or found jobs elsewhere.

Moda Health plans to take over MulvannyG2’s office space after it moves out, Smith said.

After operating an office in Portland for nearly 20 years, the firm made a decision that boiled down to business sense.

“This was a good business move, even though it has some unfortunate consequences,” Smith said.

MulvannyG2 is preparing to relocate its headquarters to downtown Seattle next year. The firm’s other offices are in Irvine, Calif.; Washington, D.C.; and Shanghai.

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MulvannyG2 Architecture, one of the 10 largest architecture firms in Portland, is closing shop – at least its one at 601 S.W. Second Ave.

The global design company will close its Portland office at the end of June, according to an email from Carla Thompson, MulvannyG2 global marketing director. In a statement issued by MulvannyG2, its decision “was based on positioning the firm to support … global clients in the most efficient and effective way.”

MulvannyG2, according to its website, is one of the 40 largest architecture firms in the world, as well as the “No. 2 retail architect” in the world. The company opened shop in 1971, and is headquartered in Bellevue, Wash.; however, it’s in the process of relocating to downtown Seattle, according to the Seattle Times. The firm’s other offices are in Irvine, Calif.; Washington, D.C. and Shanghai.

In Portland, MulvannyG2 employs 25 architects and 50 people overall – making it the eighth largest firm in town by number of registered architects, according to the 91��Ƶ’s “A List.” The firm employs 350 people worldwide.

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Results of a design competition held by the American Institute of Architects‘ Portland chapter will be announced next week.

Six Portland-area design professionals are reviewing 40 submissions by architecture students and young professionals for “,” said Jonathan Dunn, AIA Portland board secretary and an associate in MulvannyG2 Architecture‘s Portland office. The top three placers will be announced at a public reception on May 16 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Center for Architecture, 403 N.W. 11th Ave. in Portland.

The competition was held to gather ideas to share with the city of Portland about creation of an urban gathering space over part of Interstate 405. Participants were asked to focus on a 200-square-foot block divided by Interstate 405. It is bound by Southwest Yamhill and Morrison streets and Southwest 13th and 14th avenues.

Although the design competition focused on Portland, architects from anywhere were invited to submit ideas, Dunn said. Most the entries came from architects in the Portland and Seattle areas, but submissions also came from other parts of the U.S. and as far away as Australia, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic, he said.

“People put a lot of work into this,” Dunn said. “Some of the stuff I’ve briefly seen has been very thoughtful (and) could give some pretty great ideas to the city of Portland.”

The winner of the competition will receive $500, the runner-up will receive $200 and the third-place entrant will receive $100. Top-three placers also will receive architecture books from Princeton Architectural Press.

The winning entries and the judges’ top-10 picks will be on display at the reception, Dunn said. All of the entries will be incorporated into a slide show.

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, a billion-dollar company based in China, hired to take its retail stores to the next level.

Four new “superstores” – in Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai and Guangzhou – now mimic large appliance stores in the United States. The decision to follow an American model rather than an Asian one was not easy, according to Craig Davenport, a principal with MulvannyG2.

“There was a lot of arguing about it,” he said. “We were working with a company that wasn’t quite sure what it wanted to do yet. Part of the process was trying to narrow down what direction they wanted to take.”

Two options existed: the Japanese example, with little space and a lot of signage (similar to large markets); or the American (Sears) one, with organized areas and designated floors.

Suning officials decided to go with the latter, because it would give customers a more balanced and ordered shopping experience, which the company hoped to achieve with the new stores, Davenport said.

“It used to be where they would provide the shell space, and then companies like Samsung would come in and build their own corner,” he said. “You’d have to go from store to store to compare. The new option is to get away from that and bring it all together so that it’s more run by the Suning employees.”

All four stores are in downtown areas. Three of them are six stories, and the store in Nanjing has approximately 107,000 square feet.

The stores have similar designs: multiple levels surround an atrium in the middle. Escalators were installed throughout the buildings.

MulvannyG2 had only a few months to design the buildings because Suning wanted to open them in time for the Chinese holiday season.

“The schedule became the most difficult thing for us,” Davenport said. “There were a lot of things we wanted to do that we couldn’t do on these first four stores.”

MulvannyG2 is hoping to work again with Suning. It’s planning to build 16 additional stores in the near future, and may eventually build hundreds more across the country.

“This process of going back and reflecting on what worked and didn’t work is very natural to us,” Davenport said. “We hope to do the same with them in China.”

“On the Boards” is a weekly feature that spotlights local firms’ best design work. Submissions from architectural and engineering firms are encouraged. Please call 503-802-7240 or email ontheboards@djcOregon.com.

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Brian Fleener realized the possibilities of retail design when he traveled to Brazil.

“They do it in a way we really haven’t done here,” he said. “There wasn’t one moment that I wasn’t asking questions.”

Fleener, vice president of retail stores development for , visited Sao Paulo for a global conference on retail merchandising and visual display. But he was affected more profoundly by walks along the city’s streets. He saw retail structures designed via a method called regionalism: use of local materials and aesthetics to create a blend with surroundings.

The technique isn’t used often in Portland, but it should be, according to Fleener.

“We have a social responsibility to understand the materials that are local,” he said. “There are compelling reasons to use them more.”

Regionalism is based on two themes: sustainability and client experience. By using local materials – such as wood, rocks and plants – architects can ensure that projects will have a smaller carbon footprint, no harmful elements and limited negative environmental impacts from shipments.

Regionalism also is about creating a connection with clients – or, as Fleener calls it, a “harmonic resignation.”

“They’re going to feel more at home and they’ll think, ‘Wow. This is local,’ ” he said. “You want to understand how (clients) are wired almost instantly. As you respond to them as they are, you create that harmony and that harmony builds trust and rapport.”

Fleener noticed that Brazilian shops used indigenous wood for almost everything – from countertops to floorboards. In other instances, indigenous plants and stones were used as building facades, lighting fixtures and shelves.

However, regionalism goes beyond just materials; it’s also about matching the aesthetics of nearby buildings, which also contributes to harmonic resignation. For example, many stores in Brazil had board-formed concrete walls and not many windows, Fleener said. They matched the local houses, which were built in the 1950s with the same concrete.

Not all cities in Brazil are like Sao Paulo, where a chapter of the Retail Design Institute is located. But substantial use of regionalism may be why the country is atop the A.T. Kearney Global Retail Development Index of emerging retail markets. For the index, a number of variables are used to determine which countries have the highest potential for retailers.

One of the reasons Portland designers don’t use regionalism as much is cost. More time and money are needed to use local materials and match surroundings, according to Shauna Stinson, owner of Portland-based Vizwerks.

Stinson wishes she could use the strategy more, but clients’ budgets don’t always allow for it, she said.

“It’s almost always part of the discussion,” she said. “What percentage of that actually comes out where you end up using regional materials? It’s not as often as everyone would like.”

Also, use of regionalism depends on what constitutes “regional,” Stinson said. Vizwerks, for example, sometimes chooses materials to suit the area’s climate.

Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects also tries to incorporate regionalism in its retail designs, though such projects make up only a small portion of the firm’s business, said Fred Painter, a senior associate.

“We try to make (projects) look as much like the Northwest as possible,” he said. “I’m not sure how (Brazilian designers) do it, but (we use local materials) on accents, like columns, wall areas and trellises.”

Fleener believes local retail projects can incorporate regionalism to a greater degree. For example, a store on Mount Tabor, a dormant volcanic cinder cone, could feature volcanic rock in its finishes, he said. Or a waterfront restaurant could use Willamette River wood debris for its countertops. This is the type of creativity and resourcefulness used in Brazil, Fleener said.

He hopes to incorporate it more in MulvannyG2’s upcoming projects and that other architects and project owners will do the same.

“Where (Brazil is) at culturally and socially in terms of design aesthetic … it seemed like they had it down in spades,” he said. “I’m currently talking to retailers about these ideas. This is something I’m very passionate about.”

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Architectural billings were up in January and construction could soon follow, though the positive impact may not occur locally.

“We find that we’re doing work for companies that are expanding their operations in other countries,” said John Flynn, principal and regional practice leader for MulvannyG2 Architects in Portland. “We have an office in Shanghai and we see that work continues to move along at a pretty good pace, a good clip.”

According to the American Institute of Architects, the Architecture Billings Index inched its way into positive territory in January for the third straight month. The index is an economic indicator of construction activity that reflects the nine-to-12-month lag time between architecture billings and construction spending.

In January, the indexed number was down 0.1 points from December at score of 50.9 (any number above 50 indicates an increase in billings).

“Even though we had a similar upturn in design billings in late 2010 and early 2011, this recent showing is encouraging because it is being reflected across most regions of the country and across the major construction sectors,” said Kermit Baker, AIA chief economist, in a press release.

Baker went on to say that he expected future economic improvements to be modest in the coming months.

Regionally, the Midwest led the nation (53.7), followed by the South (51.6), the Northeast (50.7), and the west (45.6). By industry, residential multifamily projects saw the highest demand (52.6), followed by commercial/industrial (52.2), institutional (51.1), and mixed practice (46.1).

Flynn said things had been picking up locally since the middle of 2011, especially in the commercial sector and, to a lesser degree, the corporate sector – but not a whole lot.

“I’m pretty optimistic because our reach is more than just the Portland region,” he said. “We have clients that work across the nation and beyond and that helps us as an office.”

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General contractor began work on the site for a Safeway store on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard in Portland last May. The -designed building will feature nearly 60,000 square feet of underground parking and a Starbucks with an elevated seating area. More photos after the jump.  

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Renovation work is under way for the OSU Bookstore’s new 2,000-square-foot Beaver Fan Shop at the corner of Southwest Sixth Avenue and Alder Street in downtown Portland. is performing the remodel, which was designed by .

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Renovations are under way at the law offices of Tonkon Torp LLC in downtown Portland. Three floors of the Pioneer Tower at 888 S.W. Fifth Ave. are in the middle of a remodel to create community spaces, conference rooms, offices, work stations and employee lounges. The work is scheduled to be completed in December, and is being performed by Precision Construction Co. from a design by MulvannyG2 Architecture.

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