Fair-Haired Dumbbell

Work

The Fair-Haired Dumbbell “stands out as embodying Portland’s knack for keeping things weird…”

July 2016 New York Times article

Fair-Haired Dumbbell: Challenging the development status-quo

This six-story, two-winged, mixed-use office building project, for which its name is known, makes a bold statement in downtown Portland. The project façade features wrap-around art by Los Angeles artist James Jean with the building comprised of rarely used Type IV construction. The upper five floors, which serve as office and co-working spaces, are framed with glulam beams, glulam columns and T&G decking as the floor system. Below, one level of post-tensioned concrete houses retail space.

Both building wings are square in shape and grow in footprint with each level due to flaring walls and leaning columns.

Location:

Portland, Oregon

Square Feet:

56,389

Stories:

Service:

Structural

Industries:

Commercial, Mass Timber

Primary Material:

Wood

Project Highlights

Both building wings, which are connected by sky bridges on the upper five levels, perform independently as two separate buildings.
First crowd-funded building project in the State of Oregon
A heavy timber post-and-beam perimeter avoids a two-hour fire rating for the walls, as well as increasing the ductility in the event of an earthquake