REED COLLEGE ACADEMIC BUILDING
PORTLAND, OREGON

Project Type
Higher Education
Project Designer
John Lockwood Carhart
Architect of Record
ZGF Architects, Portland

   The new Academic Building at Reed College in Portland was designed to accommodate a variety of administrative functions such as admissions, career services, the deans office, faculty offices as well as several large multi-purpose classrooms. The most exciting design opportunity was to create a building that would fit seamlessly into the context of traditional campus buildings while still being tastefully modern in its architectural expression. The building forms a strong edge to an existing campus quadrangle and incorporates the materials found throughout the campus such as red brick, stone lintels and wood windows. Traditional shapes and forms are pared down, simplified and subtly abstracted, so that a modern yet timeless
quality was achieved.

   The building area is approximately 8,000 sf per floor with a total building area of 32,000 sf. There are a total of 4 stories including a daylit basement. Although the first traditionally-styled buiding that John has designed, it is regarded by many as one of the most sophisticated and subtle campus building proposals within the ZGF portfolio.