Gradient House and Studio (Jeremy Bittermann/JBSA)   BY BRIAN LIBBY Last fall the top prize at the local American Institute of Architects annual Oregon Architecture Awards, known as the Honor Award, went to a first-time winner: Linden, Brown Architecture for the Gradient House and Studio. It’s a smart, beautiful reinvention of live-work space for the post-pandemic era, as well as for Oregon’s new frontier of zoning that breaks down the tyranny of single-family houses. For me, like many, Gradient provided an introduction to the work Linden, Brown, which is the latest in a succession of aw ..read more

Thomas Hacker (Reed Harkness)   BY BRIAN LIBBY When I began covering architecture two decades ago, not only was Thomas Hacker established as one of Portland’s most-admired architects, but some of the city’s other best firms had been founded by Hacker’s former students and employees. In 2000, for example, just as Brad Cloepfil’s Pearl District headquarters for advertising agency Wieden + Kennedy gained international notoriety, his former professor and boss Hacker’s Woodstock branch of the Multnomah County Library was named one of the nation’s 10 best libraries by the National Library A ..read more

Daniel Toole (Daniel Toole Architect)   BY BRIAN LIBBY The latest installment in our longtime discussion series with local architects about their inspirations, careers and collaborators takes us to Daniel Toole, who founded Daniel Toole Architecture in 2020 after stints with acclaimed Portland firm Allied Works, Tuscon's Rick Joy Architects, the Seattle office of Perkins + Will, and Berlin's Barkow Leibinger. While at Allied, Daniel worked on celebrated projects like the Corvallis Museum. A number of former Allied Works and Rick Joy staffers now comprise Toole's small staff. Born in Vien ..read more

Sky Hopinka's 2021 film Mnemonics of Shape and Reason   BY BRIAN LIBBY Two recent interviews have got me thinking about the relationship between culture and landscape: the generations of peoples who call a place home, how those histories endure even after the communities may be long gone, and the lessons we can learn about stewardship of the land. Both interviewees, perhaps coincidentally, came to my attention through Portland State University: one an alumnus and one a visiting professor — filmmaker Sky Hopinka and architect Kevin O'Brien — each pursuing ideas informed by their Indigenou ..read more

Event co-founder Webly Bowles (Sustainable Building Week) BY BRIAN LIBBY Now in its fifth year, the annual Sustainable Building Week begins today and runs through October 15. The week offers a wide variety of free and paid events, in person and online, hosted by experts and organizations that represent the many fields of sustainability, including architecture, design, building, construction, education and community planning. Around 30 events are planned this year — the highest number yet. Some of this years events include the Homes of Tomorrow Today Tour from the Portland Home Builders Assoc ..read more

BY LUKE AREHART With its location near the confluence of two rivers, Portland has always been a natural location for floating homes. And while many floating homes along the Willamette or Columbia may be utilitarian, others have been designed by noted local architects, such as Robert Oshatz. Yet these projects also sometimes attract non-architects with design savvy in related professions, as is the case with the striking Aqua Star residence, which was sold last year and has been called iconic for its shiny aluminum cladding. The nearly 3,000 square-foot, three bedroom Aqua Star residence was ..read more

The Lower Garden District in New Orleans (Brian Libby)   BY BRIAN LIBBY Call it the summer travel edition of Portland Architecture. After all, sometimes it takes leaving home to understand it properly: a sense of perspective. That was true for me 22 years ago this month, when I arrived for college in New York in 1990, having enrolled at a university there without ever visiting the city first. The culture-shock was strong, especially since I arrived in hot-humid late summer during a sanitation-workers strike that resulted in huge piles of trash on local sidewalks. Even so, going to NYC di ..read more

Tim Smith at his his AICP College of Fellows enshrinement (SERA Architects)   BY BRIAN LIBBY Last December, more than a decade after it was first announced, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry unveiled plans for its OMSI District along the east side of Willamette River, which will turn surface parking lots and vacant land between the Marquam Bridge and Tilikum Crossing (and adjacent to the museum) into a high-density enclave. The district is projected to include 1,200 housing units, forming with the Burnside Bridgehead development to the north a residential bookend to the otherwise ..read more

Gabriel Fonseca (courtesy SmithGroup)   BY BRIAN LIBBY Recently one of the nation's oldest architecture firms opened an office in Portland. In fact, SmithGroup is the longest continually-operating architecture and engineering firm in the United States that's not a wholly-owned subsidiary. Founded in 1853 in Detroit by Sheldon Smith, today the firm designs many college and university buildings as well as large civic buildings and even stadiums like Ford Field, home of the NFL's Detroit Lions. To welcome SmithGroup to town, I invited principal Gabe Fonseca to participate in our ongoing Ar ..read more

Julia Mollner (Carleton Hart Architecture)   BY LUKE AREHART Continuing our now-multiyear series in which local architects talk about their inspirations, influences and key moments from their careers, the latest edition of The Architect's Questionnaire features Julia Mollner, a project architect and associate at Carleton Hart Architecture for the past six years. Also an adjunct professor in the Portland State University School of Architecture's Center for Public Interest Design, Mollner is also a longtime Habitat For Humanity volunteer. She holds bachelor's degrees in both art history a ..read more