30 million Uzbeks can’t be wrong

30 million Uzbeks can’t be wrong

As part of my participation on the Advisory Board of First Stop Portland, I am occasionally asked to meet with visitors or public officials who have come to Portland to learn from our experience. First Stop Portland is run through Portland State University and their mission “To Connect Global Leaders with Local Innovators” translates into well-run densely packed tours.

Recently I had the great experience of meeting with three TV journalists from Tashkent, Uzbekistan who were visiting Portland to document stories on “ecological advances in the US.” Uzbekistan lies at the heart of the Central Asia — one of only two doubly-landlocked countries in the world (the other is Liechtenstein) and a gateway to Iran and Afghanistan. Uzbekistan also happens to be one of the most environmentally degraded countries in the world. Decades of questionable Soviet policies in pursuit of greater cotton production have resulted in a catastrophic situation. The Aral Sea used to be the fourth-largest inland sea on Earth but has now shrunk to less than 50% of its former area.

Meeting in Ankeny Square on a very rainy and windy afternoon, my role in this tour (which was conducted with a Russian translator) was to highlight Portland’s urban landscape innovations in green building and urban design which contribute to our very livable and walkable city. I shared the story of the Mercy Corps Global Headquarters as a catalyst for neighborhood redevelopment and also the transformation of Tom McCall Waterfront Park from a highway separating Portland from its river to a playground for many of our civic and cultural gatherings.

The resulting documentary from this tour will be shown to 30 million cable television viewers in Uzbekistan later this year to inspire environmental stewardship as a key to quality of life.

Photo from First Stop Portland

Published on June 25, 2013 10:31 am.
Filed under: Community Tags: community, first stop portland, mercy corps

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1253

What Pro Bono Work Has Taught Us

by Audrey Alverson

Pro bono architecture: Why do we do it?

Hacker has long been a signatory of the 1+ Program, which challenges designers to dedicate 1% or more of their time to pro bono service – but through trial and error over the years, we often found it challenging to bring this work to fruition. After a few fits and starts, and some mostly small-scale projects and studies, last year we decided to put some teeth to our commitment to pro bono service. Through this process, we’ve learned that the problem was never a lack of desire or good intentions, but more so a lack of planning.

Published on January 27, 2017 10:39 am.
Filed under: Design, Community, Practice Tags: 1+ program, WSCAT, architecture, community, pro bono, small business incubator, warm springs, warm springs community action team, warm springs reservation

1245

Nurturing Growth in Lents Town Center

by Garrett Martin

On Sunday October 23^rd of last year, we joined Bremik Construction and the Portland Development Commission to strike golden shovels into the ground and begin construction on the 9101 SE Foster project, a mixed-use multi-family building in the heart of Lents Town Center.

Published on January 6, 2017 11:56 am.
Filed under: Design, Community, Sustainability Tags: lents town center, multi-family housing, portland development commission, portland housing boom, portland housing bureau

1237

Why Hacker Started Paying for Parental Leave

by Sarah Bell

This year, Hacker implemented a new paid parental leave policy, covering six weeks at full salary for birth mothers and about four and ½ weeks full salary for a spouse of the parent who gives birth (adoptive parents get the same). This is in addition to the flexible paid time off granted to every Hacker employee.

Published on December 13, 2016 2:17 pm.
Filed under: Community, Practice Tags: employee benefits, family leave, maternity leave, missing 32%, parental leave, paternity leave

1214

A Saturday with Lou

by Scott Barton-Smith

Nearly half of the Hacker team caravanned north to attend the final day of the Bellevue Arts Museum’s retrospective Louis Kahn: The Power of Architecture on April 30th. Although the exhibit includes video interviews of notable architects enthusing Kahn’s work, we had a more interactive guide. Our firm founder Thom Hacker gave us a personalized tour of the exhibit, which includes several projects on which Thom collaborated with his mentor “Lou.” The exhibit features many models and drawings prepared by Kahn’s office spanning projects from the Esherick House to more well know works like The Salk Institute, The Kimbell Art Museum, and the National Assembly Building in Dhaka. The exhibit even includes a full scale reproduction of the famous window seat designed for the Fisher house. Much of this material has not seen the light of day since Kahn’s death and it is remarkable that the large yet delicate cardboard, clay, and wood models survived.

Published on May 17, 2016 11:26 am.
Filed under: Community, Practice Tags: Belleveue Arts Museum, Louis Kahn, thom hacker

1198

University of Wyoming Visual Arts Facility Wins COTE Award

by Nic Smith

Hacker is a proud recipient of a 2016 AIA COTE Top Ten Green Projects award for University of Wyoming’s Visual Arts Facility (VAF), a pioneering LEED Platinum facility that has shaped a new approach to health, safety, and sustainability in arts education. The 80,000-SF building consolidates the University’s fine arts program from its scattered locations, establishing a central component of the campus’s new arts district. It also marks a turning point in the campus’s thinking about environmental responsibility. Read more

Published on April 22, 2016 7:50 am.
Filed under: Design, Education, Performance, Sustainability Tags: COTE, aia, sustainability, sustainable design, university of wyoming, visual arts

1188

From the Vaults: High Desert Museum

by Sarah Bell

When the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Central Oregon’s New Home had its dedication last year, I drove to Bend for the day with my two youngest boys, who were both under 5 years old. I arrived several hours before the dedication with both boys needing to expend energy built up over the 3-hour car ride. Not having planned on it, I took them to the High Desert Museum – not because I wanted to show them a Hacker building, but because I knew it would wear them out.

Published on February 17, 2016 11:01 am.
Filed under: Design, Community Tags: bend oregon, corey martin, don kerr, high desert museum, thom hacker, unitarian universalist fellowship of central oregon, walker macy

1183

Designing for Design Schools: What type of collaboration space works?

by Becca Cavell

We’re excited to be working right now with UC Davis on the renovation of the north wing of Cruess Hall – a rather industrial 1950s building that will house screening rooms, labs, and maker spaces for the Cinema & Digital Media and Industrial Design programs. Some of these spaces will be quite industrial themselves, and seem a fitting use for the currently vacant building. As we begin to look for case studies to inform our work, our client shared this video from Stanford’s D-School, showing 10 days in the life of the D’s central collaboration space. It’s time-lapse, and takes just four minutes to view – and it demonstrates how a very utilitarian space can be the beating heart of an institution if you plan it right, furnish it right, and relax a bit.

Published on January 7, 2016 3:08 pm.
Filed under: Design, Education Tags: UC Davis, collaboration space, cruess hall, design, furnishing, industrial design, stanford

1161

Denny Hall Finally Gets Its Due

by Stephanie Shradar

At the University of Washington, Denny Hall has been awaiting revitalization for nearly a decade. During that time, Hacker has been working on and off again to get UW the final product. The project has gone through funding stalls and starts; the design firm has gone through two name changes; and the building has patiently awaited its new core.

Published on October 22, 2015 11:17 am.
Filed under: Design Tags: Denny Hall, Restore the Core, historic renovation, university of washington

1148

Hacker is Carbon Neutral

by Sarah Post-Holmberg

Hacker was founded on the idea that architecture should be in service to community. For over three decades the firm has designed enduring spaces that inspire people to contribute to positive cultural change. This guiding vision extends beyond humanity to encompass the natural world and the diversity of species it supports. Over the years, Hacker has developed an aesthetic for buildings that interact dynamically with their surroundings and make humble use of the earth’s resources. Through research, conference engagement, and continuing education, we continue to refine our design process, detailing, and material choices to reflect our priority of preserving the well-being of all life systems on our planet.

Published on October 13, 2015 1:56 pm.
Filed under: Performance, Practice, Sustainability Tags: carbon neutral, climate smart, transportation

1139

Building Community: PCC Cascade’s New Student Union

by Nick Hodges

As higher-education institutions rapidly adapt their curricula and campuses to accommodate new models of learning, the line between places for studying and socializing, learning and leisure time has become blurred, to say the least. We’ve written about how that transition has prompted big changes in the conception and design of libraries, but it’s also led colleges and universities to reconsider the traditional role of the student union.

Published on September 28, 2015 3:22 pm.
Filed under: Design, Community, Education Tags: PCC Cascade, architecture, design, portland, student union

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