The Powell Family in partnership with the Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) is set to build ArtHouse, a new student community on the North Park Blocks in Portland, Oregon. The location of ArtHouse, the former Powell’s Technical Bookstore, has been dormant for the last two years. The new 7-story, 55,000 square feet building will operate as art on different scales: from building as art, designed by Thomas Robinson, to spaces that showcase art, to places to make art. ‘Light’ is the material and medium used to shape the form of the building, starting with a plan suffused with daylight at every level- including the internal circulation, the articulation of the facade, and an open and transparent experience along the streetscape. The building will target LEED Gold certification and will look for innovative ways to convey sustainability to its resident population.
 

Thomas Robinson’s interview with Portland Architecture 
Article in The Oregonian 
Article in The Daily Journal of Commerce

We are thrilled to announce that LEVER Architecture has been recognized with a 2011 AIA Honor Award in Portland for the Glendale Animation Studio and Campus project. This is the highest award that the AIA Portland Chapter bestows and we feel fortunate to have received one in the early years of our practice We had the opportunity to talk to members of the jury after the ceremony, and they were very enthusiastic about the work, especially the use of daylighting in the main space and the complete transformation of the existing warehouse building.
 
AIA Honor Award

The University of Michigan Museum of Art has been recognized as one of ten projects worldwide with the 2011 American Institute of Architects (AIA) Honor Award for Architecture, the profession’s highest recognition of works that exemplify excellence. LEVER Principal and Founder Thomas Robinson attended the Awards Ceremony at the 2011 AIA Convention in New Orleans. Thomas was the Project Lead on the UMMA project for 6 years, and played a key role in realizing the project while a Principal at Allied Works Architecture in Portland, Oregon.
 
UMMA wins 2011 AIA Honor Award 
UMMA receives major architecture award 
University of Michigan Museum of Art’s $42M makeover opens to public on Saturday