Do Something About It!

Annual newsletter about our public interest design work

In 2019 Salazar Architect grew substantially and sharpened its focus. We now have 16 staff and last month marked our 13th year anniversary at a time when the world is regressing across so many fields, from politics and immigrant rights to the environment and public health. So, I want to share with you, in this annual newsletter, our excitement about working with community based developers, planners, contractors and consultants to push back and do something about it!

In January 2020 we held our annual kickoff and challenged staff to dream big, looking ahead 10 years to understand our values and direction. It was heartening to hear our team being so thoughtful, engaged and in sync! Over the last month we reorganized into three Design Labs (Community, Wellbeing & Sustainability) that give focus to our knowledge and excitement about creating innovative work. Staff now invest around 10% of their time (over 3,000 hours per year as a firm) on activities that advance our public interest design mission. Each Lab will document and develop best practices, review and give input on design work, attend conferences and trainings, and take on pro-bono work with community-based organizations.  

It has taken 13 years of hard work, dedicated skills and a lot of luck to be at this moment. We are grateful to everyone along the way who helped us survive the Great Recession, grow to take on larger scale work and now thrive in Portland. Read below to hear more about what we are up to. While our firm’s work is just starting to be recognized (Vibrant! recently won two design awards, Rethinking The Future and an IDA), it is a bitter-sweet moment releasing this newsletter at a moment when political-economic and health care systems are under increasing strain. As founding Principal of Salazar Architect my role is to do something about it, by creating a firm culture and capacity that supports progressive, community-based clients who are on the front lines of change.  

Sincerely,

Alex Salazar, AIA
Design Principal

Community Design Lab

While we are a private practice, Salazar Architect grew out of the non-profit Community Design field with many completed and ongoing developments. Our current work includes Las Adelitas for Hacienda CDC which is on track to submit for construction permits in a few months! Our Small Homes NW affordable ADU development, for a group of community-based non-profits (Hacienda, PCRI, Rose and Verde) funded by Meyer Memorial Trust, is picking up steam as we head toward breaking ground in the Summer. We recently launched a large-scale community design process for Fourth Plain Community Commons, a major new affordable TOD / mixed-use development for the City of Vancouver / VHA. The renovation of Cascadian Terrace for Community Development Partners wrapped up early in the year, which went through a community design process a few years ago. And we just heard that we won Portland Community College's Facilities Planning Phase II as a consultant to Walker Macy! In the coming months we will be researching the intersection of Critical Race Theory and planning design while collaborating on visioning the future of PCC campuses.

Wellbeing Design Lab

Jennifer Nye, Associate Principal, is leading our Wellbeing Design Lab along with several staff who have backgrounds in this area. We aim to consolidate and refine our knowledge about Trauma Informed, Wellness, Biophilic and other related design approaches. The Lab will review our completed Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) developments including Vibrant!, Community Housing Partnership HQ and Williams Plaza (coming soon!) to understand what worked well and how to fine-tune our design methodology. The Lab will also be involved in design reviews of our current PSH developments, including Dahlke Manor, Mutual Housing on 46th Street, Mutual on the Boulevard and Las Adelitas.  It is an exciting time in the firm as we focus design research into built work!

Interior image credit: © Lara Swimmer, 2019

Sustainable Design Lab

Matt Bokar, Senior Associate, is leading our Sustainable Design Lab, along with staff who are specialized in the field. We aim to fundamentally transform how we do design work, integrating sustainable principles from concept through construction. To make rapid strides Salazar Architect joined the AIA 2030 challenge which prioritizes holistic, data driven design to create high-performance buildings. Our first pilot project is the Mutual Family Arts & Education Center in Sacramento, CA, which we are doing on a pro-bono basis. Portland State University architecture students from the Research Based Design Initiative helped with the initial analysis to reach Zero Net Energy. We are also thrilled to announce that our staff, Emily Waldinger, was awarded an Energy Trust of Oregon 2020 Net Zero Emerging Leaders grant to support the transformation of our firm!