Portland, Oregon, USA
Designed by Bill Waechter and his team at Waechter Architecture, this new showroom in Portland, Oregon highlights the character and quality of the furniture company Blu Dot.
Built within a historic warehouse building the project was designed to preserve the spirit of the existing, while creating a distinct, crafted intervention for the new showroom environment.
At the start of the project, the existing space was a mixture of historic features and an eclectic set of additions.
While the building had a clear underlying organization – characteristic of pre-war warehouse structures – a series of renovations over its lifetime had complicated this clarity, dividing then interior spaces, and disrupting the logic of the exterior.
Rather than try and compete with or overwrite the old with a new identity, our intervention instead attempted to work in concert with the building strategically, creating clear elements that together could bring to light the building’s framework.
Key to this was to first strip back the layers of the space that had accumulated over time to reveal its root structure.
To achieve this, an existing mezzanine was partially demolished to allow daylight into space.
A built-out wing of individual offices that intervened in the once-dominant column grid was removed.
Infilled bays against the main public pedestrian paths were opened up for additional visibility into space.
Programmatically and experientially, the showroom needed to create a calibrated neutrality that wouldn’t compete the rich materiality and color of Blu Dot’s furniture.
Envisioned almost like a crafted object inserted into the building, the intervention sits within the space but is set off from the existing structure.
With a white-washed wood finish that carries from floor to wall, the character of this new form is distinct from, yet in dialogue with the textures and construction of the old. Curved corners act both formally and performatively to differentiate new and old, encouraging movement between the two.
Discretely scaled zones flow into each other, as the curves lead visitors around the perimeters of the space.
The grid of original heavy timber columns becomes highlighted as it touches down within the whitewashed display space, shaping the visitor experience and organization of the display.
Lined with two-inch by two-inch wood battens, the curving walls take on a highly crafted texture.
Three horizontal break lines in the battens track key heights as they move through space, denoting display plinths, door thresholds, and the mezzanine guard rails.
Display areas and storage are further incorporated into its thickness, as are venting and mechanical systems.
Project: Blu Dot Showroom in Portland
Designers: Waechter Architecture
Client: Blu Dot
