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Articles by Randy Gragg
HP’s new R&D Facility in Washington State Traces All Its Timber to the Source
ProjectsBuildings by TypeCommercial HP WAV Research and Development Facility, Vancouver, Washington Architects & Firms In 2008, HP, the manufacturer of personal computers and other devices, became one of the earliest technology companies to develop comprehensive sustainability policies, most aggressively in guiding the paper it sells for its printers.
In Oregon, an Elegant Mass-Timber Library by Holst Architecture Makes a Grand Civic Statement
Architectural TechnologyArchitect Continuing EducationLibrary Design East County Library in Gresham, Oregon Architects & Firms Portland, Oregon’s celebrated regional planning, over the last 30 years, seeded bustling town centers in nearly every suburb, clustering government, cultural facilities, shopping, and higher-density housing around major transit hubs.
In Oregon’s Deschutes County, The Miller Hull Partnership reinvents the library
During their campaign to convince Oregon voters to approve a $195 million library bond, Deschutes County Library director Todd Dunkelberg and his team asked a simple question: “What do you want from your library?” More than 7,000 residents responded. They asked for meeting rooms, a coffee shop, makerspaces, a dedicated teen area, and spaces that could serve as community gathering hubs. Meanwhile, library staff were thinking about nerdier—but equally transformative—changes.
A Portland Apartment Building by Daniel Toole Architecture Stands as a Study in Adaptation
ProjectsBuildings by TypeMultifamily Housing Architecture 7480 N. Delaware Street by Daniel Toole Architects Except for a single year, Portland, Oregon–based architect Daniel Toole has spent his life living in market-rate apartments. He has long studied the small-apartment typology, from midcentury London's Barbican Estate and British council housing to the 800-square-foot 1942 townhouse designed by Pietro Belluschi, where he now lives with his wife and two young children.
A Portland Apartment Building by Daniel Toole Architecture Stands as a Study in Adaption
ProjectsBuildings by TypeMultifamily Housing Architecture 7480 N. Delaware Street by Daniel Toole Architects Except for a single year, Portland, Oregon–based architect Daniel Toole has spent his life living in market-rate apartments. He has long studied the small-apartment typology, from midcentury London's Barbican Estate and British council housing to the 800-square-foot 1942 townhouse designed by Pietro Belluschi, where he now lives with his wife and two young children.
Waechter Architecture proves all-wood construction isn’t just a niche idea
In 2022, architect Ben Waechter received a Wood Innovations Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service for a building he had actually wanted to make out of concrete. Waechter first honed his skills and interests at firms like Renzo Piano Workshop and Allied Works, designing projects that were often poured into place.
The International Mass Timber Building Conference Holds 10th-Annual Gathering in Portland
Architecture NewsClimate Change & SustainabilityCommentary & CriticismOpinion The International Mass Timber Conference celebrated its 10th edition this year, with special presenters that included Kengo Kuma and leaders from Amazon and Meta. Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg may be cozying up to a president busy dismantling a generation of American climate policy. But inside Portland’s Oregon Convention Center, their lieutenants were telling a different story.
An Intervention at Oregon’s Portland Art Museum Spans Two Landmarks and Mends Old Wounds
ProjectsBuildings by TypeMuseums & Art Centers The Portland Art Museum. When Brian Ferriso became the Portland Art Museum’s executive director in 2006, he inherited a staggering $20 million deficit of loans and unpaid pledges and a flummoxing architectural tangle. A year before, his predecessor renovated and expanded the museum, connecting its elegant Pietro Belluschi–designed complex to the neighboring Masonic temple, which the institution had acquired back in 1992.
Nielsen : Schuh Designs an Elegant, Earthen Tasting Room for Oregon’s Rodeo Hills Winery
ProjectsBuildings by TypeHospitality Projects Architects & Firms The driveway to Rodeo Hills Winery winds through 7 acres of vineyard and into a new generation of Oregon wine history. Founder Jared Etzel named his winery after his childhood experience of bouncing on the nearby dirt roads in a VW van with his parents who, in the 1980s, helped pioneer the Willamette Valley’s now globally celebrated organically produced pinot noirs.
An Adaptive Reuse Project by Lever Architecture Makes the Grade at the University of Oregon’s New Portland Campus
Architects & Firms When the Eugene-based University of Oregon bought the defunct Concordia University to house its Portland campus in 2022, department directors had to puzzle their programs into a dozen mostly 1970s and ’80s-era buildings. The College of Design’s Portland architecture school decided to take the building widely regarded as the runt of the litter: a 1950s gymnasium converted into a theater three decades ago.
Political Headwinds Cloud Living Future’s Annual Gathering in Portland
Architecture NewsClimate Change & Sustainability For the Living Future Conference’s annual May gathering, the storm of shifting federal policies clouded much of the event’s normally sunny idealism.
Studio Gang Merges Art and Tech at CCA’s Expanded Campus
For 24 years, the California College of the Arts’ 33 academic programs were spread across two campuses: the verdant, Victorian-era former James Treadwell estate in Oakland and a converted Greyhound-bus maintenance shed in San Francisco’s emergent Design District. Two art-learning cultures took shape as different as the sites. In Oakland, faculty and students channeled the school’s Arts & Crafts DNA in buildings, some over a century old, learning and making indoors and out.
PDX airport’s $2 billion reinvention takes flight
From its earliest days, Portland’s airport—PDX International—has grounded its visitors in dynamic experiences of the local. As the first jets began to land in 1959, PDX’s homey architecture began with a new terminal opening like a front porch to a wide, ground-level view of the volcano you just flew by, or soon would. In the ‘70s, the automobile approach—Airport Way—featured a corridor of chevron-shaped plantings of cedars spaced closer and closer as you approached the terminal.
Waechter Architecture Designs a Sparkling Addition for an Oregon Winery
For its modest 1,500-square-foot size, Corollary Wine’s new tasting room by Waechter Architecture glows as if an alien ship has landed on the horizon. Perched atop one of the Willamette Valley’s taller hills and wrapped in metal that’s powder-coated a custom red just shy of fluorescent, the building’s sharp origami folds stand out in the rolling landscape. “Rather than hanging a sign somewhere, Corollary wanted the building to be an element of its brand,” says Waechter’s project lead Alexis Coir.
Designed by community: Multnomah County libraries - including Central, Midland, and the new East County branch - reflect a new way of thinking about library architecture | Oregon ArtsWatch
Wander the august rooms of the newly refurbished Multnomah County Central Library and it’s easy to think you’ve landed at some sort of bibliophilic airport lounge. Plush chairs, curving couches, bar-height tables, and phone-charging stations spread over a floor equipped with 100 new electrical outlets. About half of the books, magazines, and other materials that once crowded Central’s tall stacks are now arranged on low-slung shelves, most of them on wheels.
ZGF's Portland Airport Expansion Takes Its Cues from the Forests of the Pacific Northwest
Since the Portland International Airport (PDX) first sprouted 83 years ago next to the Columbia River, its operator, the Port of Portland, has aimed to give travelers a deep sense of the local. Early versions of the main terminal framed nearby Mount Hood with a dynamic entry of western cedars planted in runway-inspired chevron rows.
Design Vanguard 2023: Linden, Brown Architecture
As the first project of their newly minted firm, Brent Linden and Chris Brown transformed a 90-year-old barn into a rich blend of winery and three-dimensional puzzle. The clients, Sequitur Wines, had repurposed a 60-acre Douglas fir tree farm into a vineyard and winery six years before. Ready for a more public face, they imagined the barn’s becoming a centerpiece “fermentation hall.” Linden, Brown raised the entire structure 18 inches to put in concrete foundations.
Land Morphology Creates a Horticultural and Architectural Dreamscape for Portland's Leach Botanical Garden
Of Portland’s many notable public gardens, the one most cherished by Oregon plant geeks is Leach Botanical Garden—for its horticulture, but also its story. The largely self-trained botanist Lilla Leach became a Northwest hero for her discovery of several previously unknown species in the state’s Siskiyou Mountains.
Developer Anyeley Hallová Tackles Equity and Wealth-Building
With degrees in environmental systems, city planning, and landscape architecture, Portland, Oregon-based Anyeley Hallová didn’t travel a conventional path to real-estate development. But, during her nearly two decades in the field, she has used her education in design thinking to advance sustainability, mass-timber construction, and architectural ambition. With the development firm project^, she worked on Framework, an office building in Portland.
Design Vanguard 2022: Leckie Studio
Before becoming an architect, Michael Leckie earned a degree in genetics, ran Canadian tree-planting crews, and lived the life of an itinerant surfer. From test-tube accuracy to remote-location team logistics to an “essentialist approach of van life before Instagram,” Leckie has synthesized his experiences into an architectural practice.
Grant High School by Mahlum Architects
In 38 years as an educator, Carol Campbell has enjoyed many at Portland, Oregon’s Grant High School: nine years as a teacher, a parent of two graduates, and—after stints as principal at two other regional high schools—she was back to lead it in 2013. When voters passed a school bond directing $138 million to Grant, Campbell turned down the job of district superintendent to lead the school’s modernization.
Oregon Coast Beach House by Cutler Anderson Architects
Remnants of the Jurassic era, the rock formations known as “sea stacks” anchor some of the moodiest vistas to be found along the Oregon coastline. The wind, rain, sand, and salt that shaped them are often still hard at work. Sunny, breezy days have made the beach town of Bandon one of the U.S.’s premier golfing destinations. But when the gales come, summer or winter, their force can almost blast the paint off a car. Coastal views are dramatized through 15-foot-high glass walls.
Meyer Memorial Trust by LEVER Architecture
Michelle Depass, the CEO of the Portland, Oregon-based Meyer Memorial Trust, the state’s largest private foundation, thinks the label “civic building” is less about the architecture than action. She would argue that the Trust’s new headquarters fits the definition: “Building democracy isn’t about four walls.
Meyer Memorial Trust, Portland, Oregon
Meyer Memorial Trust, Portland, Oregon Randy Gragg 2021-02-23 00:02:53 Change Agent LEVER creates a headquarters for a Portland, Oregon, foundation committed to social equity. MICHELLE DEPASS, the CEO of the Portland, Oregon-based Meyer Memorial Trust, the state’s largest private foundation, thinks the label “civic building” is less about the architecture than action. She would argue that the Trust’s new headquarters fits the definition: “Building democracy isn’t about four walls.
Amara Holstein
Design Nanny affairs! Secret passages! This midcentury marvel boasts juicy stories galore. 10/17/2018 By Amara Holstein Powder Keg Great design can pop even behind closed doors. 09/18/2018 By Amara Holstein Habitat Step inside a Raleigh Hills retro remix. 06/12/2017 By Amara Holstein HABITAT Here's how to make the most of 800 square feet.
Great New Portland Homes
Holst Architecture // 2013 When Holst Architecture and builders Hammer & Hand created Karuna, a dreamy outcropping of modernism atop a lush Willamette Valley vineyard, the project was hailed for its green aspirations. Commissioned by philanthropist Eric Lemelson, the house was designed to qualify for three distinct sustainability certifications; for net-zero energy consumption; and to serve as a case study for builders to come. Three years later, results point to success.
Thomas Lauderdale's Tailored Portland Loft
Thomas Lauderdale’s library is a cabinet of collections, from ’60s-era magazines to pieces by artists like Gus Van Sant and Phyllis Diller. The chandelier is by local designer Jon Hart, and the sofa and chairs are from the boutique Bernadette Breu Experience. The best part of a party, says Pink Martini bandleader Thomas Lauderdale, is inviting the guests.
A Wild and Playful Portland Garden
As Cynthia Woodyard likes to tell the story, she “married” her garden. The affair began in 1972, when she moved with her then-husband into a ’20s-era Arts & Crafts bricker in Sylvan Heights, built with a picturesque flair by an English contractor and his Scottish wife. Woodyard liked the lot: it had five sides, none of them parallel. Early flirtations included an herb garden, and then some vegetables. The relationship evolved.
Lincoln Barbour
HABITAT A local architect brings three generations closer together in a Pearl District penthouse. 02/25/2015 By Amara Holstein HOME DESIGN A Southwest Portland reno shines bright with natural light and curated, historical style. 10/10/2014 By Amara Holstein ARTS NEWS Breaking: The contemporary art center rents one of the most beautiful arts spaces in town. Now it owns it.
Inside Portland's Oldest Cohousing Community
As the residents of Sunlight Holding Co gather for dinner, the vibe is as balanced as day and night on the vernal equinox. At the end of a long afternoon, more than 30 residents, old and new, trade stories of the past and aspirations for the future. Swapping cheeses and dips on a deck, they gossip about the facilitator they hired but, as it turned out, didn’t really need.
Doug Kenck-Crispin
History Even with Clint Eastwood and the Wallowa Mountains, Paint Your Wagon was a real cow patty. 06/19/2018 By Doug Kenck-Crispin HISTORY The state-of-the-art road was designed to make Oregon “the playground of America.” 05/19/2016 By Doug Kenck-Crispin HISTORY Erickson’s Café, “the temple of 10,000 delights,” slaked pioneer Portland’s many mighty thirsts.
Tom Colligan
Everyday Heroes An abortion clinic escort at the Lovejoy Surgicenter confronts Portland’s clashing colors. 08/17/2012 By Bart Blasengame POUR There's more to drink in Portland than that tasty hoppy beer that's taking up space in the fridge. Use some local fruit and make some sangria. 07/20/2009 By Tom Colligan Cool Cocktails Hood River Distillers is the Northwest's oldest and largest liquor company.
Randy Gragg
Urban Achiever And you probably don’t even know her name. (It’s Lynn Peterson, and she’s taking over Metro.) 12/21/2018 By Randy Gragg Photography by Nicolle Clemetson Real Estate 2018: Rockwood Arises Rockwood has bold—but controversial—plans to try. 03/27/2018 By Randy Gragg Urban Futures National thinkers gathered here to ponder what autonomous vehicles will do to our cities. Who's driving this thing?
The Columbia River Gorge Burned. We Could Make That a Good Thing.
A little over a century before a smoke-bomb-tossing teenager allegedly sparked a fire that torched a wide swath of the Columbia River Gorge, lumbermen clear-cut it. The images of charred Doug firs and cottonwoods that emerged after September’s fire were tough to see. But a circa-1910s photo of Multnomah Falls shows the old-growth forest slashed to mere stumps. The Gorge survived that clumsy haircut to live another picturesque day. So, too, will it outlive its recent scorching.
Glenda Goldwater, Portland's Bon Vivant
The omnipresent Glenda Goldwater (no relation to Barry) at Disjecta’s Portland2014 Biennial, viewing Modou Dieng and Devon A. VanHouten-Maldonado’s Tranquillo After five decades as a public librarian—in San Francisco and, before that, for the US Army in Germany and her beloved France—she has become Portland’s most noticeable art-world presence, a self- and well-described bon vivant.
DLR Group's 'Reconstruction' of the Portland Building
Ever since the drawings were unveiled in 1980, the Portland Building in Oregon has drawn plaudits and catcalls. Designed by Michael Graves with Emery Roth & Sons and considered to be among the world’s first public Postmodern buildings, the municipal-services structure’s garlands and colors seemed to be an Oz-like technicolor moment in the dreary movie of monochromatic Modernism.
Visionary Photographer Robert Adams Turns His Lens on Oregon
Portrait of Robert Adams by Kerstin Adams, 2004 On September 7, the Portland Art Museum opens an exhibition of 70 prints by Robert Adams, a 76-year-old artist and Astoria resident widely regarded as the most influential landscape photographer of his generation. Throughout his career, Adams has crafted his work as an invitation to ponder the future of the western landscape by examining what we’ve done to it so far.
Furioso Vineyards by Waechter Architecture
In the Willamette Valley wine industry’s furious climb to global prominence, its winery architecture has rarely striven to match the terroir. Visitors swished the latest vintages, at best, in humble industrial sheds and generic storefronts—and, at worst, in faux-Tuscan knock-offs and Pacific-Northwesty lodges.
Arlington Elementary School by Mahlum
Eighty-five percent of the Arlington Elementary School’s 276 students were eligible for free or subsidized breakfasts and lunches when Seattle-based Mahlum was hired to design a replacement for its aging facility in Tacoma. So the architects put meals center stage in the new building.
This Rising Political Star Could Redefine the Portland Region
Lynn Peterson learned to sew before she was 10. She made dresses but took a bigger shine to ’70s jumpsuits—a pragmatic choice, and one she still favors when she can get away with it. “It’s like wearing PJs to work,” she says. Peterson has, likewise, crafted a career in politics of her own tailoring. Her next mission is suitably hands-on and geeky: taking over as president of Metro, greater Portland’s regional government.
Renovated Space Needle Reopens in Seattle
Seattle’s quirky, iconic Space Needle began as a hotel promoter’s doodle. One architect—John Graham Jr.—designed the top, another—Victor Steinbrueck—the base. It was built in a breakneck 13 months. But since the 605-foot-tall Needle’s opening for the 1962 World’s Fair, over 60 million visitors have soaked in its views.
Groundbreaking of Mass Timber Framework Building Placed on Indefinite Hold
In the race to build taller and taller mass timber buildings in the US, Framework, a proposed 12-story all-wood highrise in Portland, Oregon, seemed to be rocketing highest. The design by Portland-based LEVER Architecture (a 2017 Design Vanguard firm), won $1.5 million in research and development funds in the 2015 U.S. Tall Wood Building Prize Competition.
Design-Build Giant Katerra Acquires Lord Aeck Sargent, Michael Green Architecture
In three short years, the design-build firm Katerra has grown from a Silicon Valley entrepreneur’s bright idea into what could become one of the largest commercial/residential design-build firms in the country. The strategy: vertically integrate every layer of construction, from architecture to the fixtures and subcontracting, in order to lower costs, build faster, and raise quality.
Design-Build Giant Katerra Acquires Lord Aeck Sargent, Michael Green Architecture
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Design/Build Giant Acquires Michael Green Architecture, Plans to Open CLT Factory
In three short years, the design/build firm Katerra has grown from a Silicon Valley entrepreneur’s bright idea into what soon could be one of the largest commercial residential construction firms in the country. The strategy: vertically integrate every layer of construction, from design to the fixtures and subcontracting in order to lower costs, build faster, and raise quality.
Portland's Ecotraditions
Take a swig from any of Portland’s Benson Bubblers and you can’t help but be charmed. But maybe you’re also being inspired. How else to explain Portlanders’ deep connection to their surroundings? Consider that the water gurgling up from the famed, cast-bronze fountains commissioned by philanthropist Simon Benson in 1912 travels 26 miles from one of the—if not the—most pristine urban water sources in the world: the Bull Run Watershed.
Can One of Portland’s Poorest Neighborhoods Build Its Way to Prosperity?
Josh Fuhrer grew up in Rockwood, once a stagecoach stop named for its landscape, now a neighborhood on Gresham’s border with Portland. He studied theater in New York and returned to his hometown. Then, one afternoon before a performance, a car hit him at 35 mph. Fuhrer mended, but his neck turned too “creaky” to continue acting. So with his winning smile and smooth, clear diction intact, he turned to developing buildings. “Theater and development are analogous,” Fuhrer says. “You want to tell a story.
The Huge Real Estate Projects Shaping the Future of Portland
From basic building blocks to our grandest plans, read on for seven glimpses of the future. Plus: real estate stats on 125 neighborhoods and suburbs.
Will Robot Cars Rule Portland's Streets?
If you haven’t noticed, heads up: a battle for the streets is underway. The coming revolution in transportation could trigger a full-scale war between self-driving cars, e-commerce delivery robots, buses, bicyclists, and SUV-clinger-ons. Or it might lead to a heavenly utopia where the air is clean, everybody is safe, and we all have more time to read, play games, or even have sex while 5G networks guide our vehicles from place to place.
The Portlander's Guide to Surviving the Big One
Carmen Merlo, former director of Portland’s Bureau of Emergency Management, argues that being ready for the Big One is as much about connection as stockpiles. But don’t forget to pack some chocolate.
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