the Willamette Valley, the Cascade Mountain Range, the Oregon Coast, and the desert. Art and environmental graphics enliven spaces throughout, creating a sense of unexpected discovery and contributing to a healing environment.
A special design emphasis provides respite from noise. Wireless devices worn by hospital staff eliminate the need for overhead paging. The wood finishes, carpeting, artwork, and floor-to-ceiling windows in common areas are intended to make the spaces feel less like a hospital and more like a home.
KS: Very nice! The airport is obviously a major project for you. Going back ten years, is there another one or two that is special?
SVDM: This is a hard one because when you work on many different types of projects over the years, they’re all near and dear for certain reasons. I think Randall Children’s Hospital would have to be right up there at the top. It’s special to me because I had just completed the design of a large children’s hospital in Colorado. It was a replacement hospital and where I first explored the concept of what it meant to design meaningful and healing environments for a pediatric population. When that project finished, there was an opportunity to design a new children’s hospital on an urban campus for Legacy Health.
They had extensive pediatric programs embedded in their existing hospital, but they wanted to design and build a new standalone children’s hospital with its own identity. That was just a great opportunity, and I led the design of that project. What was so interesting is we were able to, with the client, imagine and develop the brand of a new children’s hospital and how the design would respond to their values. The result was a more sophisticated approach to design that dealt with the entire psyche of the patient and focused on family centered care.
I think it turned the corner in a lot of ways for health care as it explored how design can provide a positive impact to health and healing. That was one of the major drivers for this project: how can we elevate the environment? How can we innovate to make it better for patients, families, staff, doctors, nurses? That was an amazing client and project for me personally.
I think the other project is a quintessential ZGF interiors project: The new offices for Stoel Rives, a law firm with NW roots. They moved into the top nine floors of a new building in downtown Portland. It’s a beautifully executed interior space, a strongly conceived concept and well detailed. The design really expresses the classic Pacific Northwest style and our client’s goals around being timeless, restrained, and sustainable.
Stoel Rives has historically represented some of the wood industry leaders as clients, so the space has a very beautiful expression of wood and is supported by the execution in detailing. They also have a notable Pacific Northwest art collection, and the space works as a backdrop to highlight the collection.
I think that it is a perfect example of the ZGF design acumen. I don’t think we necessarily have a style, but we have attributes and foundations of design that we try to infuse in every project. We take a lot of pride in how materials come together and how the design is expressed through the craft of construction.
So those two projects are really special. And, of course, the PDX airport is a chance of a lifetime. There’s a lot of pressure to get it right, but we’re designing with intention that this building and experience are for everybody in the community. It’s not for us, it’s not for the Port, it’s everybody’s building.
KS: You mentioned three projects: a complex airport renovation; a children’s hospital; a law firm headquarters. All very different project types and scales. Yet there’s a commitment to design excellence and craft in each of those. A wonderful dimension of ZGF’s practice is the diversity of projects to which you bring that intention.
SVDM: You know, I learned this lesson from Greg Baldwin.1 You remember Greg. He taught me that if you’re a good designer, you can design at any scale. And that’s a really powerful statement. You shouldn’t be afraid to work on urban planning, design furniture, or work on an exterior skin – and I’ve had a chance to explore all those scales of design during my career.
Stoel Rives Headquarters
| Client: | Stoel Rives |
| Architects: | ZGF Architects |
| Location: | Portland, Oregon, USA |
| Size: | 120,000 square feet | 11,150 square meters |
| Completion Date: | 2016 |
Photo Credit: Nick Merrick © Hedrich Blessing
The headquarters of the law firm Stoel Rives occupies the top nine floors of Park Avenue West in downtown Portland. In contrast to the firm’s former enclosed space, the new office is warm, open, and transparent. The five floors of attorney offices include amenity lounges with interconnecting stairs to enhance interaction and facilitate collaboration.
A company with deep roots in the Pacific Northwest, Stoel Rives sought a sustainable workplace with connections to its history. Reclaimed oak floors and Douglas fir walls reference the firm’s original timber company clients. The custom conference tables, crafted by local artisans, are constructed of Oregon white oak planks over origami-shaped black metal bases.
The two-story reception and conference center offers dramatic views of the city, river, and mountains beyond. The reception walls showcase the firm’s extensive art collection and its long history of supporting local artists. The project achieved LEED Platinum for Commercial Interiors and Four Green Globes for Sustainable Interiors.
I give a lot of credit to the ZGF culture, because we don’t tend to put people in a box and say, “do this thing and only this because you’re really good at it.” There are no real rules about engagement. If you have an interest in a certain area of design, then go for it. We’re not going to hold you back. We’re going to encourage you and support that effort.
KS: Sharron, the last time I saw you in person was at Bob Frasca’s memorial service a few years ago. Can you talk a little bit about working with Bob? What did you learn from him?
SVDM: Sure. We could talk an entire hour on Bob Frasca, I learned so much from him over the years. I think I was in my mid-twenties when I started working side-by-side with him. Bob was so great because when he was working on a project, he would call a project meeting and he wouldn’t start until all the players were there. He had to have interiors represented, technical design and the project manager present before he started. He had respect and genuinely wanted to hear people’s thoughts, but he was also efficient, and wanted to ensure that everyone knew the path forward.
He tackled any design problem or issue from a very holistic view. And he really wanted to understand, from everyone’s perspective, if something was going in the right direction. Ultimately, he made the call, but he was a very good listener and collaborator.
I remember working for months with him on a specific project, the Oregon Historical Society. We were getting ready for a big presentation, and he told me that I would be delivering the interior design concepts to the directors. I didn’t know how to make a presentation at that time. Honestly, I was maybe 25 and wondering, “What is he thinking?”
It’s not something that anyone teaches you how to do. Luckily now, in school, you are given more instruction about how to carry yourself, how to deliver a good story, the cadence at which you speak. But I didn’t know that, nor did I know enough to ask for assistance. We arrived and obviously I was really nervous. I started talking and I was having an out of body experience. I was talking so fast that no one could understand what I was saying because I was just trying to get through
