Bridgetown Bites - Lei Brilla Will Open in NW Portland

“The person behind Lei Brilla is Riley Riotto, a yoga instructor with experience in digital media marketing—something valuable for an entrepreneur. She calls opening this cafe “the next journey in life,” and posted the highly personal origin story on her Instagram page: “The meaning of Lei Brilla comes from the heart. My father has texted me ‘Shine’ every day since I was a sophomore in college. In my late teens to early twenties, I was navigating my way through life with trying to find that all-encompassing light within me that my father reminded me every day to find. Living in Portland for the past 4 years, I have found myself in more ways than one. I have found peace and my home in this city, amongst friends and my community.” She explains that “Lei Brilla” means “she shines” in Italian.”

Anticipated opening on October 5th!

oregon live - Portland building once famous for its purple octopus and code violations will become music venue and jazz club

“We’re trying to create this music block where people can come down to that corner and have the opportunity to go to three or four different music venues,” he said. It’s also across from the unused (and unusually shaped) Washington Center building, which got a reputation as an open air drug market during the height of the pandemic. Since then, fencing has gone up around the space, police have cracked down on activity there, and Pfeifer is optimistic for the area’s future. “Maybe this is the thing that pushes someone else who’s thinking about developing (in that area) over the edge,” he said. “’Hey, if they’re doing it, we’re doing it.’”

PORTLAND BUSINESS JOURNAL - LONG-VACANT GREEK CUSINA IN DOWNTOWN PORTLAND TO BECOME ART AND MUSIC VENUE

Pfeifer is planning a music venue on the main floor that could hold around 200 people. It is called 400, in a nod to the building address 404-418 S.W. Washington. In the basement he is planning a jazz club with a speakeasy vibe that could seat between 80 to 125 people depending on final layout design. That club is called Corbitt & Macleay, a nod to the original builder and the first grocer in town to import alcohol, said Pfeifer.

As downtown has become more active, Pfeifer said he has seen a shift from the city and others in envisioning a future that isn’t wholly focused on return-to-office as the way to draw people in. “We have four floors of office above us. Does that become activated art space? Is it an art gallery or recording studio? Can we have a Nashville kind of thing (with) a building dedicated to music and art?” he said. “What is fun and interesting is it can really be anything at this point.”

KOIN6 - Largest Habitat for Humanity project planned for Southwest Portland

“Work is starting on Habitat for Humanity’s largest affordable housing community in Portland, which will be built in the Hillsdale neighborhood. Gooseberry Trails will include 52 homes built on 5 acres purchased at a steep discount from the Greater Portland Bible Church in Southwest Portland. When completed, the project will house over 185 people. It will be built on the church’s lower parking lot and some adjacent land, and will include a play area and retain most of a natural area that buffers the property from a nearby busy street.”

Portland Art Museum - PAM CUT announces Tomorrow Theater’s opening programming

“The Portland Art Museum’s film and new media center, PAM CUT // Center for an Untold Tomorrow, is thrilled to announce the opening of the Tomorrow Theater, a new space devoted to expanding what constitutes cinema, art, and multimedia storytelling. The 250-seat Tomorrow Theater will open its doors to the public on November 3, 2023, with programming designed to inspire and surprise audiences and artists no longer content to be contained to a single medium, label, or art form.”

OREGON LIVE - Restore Oregon’s 2023 preservation award winners rescued, revitalized these historic places

“The nonprofit Restore Oregon organization has selected 14 projects across the state to receive a 2023 DeMuro Award for Excellence, the state’s highest honor for the preservation, reuse and revitalization of architectural and cultural sites.” We’re honored to say the Pickle Factory is one of them! Check it out and take a look at the other winning projects!

OREGON LIVE - Former Portland X-rated movie house gets a makeover as PAM CUT’s Tomorrow Theater multimedia space

Osmose Design, Portland Art Museum’s Center for an Untold Tomorrow (PAM CUT) interiors team, has integrated callbacks to the theater’s infamous past to live on in it’s new life as the Tomorrow Theater. The space will invite “artists and audiences to experience cinema and new media, with planned screenings, exhibitions, performances and interactive programs” and is set to open this fall!

THE NEW SCHOOL - First look at Duality Brewing / Astral PDX; New NE Portland brewpub with a culinary spirit

Holding down the SE corner in the newly completed Atomic Garage, Duality Brewing has partnered with Astral to deliver delicious eats and craft beer to the neighborhood. Open now!

BRIDGETOWN BITES - The Heist Food Cart Pod to Open in Woodstock This Spring

We’re breathing new life into the old US Bank building off of Woodstock by renovating the interior as a bar and seating hall for well over a dozen new food carts! Keep your eyes out for the opening announcement!

Portland Architects - Top Restaurant Architects and Designers

Brett Schulz Architect named one of Portland’s Top Architects for restaurants!

Portland Business Journal - 12 real estate developments that will transform Portland in 2023

Jolene’s First Cousin - transitional housing Success

Success stories let us know we’re heading the right direction. Check out these interviews with one newly housed resident and work JOIN has done to get people housed, as well as Kevin Cavanaugh talking about his drive to be part of the housing solution.

Milwaukie City Hall to become brewery, restaurant

Brett Schulz has teamed up with Henry Point Development and Owen Gabbert LLC to breathe new life into the Milwaukie City Hall building. This adaptive reuse will include a brewery, restaurant, bakery and community art and office space in the center of downtown.

BRIDGELINER - DREAMING BIG, THINKING SMALL

Brett Schulz talks about Portland’s housing crisis and how SRO’s (Single Room Occupancies) can help get folks off the street and into stable housing, as well as how first time homebuyer programs with partners like Portland Community Reinvestment Initiatives (PCRI) is helping build generational wealth through homeownership.

KGW NEWS CHANNEL 8 - evening news feature

Ben Carr gave KGW a tour of the building and Gary Trottier of Proteck Construction shared some insight on what it takes to put a project like together. Here’s a hint: it takes lots of teamwork!

tHE aRCHITECT’S nEWSPAPER - OPEN REPORT ON TREE FARM

One of our favorite national publications on architecture included Tree Farm in the February 2020 issue.

WILLAMETTE WEEK - 32 REASONS TO LOVE PORTLAND RIGHT NOW

We’re thrilled that The Tree Farm was included in this thoughtful, quirky list!

Portland Monthly - The Tree Farm Is a Wild New Office Building

The war against boring architecture!

We’re doing our part, are you?

Trees for Life - Designing for Trees

A new landmark along Portland’s Morrison Bridge brings new life and a splash of color to the Inner Eastside.

DJC Seattle - Tree Farm

The Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce recently talked with our own Ben Carr about the design process to get approval for Tree Farm - a new commercial building covered in strawberry trees.

Spoiler — it’s not easy.

Eater - Rocket Empire Machine

Check out some recent press for our adaptive reuse project Rocket Empire Machine (REM), located in the Montavilla neighborhood!

Food, drinks & good times — coming soon.

DJC Oregon - Tree Farm

Read the latest coverage of Tree Farm in DJC Oregon’s daily newspaper.

Project delivery expected end of October — stay tuned!

Featured profile in Portland Architecture

Journalist and author Brian Libby sits down with Ben Carr to discuss Portland architecture, shared visions and unique beginnings.

Canopy stories Panel Discussion Featuring Ben Carr

Come see our very own Ben Carr on the panel discussing our upcoming project Tree Farm — part of Canopy Stories, a 12 film anthology about people, place, and trees in Portland.

When: July 10th @ 7pm

Where: Cinema 21

BRIDGELINER - PORTLAND HAS A BIG HOUSING PROBLEM. BRETT SCHULZ IS THINKING SMALL.

dwell magazine - 10 best designed places to eat and drink in portland oregon

“THIS PORTLAND BUILDING WILL BE COVERED IN actual TREES”

Fifty-six conical custom steel tree planters—each weighing as much as a Cadillac Escalade—will be bolted to the Tree Farm’s four sides between its 10-by-10-foot upper-story windows, creating a checkerboard pattern.

WILLAMETTE WEEK - BEST OF 2018 - nEW nEW cRUSHER COURT 

 Portland’s very own ‘secret garden’…

STAR NEWS - JANE DOUGH

Jane Dough building will be kneaded into Cully Community, a project heralded to benefit the community for years to come...