Skylab Architecture designs the N M Bodecker Foundation in Portland, Oregon

Project name:
 
The N M Bodecker Foundation
Architecture firm:
 
Skylab Architecture
Location:
 
Portland, Oregon, USA
Photography:
 
Jeremy Bitterman, Stephen Miller (video)
Principal architect:
 
Design team:
 
Jeff Kovel (Design Director), Brent Grubb (Project Manager), Jamin AAsum (Project
Architect), Kyle Norman (Project Architect), Dustin Furseth (Project Architect), Amy DeVall
(Interior Designer), Stephen Miller (Design & Visualization)
Collaborators:
 
Geo Design (Geotechnical Engineer), Coral Sound Inc. (Acoustical Engineer), Ambient
Automation (AV), The Facade Group (Building Envelope & Waterproofing), Michael Cronin
Acoustic (Recording Room Consultant), Dream Land Skateparks (Skatepark Consultant)
Interior design:
 
Skylab Architecture
Built area:
 
7769 ft²
Site area:
 
Design year:
 
Completion year:
 
2017
Civil engineer:
 
Harper Houf Peterson Righellis Inc.
Structural engineer:
 
Structural Engineering (SCE)
Environmental & MEP:
 
Interface Engineering
Landscape:
 
2.ink Studio
Lighting:
 
Lighting Workshop
Supervision:
 
Visualization:
 
Tools used:
 
Construction:
 
Skylab Construction Co.
Material:
 
Budget:
 
Client:
 
Status:
 
Built
Typology:
 
Culture Center

Skylab Architecture designs the N M Bodecker Foundation in Portland, Oregon. The

foundation provides creative communities with a dynamic mix of in-person spaces for
workshops, gathering, and collaboration.

The NM Bodecker Foundation was established in 2017 by Sandy Bodecker to provide

creative communities with a dynamic mix of in-person spaces for workshops, gathering,
and collaboration. Housed in a collection of repurposed 1950s-era warehouses and a
former parking lot in northwest Portland, the Foundation occupies what was originally
conceived as Bodecker’s creative home. Bodecker was inspired by the sense of discovery
that comes from the journey and of seeing things in new ways; his analog was that of a
labyrinth and the building is an embodiment of that idea. 

The warehouses were combined, integrated, and reworked into a shifting mix of exterior
and interior environments. Taking a cue from Gordon Matta Clark’s “Building Cuts,” the
warehouses were cut into and modified while retaining the memory of their historic
boundaries. Peeling back the roof of one and slicing the other, the warehouses were
remixed and fused together with a new central core building. The 7,769-square-foot multi-
story solution blends the past with the future through the interplay of interior spaces
including living areas, as well as a series of informal performance spaces, a state-of-the-
art recording studio, and an indoor skate park.

The build-out includes living roofs and nearly 2,000-square-feet of outdoor yards—a third
of the site kept as green space to manage stormwater and connect the complex with the
natural world. From the street, the rectangular warehouse forms are balanced with
complex prismatic forms to create a rich visual composition.
Following Bodecker’s passing in 2018, the Foundation fully occupied the building,
embracing the unique mix of spaces and making them available to emerging artists and
performers, like-minded organizations, and the collaborative creative community. One of
Bodecker’s goal was to create an environment that inspires openness to explore, learn
and find the unlimited curiosity you once had when you were a kid. The collage of
activities intersect and overlap to inspire a passion for collection, making, and playing. By
developing the program around these ideas, the new multi-story central structure
emerged as the functional core of the foundation. The primary spaces open to each other
at the ground floor with places to make art, record music, perform, and skate. The living
spaces for the artist-in-residence program are stacked above on the second and third
floors, overlooking but still connected to the activity below.