The Killingsworth Project Named Winner

June 28, 2022

The Architect’s Newspaper

The United States Forest Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Oregon City, Oregon-based Softwood Lumber Board (SLB) have announced the six winning proposals in the $2 million design competition, Mass Timber Competition: Building to Net-Zero Carbon. The winning submissions—all of which “exemplified capabilities to design and construct mass timber buildings in the U.S. that are repeatable and scalable”—were revealed at a press conference held last week at the 2022 AIA Conference on Architecture in Chicago. Hartshorne Plunkard Architects, ZGF Architects, and LEVER Architecture are just a handful of firms that comprised the winning project teams. Not surprisingly, Pacific Northwest-based projects dominate the list, joined by winning submissions for mass timber efforts in Ohio, New York, and Colorado.

Killingsworth is a three story 18,780-square-foot building, which is exclusively used as a creative office space. Amenities include bike parking and showers, and expansive terraces and ground floor courtyard. Located in Northeast Portland’s King neighborhood, the project site is three and a half miles from Downtown Portland, Oregon. The King neighborhood sits within the historic greater Albina neighborhood of Portland, the home of a thriving African American community post World War II.

The area suffered from many of Portland’s discriminatory lending practices, including redlining, which contributed to the lack of investment in the neighborhood for the latter half of the 20th century. Given this, the site falls within the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) HUBZone which is intended to fuel small business growth in a historically underutilized zone.

The project is intended to create an inclusive work environment and to house businesses that value diversity, equity, and community wellness. The project will promote social equity with a goal of 30 percent of the subcontractors building the project to be BIPOC- and women-owned businesses.

Additionally, the development team has a goal of 50 percent of the project’s equity obtained from women and/or people of color. The goal of this structural design is to prove out the rocking shear wall system and become a demonstration project of how this advanced technology can exceed code and provide a cost-effective seismic solution for buildings between three and 12 stories.