Architecture Studio in Downtown PortlandPortland, OR

How we work in Downtown Portland

• Residential & Housing Architecture

  Housing in Downtown Portland is usually multifamily or tight-lot residential next to workplace and hospitality. Permit-ready drawings have to show how people enter and live on the block, with interiors on the same team through construction documents.

• Hospitality Architecture

  Hospitality downtown is judged by the path from sidewalk to interior. Construction documents and interiors are written together; The Ritz-Carlton is our core example, framed around reinvigorating downtown rather than a slogan.

• Master Planning & Urban Design

  Master planning here starts with the site plan and the edges where housing meets workplace. Urban design stays on the same team as the building drawings so a larger effort still reads as a place people gather.

• Workplace Architecture

  Workplace architecture in the core serves tenants who also move through housing and hospitality on the same blocks. Construction documents use the same phase names as the rest of the practice so proposals can be compared.

• Retail Architecture

  Street-level retail depends on how the shop meets the sidewalk. Permit-ready drawings cover shopfront and interiors as one package, with the Pearl District next door setting a high bar for that ground floor.

• Mixed-Use Development Design

  Mixed-use is the default downtown condition: housing over workplace, hospitality next to retail. Architecture, interiors, and master planning stay together from the first site plan through construction documents.

• Institutional Architecture

  Institutional work in Downtown Portland still has to name schematic design through construction documents so a board can compare scope. The civic question is how the building serves daily use.

• Senior Living Design

  Senior living downtown is housing with a heavier interiors load on a tight urban site. The proposal should state whether construction administration is included so a lower fee is not a missing phase.

• Recreation Facility Design

  Recreation near the core is a site-plan problem as much as a building problem. Construction documents need to carry how people arrive and how the facility meets the neighborhood.

• Adaptive Reuse Architecture

  Adaptive reuse is common in Downtown Portland: existing buildings, renovation, a new use that still has to fit the block. Schematic design starts from what is already there, not a blank lot.

• Interior Architecture

  Interior architecture is not a finish pass after the building is drawn. Housing, workplace, hospitality, and retail interiors are designed with the architecture so daily use meets one environment.

Downtown Portland questions, answered