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Portland, Oregon, USA
Architects: LEVER Architecture and Studio O+A
Client: Adidas North America
Photographers: Jeremy Bittermann and Garrett Rowland 

Following a national design competition, Adidas selected the design team to realize a major expansion of their North American Headquarters. The LEED Gold project enhances Adidas’ Portland, Oregon campus with a new arrival sequence and two signature mass timber buildings. The placement of the two buildings around a new central sports plaza transforms the existing plaza into a more cohesive campus landscape, strengthens connectivity internally between the existing buildings, and alters the landscape connections to the adjoining residential neighborhood. The project is inspired by the dynamism of small stadium environments where spectators and players engage in an active dialogue. The architecture of the two buildings connects creative work, community, and sport.

The program for the 182,000-square-foot Office Building includes a food hall, coffee bar, maker and creative labs, meeting zone, and four levels of open workspace. The 31,000-square-foot Athletic Center is intended to serve as a campus destination for athletic training and community events. Both buildings cantilever over the soccer field, emphasizing views of formal and pick-up matches. On the ground level, the buildings open directly onto the field, integrating diverse public spaces from café seating to places for outdoor training. The overall material palette for both buildings is raw and authentic: exposed concrete, wood, and metal panels that are woven across the façade. Creating a changing play of light and shadow depending on the time of day, the custom metal panels on the Office Building façade mimic how Adidas uses materials in specific ways to create a dynamic appearance with their product designs.

Leveraging the firm’s expertise with timber innovation, the design for the Office Building deploys a unique hybrid structural system made from pre-cast concrete columns and girders with glulam beams and Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) panels. The Athletic Center’s all-mass timber design includes glulam columns and beams with CLT panels. Located over an existing parking garage, the design takes advantage of the lightness of wood to create a larger structure. Mass timber’s warm character, technical innovation, and connection to the regional forestry culture make it an ideal material for a cutting-edge brand with roots in the Northwest.

The project recently achieved LEED Gold v4 certification. Regional mass timber was used as a primary building material because wood is a highly sustainable building material that sequesters carbon and requires less energy to produce compared to other conventional building materials. To reduce energy consumption, the design includes a 10kW and 100kW solar photovoltaic array, exceptional daylighting strategies, and high-performance HVAC systems. Compared with a ASHRAE 90.1-2010 baseline, the Office Building is anticipated to achieve 26% energy cost savings, and 29% for the Athletic Center. Campus planning upgrades are a critical part of the expansion.

The master plan establishes a new intersection and entry point to the campus that terminates at an arrival court and drop-off. Surrounded by existing and new architecture, the courtyard serves as a powerful space of arrival for visitors. The project scope also includes a new 240,000 sf below-grade parking garage, loading facility, and landscape improvements that enhance connectivity and create new outdoor spaces for interaction.