Portland architecture firm settles into new digs

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After operating in downtown Portland for 33 years, one architecture firm has moved into another building on the east side of the Willamette River.

Bora Architecture & Interiors is now a tenant in Killian Pacific’s newly renovated Volta Building – part of the Electric Blocks in the Central Eastside. The firm is leasing approximately 15,000 square feet of Class A space in the 39,340-square-foot building. Bora designed both the $7.7 million core-and-shell renovation and its own $2.2 million tenant improvement.

Bora had previously occupied space in the historic Morgan Building.

“We had long planned for a move to a new location that supported our primary goal for improved design collaboration in a single, contiguous studio, and which reflected our firm’s focus on carbon, health and equity,” John O’Toole, managing principal of Bora, stated in a press release.

The Electric Blocks are a collection of office buildings owned by Killian Pacific. Bora’s office, which includes 1,500 square feet of outdoor space, is at 1705 S.E. Third Ave. Leases are being sought for two other spaces in the Volta Building.

“Our design interventions overall were kept to a minimum and done purposefully to create quality workspace with balanced daylight, maximizing views, and outdoor space,” Bora principal Jeanie Lai stated in an email.

This included replacing the building’s tall windows with taller ones, adding two roof monitors, reorienting existing ones to face north to reduce glare, and creating outdoor space by inserting a new enclosure that extends the width of the building at the west end. A new glass entry bay at the northeast corner has a cantilevered mass-timber roof. It was conceived as an extension of the street and offers universal accessibility.

The design strategy for Bora’s office was to integrate architecture, interiors, furniture, art and graphics. Bora wanted the space to be a workshop, where the firm could test concepts and challenge its own norms, according to Lai.

“Emphasizing an open working environment where our staff can all be in one ‘big room,’ we created choice and variety for respite and work with reconfigurable casework throughout,” she stated.

The office includes a design lab as well as open space to accommodate project design meetings, staff meetings and community activities.

A limited palette of materials was used to preserve the building’s character evident in original old-growth timber trusses. Few new materials were introduced in the space and interior finishes – including domestically sourced plywood, PVC-free carpeting, and acoustical panels – were chosen without items on the International Living Future Institute’s Red List.

Careful consideration by Killian Pacific ensured its sustainability values would be recognized throughout Volta. The all-electric building was designed to hold healthy indoor workspace and achieve a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design platinum rating. Key sustainability measures include ample daylighting, a tight thermal envelope with fiberglass windows, high-performance building systems, and electric-vehicle charging.

“Electricity demand will be provided by photovoltaic panels installed on adjacent (Killian Pacific) buildings, making Volta a net-zero energy building,” Lai stated.

Reuse of the building’s structure, timber framing and all-electric mechanical system gives Volta a low carbon footprint, she added.

Bora’s office space has refrigerant-free cooling with high-volume/low-speed ceiling fans that de-stratify heated air in the winter and expand the comfort range in the summer, PVC-free cabling, vacancy sensors (in enclosed spaces) that turn off lighting in the absence of movement, daylight sensors (in main studio space) that adjust lighting according to the amount of daylight available, and extensive interior plants to promote indoor air quality.

Bora is seeking zero-carbon certification from the International Living Future Institute for its office space.

Turner Construction was the general contractor for the core and shell part of the project. Fortis Construction built out the office space/ interiors. Construction of the core-and-shell renovation began in September 2021 and finished in June 2022. Construction of Bora’s office began in July 2022 and finished in February.