The Cascadia subduction zone lies in wait of the best-laid plans of developers, architects and engineers on the Oregon Coast.

In the aftermath of a major earthquake, impacts to bridges and roads are concerns of parties inland, but avoidance or survival of a wall of seawater are top of mind for people along the coast.

State policy has changed. A law that barred state grants being awarded to projects in tsunami zones was repealed in the Legislature’s previous session, allowing more construction in such areas.

Meanwhile, at Yaquina Bay in Newport, crews are building for Oregon State University a showcase facility, the Marine Studies Building at the Hatfield Marine Science Center, able to withstand a major earthquake and tsunami. The three-story building will top out at over 47 feet and feature an escape area for the approximately 150 anticipated occupants.

Yost Grube Hall Architecture designed the 72,000-square-foot building so that it could be inundated during a tsunami with no loss of life. The windows will be able to break away, allowing water to flow through the ground floor while occupants stay safe at higher points.

“The structure and the meat and bones of the building are designed to withstand a 9.0 earthquake and a tsunami,” Yost Grube Hall Architecture principal Tom Robbins said. “A lot of the systems in the building are sacrificial.”

YGH used lessons learned from its experiences designing U.S. embassies in several nations, in which blast analyses and other studies were performed. YGH estimates one or two building columns could be taken out and this new structure would still stand, Robbins said.

The design firm also worked with a tsunami modeler at the University of Washington to understand the severity of a potential tsunami hitting Yaquina Bay.

The building’s design is not especially complicated in concept. To keep most of the structure out of a possible tsunami’s path, it made sense to go tall. The building’s stories, which have tall ceilings, will be stacked on top of each other to create more height.

“Just by arranging the building carefully, we were able to get out of the tsunami zone fairly quickly,” Robbins said. “The dumb and simple thing was how to stack this building to get where you want to go.”

The building’s roots go deep underground.

“The building is much like an iceberg,” Robbins said. “You see about a third of it above grade, and two-thirds of it is below grade.”

The engineering consultant is KPFF Consulting Engineers, and the general contractor is Andersen Construction. Officials expect work to wrap up in late spring 2020.

To stabilize the sandy soils, Andersen used deep soil mixing to nearly 100 feet below ground. Crews pumped in approximately 27,380 cubic yards of grout.

Communities up and down the coast are looking to the Marine Studies Building as an example of what can be done.

“We wanted to make this a demonstration project – how to responsibly build in a tsunami zone such as Newport,” Robbins said.

At the same time, it was important to build within a budget.

“One of the desires (and) goals of this project is to do this in a financially responsible way,” Robbins said. “Take proven methods of construction. You can do this without a great cost premium. If you were building another structure in a tsunami zone, there are methods you can employ.”

OSU owns the building, but university scientists regularly work with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“This is a space for collaboration,” Robbins said.

Large-scale projects are fairly rare on the Oregon Coast, where small tax bases and populations limit development. However, communities are examining how to fortify their built environments against a potentially devastating tsunami.

When Oregon repealed the ban on state grants in tsunami zones as a head-in-the-sand approach to disaster preparedness, national media jumped on the story quickly. But Oregon Rep. David Gomberg, D-Neotsu, said repealing the ban made sense.

“We have state regulations that don’t allow us to use any grants or state money in the inundation zone or to get out of the inundation zone,” he said.

Gomberg expressed skepticism that the changes would prompt a rush of construction in vulnerable areas.

“I’m not hearing anybody anxious to build in the zones,” he said. “I’m hearing about the infrastructure we have, and how we update it or move it.”

Water districts are required by state law to conduct an annual master plan. Pat Cox, manager of the Nesika Beach-Ophir Water District on the southern Oregon coast, said the cost for doing a master plan has risen from $50,000 to $90,000 because of seismic requirements.

“Now it’s starting to hurt,” he said.

Emergency planning is often made more complicated than it needs to be, according to Cox.

“It always makes me scratch my head when they do these efforts for all these plans, when really it’s run uphill as fast as you can when an earthquake happens,” he said.

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The Ankeny Apartments project’s tortured path through the Portland City Council took another turn Wednesday that left developer Landon Crowell’s proposal still in limbo.

The council extended Crowell’s appeal of the Portland Design Commission’s denial of project plans to Aug. 9.

“I am speechless,” Crowell said directly after the hearing.

Crowell and Yost Grube Hall Architecture presented to the City Council revised plans that would reduce the height of the L-shaped building on Southeast 12th Avenue to 58 feet from 75 feet, increase setbacks from neighboring property lines and eliminate two residential units. Also, the building’s lobby would move to Southeast Ankeny Street from 1th Avenue.

The revised plans ran into two major hurdles. The first was that the project team had not presented the Bureau of Development Services with detailed documentation for review. Without that documentation, the new design could not be evaluated in regard to issues such as city code, zoning and design guidelines.

Another issue concerned whether an 18-inch setback on the north elevation was sufficient.

The new design was a result of mediation with the neighborhood association and neighboring homeowners.

“We thought we did what was asked and more,” Crowell stated via email Thursday morning. “However, council was using a moving target.”

The changes were enough to satisfy the Buckman Community Association and neighbors south of the project site.

“During mediation, the neighbors were offered the opportunity to redesign the building,” Crowell stated in the email. “They asked for cedar finishes, which we complied. We made attempts to conciliate with the neighbors to the north, but they were unresponsive.”

However, neighbors with properties in the elbow of the L-shaped development were still unhappy with its design.

“The building still doesn’t meet the guidelines,” Priscilla Sturges said during the meeting. She has owned the house at 112 S.E. 12th Ave. for 40 years and has consistently criticized the project. “We have no privacy, no guarantees about who will pay for possible damage to our property. Destabilizing neighborhoods like this is a blight on Portland.”

While commissioners expressed generally that the changes were a step in the right direction, Commissioner Amanda Fritz said the setback of the north elevation should be greater.

“For me it doesn’t go far enough,” she said. “There has been some good movement. It is in everyone’s interest to get to yes.”

That is one area that the City Council and Crowell agree. If his project is rejected, he said, a bigger project would likely surface next year when height limits in the area increase.

“My development partners and I will either be forced to resubmit next year or another developer will submit by next year should we sell,” Crowell said. “Either way, the neighbors will end up with a bigger development next to them and net zero (energy use) is a fantasy.”

Commissioner Chloe Eudaly summed up many of the commissioners’ opinions.

“The appellant has made a good faith effort with the neighbors,” she said. “I think some of the neighbors wish this whole thing would go away, and that isn’t going to happen.”

Another concern was raised by Commissioner Nick Fish.

“Are we setting a precedent where a developer could refuse to work with Design Commission, come to us, opt out in effect and create a second process through a community negotiation and have the council make the findings?” he said.

The City Council looked at several options, including approving the design with conditions, denying the appeal or continuing the hearing to allow city staff to evaluate revisions.

In the end, the council decided to continue the hearing to Aug. 9 and await the staff’s evaluation as to whether the new design meets the guidelines. That leaves the project’s ultimate fate largely in the hands of the Bureau of Development Services.

“I almost feel like I am at a Design Commission hearing,” senior planner Tim Heron said.

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Even though Yost Grube Hall Architecture has only one office – in Portland – it’s known as an international company. That’s not surprising, given that the 52-year-old firm has designed projects in 10 states and 66 countries.

One of YGH’s current projects – a building for the U.S. State Department at its embassy in Rangoon, Burma (aka Yangon, Myanmar) – depends on collaboration with local architects.

“We’re not in the business of going into another country and taking away jobs from local firms,” YGH marketing director Amy Winterowd said.

Instead, YGH joins in its overseas work with firms like Burma-based SPiNE Architects. It’s working closely with YGH on the new American Center in Rangoon.

The Portland firm also is working on projects for embassies in Mozambique and Turkmenistan.

“We have been successful because of our collaborative nature, forming the right relationships to create the right team for those clients,” YGH principal Tom Robbins said.

Some firms in other countries may not have the resources of a U.S.-based firm, but they have more knowledge of the local situation, so the relationship can be beneficial to both.

That attitude leads to a “symbiotic partnership,” Winterowd said. “There’s something for each of our firms to gain and learn. Together we make it stronger.”

Working with SPiNE Architects gave YGH the knowledge it needed to build local materials into the design for the new American Center. The two-story center will include classrooms, a library, a café and outdoor balconies.

As a result, the American Center will feature local materials such as teakwood to balance security features the embassy requires.

“The security grills will mimic traditional sunscreens you see over there,” Robbins said. “You’ll see a layered building that is picking up teakwood aesthetics and behind that is another layer of glass or metal and then (behind that are) the security screens.”

Working with local firms like SPiNE helps architects at YGH understand local materials, construction techniques and schedules, Robbins said.

“There’s only so much we can do in Portland,” he said.

But the relationship with foreign architecture firms is not just long-distance, said YGH principal John Medvec, and architects from YGH will visit their projects in other countries at least three or four times during the life of the project.

Architects from overseas firms also come to Portland to work in the YGH office. FMA Architecture in Abuja, Nigeria is a long-term collaborator, said Medvec, and over the two firms’ 40-year relationship, sharing resources has become standard.

“We do a lot of staff sharing and have had architects from FMA in our office working on computers for three and four weeks at a time,” he said. “So when we go to their country, it’s not just two weeks doing meetings, it’s being on their systems working on building design.”

That philosophy for close collaboration with other firms doesn’t just extend to foreign projects, Winterowd said.

“It is very much our culture and the way we prefer to practice,” she said. “The ability to work in different places – we see that as additional enrichment for local projects as well. We’re gratified when we bring something we’ve learned outside to our home here in Oregon.”

Design Beyond Borders is a 91��Ƶ feature offering a look at the projects outside of Oregon being tackled by local architecture firms. To have your firm’s projects considered, contact 91��Ƶ architecture and engineering reporter Beverly Corbell at 503-802-7224 or beverly.corbell@djcOregon.com.

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KPFF Consulting Engineers‘ work on a renovation and expansion of the U.S. embassy compound in Helsinki began with a crash course at the project site.

The engineers’ weeklong trip to Finland was jam packed with research on what it takes to gain local approval for the project.

“You have to figure out what all the planning rules and regulations are, what all the permitting regulations are, in a week,” said Matthew Dolan, KPFF managing principal. “It’s a pretty big effort.”

The U.S. Department of State, for security reasons, contracts only with American firms for design and construction of such projects. But because they are built all over the world, KPFF engineers must consult with local building officials and closely coordinate with the contractor and on-site State Department staffers. Most of KPFF’s work is done remotely, making that initial trip to the project site critical for information gathering, said Adam Roth, senior project manager for the approximately $80 million Helsinki embassy project, which finished last month.

“We meet with multiple government agencies,” he said. “And then you walk the site and take as many pictures as possible.”

This process has become a specialty for KPFF. In the past 15 years, the firm’s Portland office has worked on 75 embassy projects, ranging from preliminary master planning through construction. Other Portland firms also have substantial embassy portfolios; Portland-based Yost Grube Hall Architecture and ZGF Architects are two that have collaborated with KPFF.

Along with the challenges of designing a building in another country, Portland engineers and architects working on embassies must follow federal guidelines set by Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations. This includes considerations for anti-ram protection against vehicles driving into the building and anti-climb measures to prevent people from scaling walls.

“There are a huge amount of materials on what you can and cannot (use),” Dolan said.

The tricky part, YGH President Nels Hall said, is finding a way to make a heavily fortified building also appear inviting because it serves as the face of America in foreign countries and houses diplomatic programs.

“Security is giant,” he said. “That is why Congress is funding these things. How do you find ways of meeting those requirements and still find ways to make these campuses seem open and inviting? We don’t want to have the image that we’re building these forts.”

“You can build transparent fences that meet the anti-climb criteria and try and incorporate motifs that make a place unique,” he added.

On the engineering side, challenges include working with unusual site shapes and anticipating the effect of extreme weather conditions on the embassy buildings. Roth, who has worked on 10 embassy projects for KPFF, said he often substitutes information on weather conditions in certain parts of the U.S. while doing storm modeling for projects in countries with insufficient records. For cold climates, he has referred to weather patterns in Alaska and Minnesota, and he has found that Fiji is comparable to Hilo, Hawaii, for rainfall.

The Helsinki project involved investigating historic storm surges because the embassy compound sits on a coastal site overlooking the Gulf of Finland.

“That was part of our research,” Roth said. “We had to research the local climate … You have to think about that information when you go somewhere that might not have very organized public agencies.”

YGH’s work on embassies began with an overall push by one of the firm’s founders, Joachim Grube, to pursue more projects in developing countries, Hall said. Over the past 15 years, the firm has worked in 46 countries. This includes embassies in Islamabad, Pakistan and Quito, Ecuador and Yangon, Myanmar.

In the past, the firm has partnered with ZGF on embassy projects, but more recently worked together with Allied Works Architecture on a new embassy in Mozambique.

KPFF’s expertise in seismic retrofits helped it land a project with ZGF in the late 1990s for work on the U.S. consulate in Istanbul, Dolan said. This led to other State Department contracts for embassy projects in partnership with ZGF, YGH and Washington, D.C.-area architecture firms, he said. The firm worked together Washington, D.C.-based architecture and engineering firm Page Southerland Page on the Helsinki embassy project. Since work on that embassy wrapped up, KPFF staffers are gearing up for the firm’s next overseas project – a U.S. consulate compound in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.

“We’re just very fortunate to be able to keep working on them,” Dolan said.

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When Portland State University graduate architecture student Reid Weber spent weeks using computer modeling to pinpoint the best type of light well for a new school building, his findings extended beyond a class paper.

Weber’s daylighting analysis helped convince Oregon Episcopal School officials to include a light well in plans designed by THA Architecture for new preschool and elementary school buildings in Portland. His research involved working with THA designers at the firm’s downtown Portland office and contributing to the design of a real-world project.

“I hadn’t had a lot of professional experience in an architecture firm,” he said. “Being in on some of the meetings was a really great experience.”

Weber is among 27 PSU architecture students who recently completed 10 research projects in partnership with Portland architecture firms during a 10-week advanced building technology course. The required class is part of the PSU School of Architecture‘s Research-based Design Initiative, which pairs architecture students with local firms to conduct building science research on actual projects.

PSU assistant architecture professor Corey Griffin and architecture professor Sergio Palleroni started the initiative in 2011 with the help of a $16,000 grant from the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards. In August, the Oregon Community Foundation pledged $100,000 more over the next five years to support the initiative, and Griffin said he’s hoping to get more engineering firms and students involved in the program.

“Previously, from year to year I didn’t know if we could keep doing this,” Griffin said. “It’s a relief to me to keep planning. I feel like we can actually refine this process and increase the value to the students and the firms.”

The program has also gained the financial support of the five participating architecture firms: THA Architecture, SRG Partnership, Yost Grube Hall Architecture, Boora Architects and ZGF Architects. By 2018, each firm will have contributed $8,000 toward sustaining the course and the research the students produce.

“It’s a really important resource not only for these students, but for this region,” SRG Partnership principal Kent Duffy said. “That’s why we support it with our time and money.”

The graduate class has a larger impact than a more traditional building science lecture course, Griffin said. Participating Portland architecture firms glean information for design decisions through student research using university labs and modeling software, he said. At the same time, students learn skills that the firms seek in new hires while working side-by-side with professional architects.

“They have a skill set in building science research,” Griffin said. “My long-term goal is we’re going to have a bunch of students in Portland that have a unique skill set … The firms actually set aside desk space (for the students). We’ve come to think of it as a kind of practicum.”

The students’ research projects have included computer modeling to assess the impacts of wind, natural ventilation and daylighting on project designs. They’ve also conducted post-occupancy analyses on the energy performance of completed buildings to help improve design strategies or plan a renovation.

The information the students are compiling is becoming increasingly valuable to architecture firms, but they often lack the time or the resources to complete the necessary research, Griffin said.

“The clients are getting savvier,” he said. “They want to see evidence that what the architects are saying will happen, will happen.”

This is precisely why SRG is such a strong supporter of the PSU program, Duffy said. Students have researched factors that impact building designs, such as wind patterns and daylighting, that staffers wouldn’t otherwise have time for, he said.

“You find out new information when someone does actual analysis,” he said. “We find that really valuable to make informed decisions … Now we’re starting to realize we need to know these things to make decisions.”

Much of Oregon Community Foundation funding supports a teaching assistant position, currently held by Weber, to help coordinate breaking up the students into groups that work with the five architecture firms on 10 research projects, Griffin said. Staffers from each firm suggest several research projects and are paired up with students who are interested in researching those topics.

The students produce reports on the findings of their research projects that are made public.

“In many cases, those papers are of such a quality that they are being presented at academic research conferences,” Griffin said.

The students share their findings during a research symposium with the participating firms. One held last month at the Portland Center for Architecture was a great educational experience, graduate architecture student Julia Mollner said.

“I think it was really interesting to see different people from different architecture firms talking about ways of collaborating and topics that they were interested in,” she said.

Mollner said she appreciated that the course allowed her to work closely with Boora Architects staffers on her research.

“Being able to come into a graduate program and get your foot in the door with a firm was really valuable,” she said.

Mollner’s research during the course involved conducting a post-occupancy analysis of a school where she concluded that the building designers made assumptions about how it would be used.

“There’s this disparity between how they think people will use the space and how people actually use it,” she said.

That’s been one of the most interesting parts about the course, Weber said. The learning goes both ways and includes exposing firm staffers to new computer modeling software.

“It was eye-opening the different research that the firms are doing,” he said. “We are kind of showing them that they can use these tools.”

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Yost Grube Hall Architecture has been hired to design a new college campus in Cambodia.

The firm will serve as the design architect for the American University of Phnom Penh in partnership with a Cambodian architect of record, YGH spokeswoman Amy Winterowd said.

The university, founded in 2013, has a curriculum based on offerings at major universities in the U.S. Plans for the new campus include a library and resource center, computer and science laboratories, individual and group study spaces, indoor and outdoor dining facilities, meeting areas and a 250-seat auditorium.

The first phase of the project will involve design of a five-story university building with classrooms, a library and faculty offices to serve as the initial structure on campus, Winterowd said. Plans call for adding buildings in the future, she said.

Construction of the first campus building is scheduled to start in 2015, and the project is expected to take about two years to complete, Winterowd said.

YGH’s other international university work includes master plans for the University of Botswana and the American University of Afghanistan.

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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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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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Phil Rude has seen the Portland skyline change dramatically in the past 50 years.

Since moving to the city to take his first architecture job in 1964, the FFA Architecture and Interiors associate has been a part of that evolution. While the practice of architecture has changed many ways, there are constants that motivate Rude, 73, to continue to come into work at FFA once a week.

“It’s still a very honorable profession,” he said. “Within the office, there is a collegial environment. I think the mix of ages and experiences helps me to thrive. I enjoy the people, I enjoy the challenge and I think that I still make a contribution.”

Rude continues to prove his value to FFA through his extensive design experience and numerous industry connections he’s made over the years, principal Troy Ainsworth said.

“Fifty years of technical and design experience is irreplaceable,” he said. “That’s very special and it’s just great to have someone (on staff) with that much experience in the profession.”

Other Portland design professionals who’ve worked with Rude say his way with people is one of his greatest strengths. This extends to managing a project team, interacting with clients and mentoring the next generation of architects.

“Phil was always that management thread,” said Herb Giffin, a principal at GBJ Architecture and one of Rude’s former colleagues. “He’s always been a people person. He can go into a room and work it. He enjoyed it.”

After earning a bachelor’s degree in architectural engineering from Washington State University, Rude spent the early part of his career at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. The architecture firm no longer has a Portland office, but 50 years ago its office was one of the largest in town, he said.

Rude, 23 at that point, wasn’t the only young face in the office.

“Skidmore was a young place for young people,” he said. “We enjoyed it. We worked hard. We partied hard.”

In those days, a Portland architecture office looked a lot different from the way it does today, he said.

“We drafted by hand,” he said. “Everyone always wore white shirts and ties.”

Rude spent 24 years with SOM before the firm closed its Portland office. While there, he helped design various office towers, including the Standard Plaza and One Main Place buildings in downtown Portland. He also worked on Autzen Stadium at the University of Oregon in Eugene, the parking garage at the Portland International Airport and an expansion to the Branford Price Millar Library at Portland State University that features a curved facade to preserve a large tree.

After the stint at SOM, Rude worked for Yost Grube Hall Architecture for a dozen years, mostly on health care projects. He then spent a year at Hoffman Construction Co. before joining FFA.

These days, Rude helps out on various FFA projects, including many historic restorations. He often provides insight for renovations and tenant improvements in buildings that he helped design originally, Ainsworth said.

“He also brings knowledge of players on new projects,” he said. “They’re new to us, but old to him … He’s great for having that background.”

Rude’s extensive network is a huge asset, said Sue Johnson, FFA marketing director.

“Phil can pick up the phone and call anybody,” she said. “He knows everybody.”

Giffin worked with Rude at SOM for 10 years in the 1970s and ’80s. At the time, Giffin was a recent architecture school graduate who considered Rude a mentor. Rude later mentored Giffin’s daughter, Jody Giffin, when she worked at FFA.

“Phil Rude was such a Father Time that he mentored me and my daughter,” Giffin said. “He just knew all the ropes and everything (and) how to handle clients.”

John Weekes, a principal at Dull Olson Weekes-IBI Group Architects, also worked with Rude at SOM as a young architecture school graduate and considered him a mentor.

“He was just kind of a quiet, careful thinker,” Weekes said. “He was very supportive of me. He is someone I have enormous respect for.”

Weekes said he’s always been impressed with Rude’s project management skills.

“He was the guy who made sure we got done what was supposed to be done, and he was quiet about it,” Weekes said.

It was watching Rude in his element that inspired THA Architecture’s Stefee Knudsen to go into project management. She has adopted his understated, yet effective management style into her own work.

“It’s really about client relationships and taking care of your team,” she said.

Rude hired Knudsen for her first real architecture job at Yost Grube Hall and has served as a mentor throughout her career, she said.

“He’s been my most prominent mentor,” she said. “Very early on, he differed from the norm. Even though I was a very young intern, he took me on meetings with the client. He took care to make sure I was prepared without making me think about what he was doing.”

Knudsen admires his approach to architecture.

“He has a real ethic about him that’s about more than what you do at your desk,” she said. “It’s about how you treat people.”

The enjoyment of work as part of a team to achieve a common goal is one reason why Rude has no plans to retire from architecture completely.

“It’s nice to have your thumb still in (the industry),” he said. “You’re proud of what you’ve done. When it’s all said and done, you’re proud of what you’re part of.”

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Yost Grube Hall Architecture recently was honored for its work on two projects – its downtown Portland headquarters and a U.S. embassy in Dakar, Senegal.

YGH staffers last year moved into a remodeled office space on the 12th floor at 707 S.W. Washington St. For its design, the architecture, planning and interior design firm received a merit award in the office category of the 2014 Home Design Magazine Australian Living Green Interior Awards. The awards program recognizes projects that use green interior products.

The project incorporated various sustainable materials and is expected to receive a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold rating, YGH marketing manager Amy Winterowd said.

A roughly 1,200-square-foot space in the Union Bank Building has a tighter floor plate than the firm’s previous office and allows staffers to work more collaboratively, President Nels Hall said.

“All of a sudden, we could have all of our studio in one space,” he said. “We decided no one was going to have an interior office. You can reorganize teams very efficiently. We have what I would call a very, very flexible space.”

For the American embassy in Dakar, YGH received a merit award in the government building category of Engineering News-Record’s 2014 Global Best Projects Awards. The firm was the design architect for the $148.6 million replacement effort completed last year. Architecture and engineering firm Page served as the architect of record for the design-build project.

The new embassy was built on a site where a resort hotel with prime ocean views once stood, Hall said. The design takes advantage of the site by placing the main public atrium space on the second floor with windows looking out onto the Bay of Dakar and Atlantic Ocean.

“One of the biggest things is: How do you take a, generally in terms of security, closed environment and make it appear open?” Hall said. “I think that’s one big reason why it got an award.”

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