Reno, Nevada, USA
Symbols are potent identifiers of a world, city, culture, or era. They often exemplify the best aspects of the people they represent, both in the ways that a culture identifies itself and in defining how the world sees that culture. The most profound symbols are those that move beyond a landmark’s strong formal qualities to be active participants in transformation.
The Portal won an 2025 International Architecture Award from The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.
The Portal represents a unique and rare opportunity to offer a deeply immersive and participative experience that will be a platform to not only symbolize and define but also facilitate the co-creation of a new era for humanity. On the broadest level, the project’s mission is to demonstrate, test, and experiment with agency for change. The Portal creates a platform to engage the world about the human condition, to foster a sense of community, to develop the fundamental need for humanity to care about each other, and as a result, to co-create solutions to the wide range of problems the world faces.
This project embraces the unprecedented opportunity of the Metaverse and the intersection of virtual and physical realms. It shapes the future on a global scale, leveraging this fusion to redefine experiences and foster transformative change.
The Portal is a transportation hub with physical spaces for a Conference Center, Hotel, Experience Center with Retail and Restaurants, Arboretum, Viewing Space, and Residential Units.
Visitors are transported to different worlds (the Metaverse) via personalized journeys within the immersive Portal. The Portal’s transportive experiences are achieved through physical and virtual layers. Each layer is designed to evolve and adapt, absorbing new content, new technology, and even new purpose.
The building concept is for the Portal to act as a living laboratory for emerging technologies. In the space between the inner and outer walls, there is room for a variety of infrastructure. Water is recycled locally to feed irrigation and central cooling plants. An energy vault uses compressed air and gravity energy storage. A food wall recycles food waste and generates healthy soil, including traditional systems and state-of-the-art hydroponics.
The Portal is an active catalyst for the transformation of generations of visitors. A major presence in the Metaverse, it is an immersive storytelling experience and an inspiring educational platform that articulates the potential of sustainable urban living. It offers a unique journey into future communities, transforming visitors into informed advocates for a global life, work, and play ethos.
Architects: Form4 Architecture
Design Team: John Marx, James Tefend, and Jongho Park
Client: Regenesis Reno
Photographers: Renderings by Form4 Architecture, Downtown, and Teapot Collective
