Portland projects and firms were well-represented at the recent 2021 American Architecture Awards.

More than 130 buildings from a list of over 400 received the award, which recognizes the best new architecture designed and constructed by American architects and by international architects with offices in the United States. It is described as the nation’s highest public award for new architecture and urban planning.

The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design, along with The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies presented the awards.

Oregon’s winners are:

Affordable Housing: The Louisa Flowers

LRS Architects and LEVER Architecture designed the 12-story affordable, multifamily housing for Home Forward. The building was completed in 2019 and was constructed by O’Neill/Walsh Community builders. With 240 apartments available, The Louisa Flowers is the largest, single affordable housing building constructed in Portland in 50 years.

Institutional: Oregon Conservation Center

Designed by LEVER Architecture, the Oregon Conservation Center renovation and expansion in 2019 completely reimagined the building. The exterior was replaced with steel cladding, as well as Juniper wood cladding and cedar decks that were sustainably harvested from the Nature Conservancy’s conservation sites.

Restoration and Renovation: The Portland Building

Built in 1982 as city administrative offices, The Portland Building is an award-winning icon on the National Register of Historic Places. However, it faced structural problems and needed exterior and operational system repairs. DLR Group completed renovation and restoration of the 400,000-square-foot, 15-story building, which included new exterior cladding and a seismic upgrade.

Schools and Universities: The Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact, University of Oregon

Ennead Architects, based in New York, designed the two L-shaped towers for the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact. The 166,000-square-foot structure is adorned with a glass curtain wall, while the inside uses cross-laminated timber in places as a connection to the surrounding environment. Bora Architecture & Interiors also worked as the architect of record for the project.

Private Homes:

• William Kaven Architecture – Royal
• Scott|Edwards Architecture – Slabtown 4

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Hammer & Hand will host an Aug. 6 event to present awards in the Portland contractor’s annual design competition.

The event, which will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. at the American Institute of Architect’s Center for Architecture at 403 N.W. 11^th Ave., is open to the public. The event also will feature the unveiling of an exhibit exploring how high-performance buildings can tackle climate change, said Zach Semke, director of business development for Hammer & Hand.

This is the second year for Hammer & Hand’s , which is open to architecture students and interns. The awards aim to encourage and recognize building practices that achieve net zero energy consumption, Semke said

This year’s competition attracted 50 entries, twice as many as last year. The entrants represent 24 universities from across the country, as well as from Toronto, Canada.

“It was fun to see it take off,” Semke said of the contest’s second year. “There is a lot of growing interest in high-performance building and the idea that buildings can generate more energy than they consume.”

Specifically, entrants were asked to design a net-zero energy, mixed-use, four-story multifamily building on a parcel bounded by Northeast Couch and East Burnside streets and 14^th Avenue.

Top winners will share a $6,000 prize and will have their designs put on public display in Portland and Seattle.

During the Aug. 6 event, Hammer & Hand also plans to unveil, “Evolution of Enclosure: The Anatomy of Building Performance,” a exhibit featuring the materials, techniques and designs used by four architecture firms to create net-zero energy, mixed-used, multifamily buildings, Semke said.

The exhibit will consist of four full-scale wall assembly cross sections, a suite of building science illustrations, project photography and an interactive set of high performance building animations.

The exhibit draws on built projects in Portland and Seattle that were designed by Holst Architecture, Scott|Edwards Architecture, SHED Architecture & Design and the Miller Hull Partnership.

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Bremik Construction crews will soon start building a new roof deck designedt by Scott|Edwards Architecure for the 10 Barrel Brewing Co. pub in Portland’s Pearl District.

City building permits will likely be secured in the next couple weeks to start construction on the 1,570-square-foot deck with additional seating and an outdoor bar on top of the brewery, at 1411 N.W. Flanders St., said Sara Ruzomberka, a Scott | Edwards project manager.

Plans for a roof deck were incorporated into the original design of Bend-based 10 Barrel’s Portland brewery, which Andersen Construction completed in March, but the renovation project ended up being broken into two phases.

“So everyone can enjoy the beer now, we thought it would be a faster process to get the inside done first,” Ruzomberka said. “All of the infrastructure for the roof deck was already put in place during the first phase of the project. Basically, the roof deck has been part of the vision from the beginning.”

The deck should to be complete by late summer or early fall, she said.

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A series of Hacienda Community Development Corp. projects in Portland’s Cully neighborhood are moving ahead this year as part of the nonprofit’s efforts to help low-income families in the area.

Crews from Colas Construction in November broke ground on a $3 million project to build a two-story office building, designed by Scott | Edwards Architecture, near the corner of Northeast Killingsworth Street and Cully Boulevard. The 11,280-square-foot building will house Hacienda CDC’s headquarters, ground-floor retail space, community meeting space, property management space for affordable housing tenants and other direct services to the mostly Latino clients it serves.

The Portland-based general contractor and architecture firm also are teaming up with Hacienda CDC to improve two of its affordable housing complexes nearby. Many of the existing apartments don’t have enough bedrooms to adequately house families, and the complexes lack outdoor spaces where children can play, said Lisa McClellan, a principal with Scott | Edwards Architecture.

“All of their housing is really for families,” she said. “They have a lot of children running around. One of the things we’re trying to do is provide more open space.”

A $2 million renovation under way will upgrade the 24-unit Vista de Rosas, at 6936 N.E. Killingsworth St., with new siding, windows, interior finishes and a laundry building. Directly behind Hacienda CDC’s new office, the organization is planning to replace 108 units at the Villa de Clara Vista, 6706 N.E. Killingsworth St., with a new 146-unit development that includes three- and four-bedroom apartments, a community center and courtyards for families.

Scott | Edwards Architecture staffers have already done preliminary site planning for the estimated $30 million project, and will likely move into design this spring. Initial plans created during a design charrette this past June call for breaking up the housing units into a series of smaller buildings that face single-family homes on the Northeast Emerson Street side of the approximately 3-acre property and building denser development on Cully Boulevard, which has more of a commercial presence, McClellan said. The increased density on certain parts of the site will help maximize the amount of open outdoor space, she said.

When complete, the Vista de Rosas, Villa de Clara Vista and Hacienda CDC headquarters projects will greatly improve the Cully neighborhood, McClellan said.

“They’re a nonprofit that’s really rooted in one area of town and having a tremendous impact on that neighborhood,” she said. “You’ll see that this is transformative, these projects that they’ve undertook, all three of these projects. This is a gateway to the neighborhood. We just see this as a way to create a new, more positive face to the neighborhood.”

As Hacienda CDC has expanded, its staffers have been spread out among three offices, said Catherine Kes, the nonprofit’s housing director. The new office building under construction in Cully will consolidate operations on the one place where the organization’s services are needed most, she said.

“We decided we really wanted to be in the Cully neighborhood, where the majority of our services (are offered),” she said.

The office building design will feature a tile mosaic art installation on one corner of the building and accents of the colors in Hacienda CDC’s logo – pale blue, deep blue and orange. Scott | Edwards Architecture also designed a portion of the second story to hang over the parking lot to maximize space.

“One of the challenges was how we fit their program into the building and provide parking without a parking structure,” McClellan said.

Along with its own projects in Cully, Hacienda CDC has teamed up with three other nonprofits – Habitat for Humanity Portland/Metro East, Verde and the Native American Youth and Family Center – to purchase and redevelop the nearby Sugar Shack strip club, at 6729 N.E. Killingsworth St. The nonprofits, through a coalition called Living Cully, launched a successful crowdfunding campaign that raised $54,000 to help secure financing for a $2.75 million purchase of the two-acre property. The sale is in negotiations and could be finalized as soon as this spring, said Tony DeFalco, Living Cully coordinator for Verde.

Redevelopment ideas for the property include a community center, affordable housing, a gym or a grocery store, he said.

“The community has long been trying to purchase this property for nearly 20 years,” DeFalco said. “It’s been a blight to the community.”

Working together with Hacienda CDC on projects to improve the Cully area has been an incredibly rewarding experience, McClellan said.

“The Cully neighborhood … it’s very interesting the way a lot of people are banding together to help it,” she said.

Renovations to the Vista de Rosas apartments are scheduled to finish in April. The Hacienda headquarters will open in September. Depending on financing, ground is likely to be broken on the Villa de Clara Vista project in summer 2016. That project will require at least two years to complete, Kes said.

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The International Interior Design Association’s Oregon chapter on Thursday announced the winners of the 2014 Design Excellence Awards during a dinner at McMenamins’ Crystal Ballroom in Portland.

Among firms that took top honors in the competition for Oregon and Southwest Washington architects and interior designers were ZGF Architects, Nathan Good Architects and Fieldwork Design & Architecture.

Portland-based ZGF Architects took home the Juror’s Choice Award and “best of” award in the health care category for the St. Charles Cancer Center in Bend.

The People’s Choice Award, decided through online voting, went to Portland-based Nathan Good Architects for a remodel and additions to Willamette Valley Vineyards in Turner.

Fieldwork Design & Architecture earned the GRAY’s Choice Award from media sponsor GRAY Magazine for the West Hills Residence, done for an anonymous client. Jurors also selected the same project for the “best of” award in the residential category.

The Portland-based firm also received an honorable mention in the conceptual category for a wood slat Nike brand wall.

In the corporate category, honorable mention awards went to Portland-based Yost Grube Hall Architecture for a Dow Chemical Company project and ZGF Architects for the Portland office building Block 300.

Portland-based Opsis Architecture earned the “best of” award for in the education category for the Reed College Performing Arts Building in Southeast Portland. An honorable mention in same category was awarded to Portland-based SRG Partnership for Portland Community College’s Southeast Campus library.

The “best of” award in the hospitality, restaurant and retail category went to Portland-based Fig Studio Architecture + Interiors for the Commissary Café in Northwest Portland. Portland-based Hennebery Eddy Architects earned an honorable mention for a confidential corporate client remodel project.

Portland-based Scott | Edwards Architecture earned the Against All Odds Award for the Dougy Center in Southeast Portland. The center, which serves children and teens who are grieving a death, was also a close second in the People’s Choice Award competition. After People’s Choice Award winner Nathan Good Architects accepted the honor on Thursday, the firm and Willamette Valley Vineyards announced plans to each donate $1,000 to the nonprofit organization.

A three-member jury of design professionals from outside the Northwest judged the competition. The jurors were Neil Schneider, a senior designer at IA Interior Architects’ Chicago office; Natalie Engels, design director of Silicon Valley office for San Francisco-based design and architecture firm Gensler; and Joey Shimoda, chief creative officer of Los Angeles-based Shimoda Design Group.

Judging criteria included project challenge, originality of the design solution, and the successful integration of planning, interior forms, finishes and furnishings.

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When Precision Images CEO Phil Guzie wanted to give the company a new look to match a shifting business model, he turned to long-time client Scott|Edwards Architecture.

“It was nice because they were a customer, and they were there all the time, so we were able to say, ‘Tell us what you want to see,’ ” Guzie said.

Precision Images, a Portland-based printing and graphics business, has traditionally served architecture, engineering and construction clients, but advances in digital technology have decreased industry demand for its services. As a result, the business is branching out from printing building plans. Expanded services include producing banners and signs for retailers.

“We were forced to look at other revenue streams,” Guzie said. “Today, our new clientele, our growing clientele, need more of a retail experience.”

“They’re kind of opening it up to a larger business model, and … they wanted to make their business and space more user-friendly,” Mares said. “The biggest thing was a sense of entrance. When you go there now, you don’t know where to go [in].”

The Precision Images redesign got a boost with a $15,000 grant through the Portland Development Commission’s Development Opportunity Services Program. The program can reimburse 80 percent of pre-development costs for exploring the feasibility of expanding a business, or redeveloping an underutilized site or building.

A second PDC grant will help pay for the construction of the storefront improvements.

The Development Opportunity Services grant paid for Scott|Edwards Architecture to issue a report studying design options and giving construction cost estimates for the project, Mares said.

“It’s a really great program where you take a really exhaustive look at building and their business model,” he said. “When you’re done, the building owner knows what he’s going to get and how much it’s going to cost.”

The grant funding allowed Precision Images to do more with the remodel, Guzie said.

“The design grant did allow us some flexibility,” he said. “It did escalate the project knowing that was available.”

The project is undergoing design review with the city of Portland, and Guzie said he hopes to start construction by the end of this year. Work is expected to last between six and 12 weeks. Beaverton-based Benting Construction will be the contractor.

Part of the remodel will involve better exposing the work that happens in the industrial printing portions of the business, Mares said.

“Originally, they were behind this solid wall,” Mares said. “It just ended up being perfect from the street to put them behind the glass.

“From our standpoint, it’s just making sure everybody knows that they’re there.”

The remodeled lobby space will be a more welcoming retail face, Scott|Edwards Architecture designer Ryan Yoshida said. One wall will serve as an interior billboard that Precision Images staffers can change periodically to highlight their large-scale graphics printing skills, he said.

This shift from an industrial to retail presence is an important part of Precision Images shifting business model, Guzie said.

“Today, anybody could use what we provide,” he said. “Everybody that drives by is a potential customer.”

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SUBMITTED?BY: HOWARD?S. WRIGHT & SCOTT | EDWARDS ARCHITECTURE

One Community Health Clinic has provided primary medical, dental and behavioral health care to low-income residents in The Dalles community since 1986.�� The clinic’s leased facility was outdated with no potential for renovation or expansion.�� A federal grant was awarded to build a new facility.

“This one was all about people,” said Dan Callahan, project manager for Howard S. Wright, the project’s general contractor.�� “We had over 100 people show up for the groundbreaking — regular town people who were grateful for what we were doing.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had people come up and shake my hand, and thank me at the start of a project.�� From that point on, I think everyone – subcontractors, workers, our crew – took this one to heart, like they were working on something for their own families.”

The non-profit clinic now sports a LEED certification. It is designed to be 20 percent more energy efficient than required by code, boasts high-efficiency HVAC, features plentiful natural daylight and renewable building materials, and features onsite stormwater treatment.
More than 20 percent of the direct construction cost was locally sourced.�� The two-story building is clad in Columbia River basalt, and locally sourced wood and fiber cement siding.

The design supports the “patient-centered medical home” organizational model for optimizing spatial efficiency while providing an inviting and comfortable environment for both patients and staff.

Prior to the project breaking ground, areas of groundwater were detected that qualified as federally protected wetlands.

“It looked like barren field, but it met the criteria,” Callahan said.

The project team worked with the federal Environmental Protection Agency to mitigate the affected area with a combination of grading offsets and landscaping.

“The whole project was like that,” Callahan said. “Everybody connected with it cooperated and worked to make it happen.�� It was a really great feeling to see it all come together.”

PROJECT?TEAM + STATS:
Location: The Dalles, Oregon
Cost: $4.396 million
Start date: May 2012
Completion date: January 2013
Owner/developer: One Community Health
Architect: Scott|Edwards Architecture
Engineer: Interface Engineering
General contractor: Howard S. Wright

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In the wake of the recession, many local architectural firms have had to expand the scope of their services to find new avenues of business in a shrinking marketplace. As the economy begins to recover, those efforts appear to be paying off – 2012 produced the strongest growth in the architecture industry in five years.

“The commercial office side … has been still really slow, so we’ve had to look at other ways to grow and to diversify,” said Rich Mitchell, managing principal of Group Mackenzie, one of Portland’s largest architectural firms.

In 2008, Group Mackenzie had 156 employees. By the third quarter of 2009, it had a total of 89 in its offices in Portland, Seattle and Vancouver, Wash.

Business was dwindling for traditional projects such as suburban industrial ones, so the company had to refocus. It began concentrating on commercial redevelopment projects in the urban core, where an increasing number of residents and businesses were migrating.

“We’ve had to change how we go about projects, and being a firm that is 50 years old, we were part of that group – 30 years ago, even 20 years ago – where almost all of our work was in the suburban ring and further out,” Mitchell said. “Today, that’s not the case. It’s much more balanced. A lot of our work is in the city and a lot of our work is going to be in the city.”

The company’s architectural billings grew 7 percent in 2011 and 20 percent in 2012. Projections are for 5 to 10 percent growth this year. Meanwhile, it now employs 139 people.

Group Mackenzie’s story fits with national statistics. According to the American Institute of Architects, November was the strongest month for architectural billings growth since the end of 2007. The overall Architecture Billings Index was at 53.2 (any score over 50 indicates growth) – the fourth straight month of progress.

The index is an economic indicator of construction activity nine to 12 months down the road, so it stands to reason that builders could be busy next summer. Billings were strongest in the Midwest and Northeast regions; however, the Northwest also stands to benefit.

Kermit Baker, AIA’s chief economist, said numerous Western markets overbuilt prior to the recession – like California, Nevada and Phoenix – are holding back the rest of the region with lackluster billings.

Chris Linn, a principal at Boora Architects, which employs approximately 68 people in Portland, is anticipating a 3.5 percent to 4 percent increase in billings this year, much from new multifamily projects on tap. Linn said the addition of out-of-state work and projects for Stanford University and Google helped the company weather the economic storm.

Diversification of roles and responsibilities has carried local architects through tough times, according to Brian Mares, an architect with Scott | Edwards Architecture.

“I think it’s important for architects to remember that our skill sets are wide-ranging and have a place in many different sectors,” he said.

Danny Drake, an associate with LRS Architects, noted that he has invested in technical aspects. He took a number of computer programming and business administration classes in college in addition to his architecture coursework.

“When projects started shrinking, a single skill-set staff member was no longer sustainable and was required to obtain multiple skills,” he said. “This not only helped fill the gap of my architectural position, but provided me the skill to quickly adapt to a changing work environment.”

Many professionals, however, were not able to adapt during the recession, said Jeff Myhre, president of Myhre Group Architects. As a result, some either had to take positions beneath their experience level, or were let go.

“Their past skills and positions circa 2007 are no longer in high demand,” he said. “I’ve known numerous architects who have left the industry entirely, and numerous that have had to reinvent themselves within it.��I’ve also hired numerous people in my own company who once held higher-level positions in other firms.”

Myhre believes the trend will continue this year, because firms remain reluctant to create new positions. Higher-level members will have to continue to serve multiple purposes, he said.

“This can be a demoralizing, frustrating and a very scary experience,” Myhre said. “The trend in 2013 that many local architects will experience will be one of deep, personal introspection and self-awareness with regard to their overall career.”

John Holmes, a principal at Holst Architecture, said 2012 was a record year for the company and that over the past 18 months it has doubled its number of employees from 12 to 24. It has transitioned from condominium projects to apartments, and increasingly focused on serving repeat national retail clients and institutions.

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Paul Kurth, who was laid off by Myhre Group Architects in March, was about to take a low-paying, part-time job when the phone rang in June. The caller was his previous employer who wanted him to return.

As public financing for long-stalled projects begins to trickle in and banks’ private lending increases, some architecture firms are bringing back employees they had laid off when work dried up during the recession. No one can be sure, however, if this slight uptick in work will last into 2011.

Many employees laid off from the hard-hit architecture industry have spent months collecting unemployment, sending out resumes and finding few employment opportunities. Kurth, a computer-aided design drafter, enjoyed his first few weeks as a sort of vacation. But when he began to circulate his resume, he heard the same refrain: try again in six months.

“It was pretty tough,” Kurth said. “But it’s great to be back. I feel like my skills are needed again. It’s like I never left in some ways.”

Some projects stalled for years are restarting this year, however, said Kip Richardson, director of business development for Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects. Ground was broken this year on the Tamarack, an affordable housing project in the South Waterfront designed by the firm, after it had been shelved since 2008 due to a lack of funding.

Ankrom Moisan focused heavily on multifamily condominium projects prior to the recession and had to shift its marketing efforts toward public projects, Richardson said. That effort is the main reason the firm was able to rehire 12 employees this year.

“We were so successful in the housing boom that we didn’t spend time developing new relationships,” Richardson said. “It came down to researching the markets we wanted to be in and developing relationships with people who know those markets. We got two health care projects and one student housing project this year because we focused on them.”

Other firms are in different places, said Robert Hoffman, president of AIA Portland and a principal at MulvannyG2 Architecture. Many are still struggling to maintain their current staffs, and some may need to lay off more workers in the future.

“It’s a mixed bag,” Hoffman said. “Most firms I talk to feel like this year has been more successful than 2009, which was the worst. There’s more promising growth, but it’s slow growth and that’s the problem.”

The sense that the industry is still unstable is evident in a small sampling of Portland-area architects. Scott | Edwards Architecture, for example, says it has its most work ever and has hired new staff this year. Mahlum Architects, on the other hand, is being cautious in regard to hiring. Mahlum’s business development manager, Bill Strong, said few bonds are being passed for educational projects, the firm’s main area of expertise. Without a guaranteed pipeline of projects for the next six to 12 months, Mahlum plans to stick with its current staff.

Myhre Group President Jeff Myhre hopes that the number of projects will continue to increase so that his firm can reach the employment levels it maintained prior to the recession. There is uncertainty about whether that will happen. And Myhre said some former architecture industry employees have decided not to come back at all.

“There are folks that have moved on to selling products or have moved out of the metro area altogether,” Myhre said. “It’s going better than it has gone this year, but it’s tough to say we’re out of the woods yet.”

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