Bodecker Foundation

Client: The N M Bodecker Foundation

Location: Portland, Oregon

Size: 7,769 sq ft.

Awards:

2018 Architizer | A+Awards Popular Choice Winner in the Architecture + Collaboration Category

2018 Portland Architecture Awards | Merit Award

Purpose built for playing, making, and collaboration of all types.

Skylab worked with Sandy Bodecker to select and salvage two existing buildings in the NW Portland neighborhood.

Skylab started a construction company to build the design vision.

The N M Bodecker Foundation is a creative house balancing both natural and built environments. At it’s core, the space inspires action and activity.

Its purpose built for playing, making, and collaboration of all types.

Inspired by Gordon Matta Clark’s iconic “Building Cuts,” two existing warehouses (totaling 9500sf), were cut into and modified. Peeling back the roof of one and slicing into the other, the warehouses are remixed, repurposed and fused with the new building’s geometric pinwheel framework creating a space that seamlessly blends the old and new.

Materials from the existing warehouse structure were repurposed into new components of the creative house. New construction blends with the old structure, maintaining traces of its history.

From performance hall, to indoor skate park, to an outdoor fire pit, these unique zones all inspire meaningful communication and thoughtful sharing of ideas. This type of open creative process is at the heart of why the N M Bodecker Foundation was built.

The program tells Sandy’s story by overlapping and connecting creative arts. Designing the acoustic quality of spaces for recording and experience was a critical aspect of the design.

About the N M Bodecker Foundation

The N M Bodecker Foundation provides creative communities with an extraordinary and energetic gathering place for workshops, mentoring, and collaboration. Their immersive program experiences for middle and high school students are designed to empower creative youth to imagine and achieve their artistic, educational, and professional dreams.

Learn more at www.bodeckerfound.org