Portland State University’s new first-year residence hall will bring approximately 525 students to a prominent site between the South Park Blocks and Oak Savanna. This presentation will explore the design of the building through the lens of architecture, place, and the project’s response to its unique campus and urban context.
The design reimagines student housing as both a home for first-year students and an active participant in the life of the university. Particular attention is given to the building’s relationship with the ground plane—the first 30 feet—where architecture, landscape, student life, and the public realm come together. An open and active ground floor, resident courtyard, and large front porch facing the South Park Blocks create a series of thresholds between private residential life, the campus, and the city.
The presentation will also examine how the building’s architectural expression developed from the landscapes of Cascadia, translating ideas of layering, texture, density, movement, and verticality into its massing, materiality, and facade. Together, these strategies seek to create a building that is distinctly of its place while supporting belonging, community, and a new residential experience at Portland State.
About the Speaker
Michael is an Associate Principal and licensed architect at GBD Architects in Portland, where his passion for design, mentorship, and visual communication informs his work leading design and client engagement across projects. Across his 12 years at GBD, Michael’s work has spanned multiple typologies, including mixed-use development, housing, office, and now student housing.
Michael has a longstanding connection to Portland State University. He lived on campus while attending PSU and is a graduate of both the undergraduate and graduate architecture programs in the School of Architecture. That experience brought a personal perspective to the design of PSU’s new student housing building, returning him to a campus that played an important role in his own development as a designer and architect while helping shape the residential experience for a new generation of students.
What is Friday@1?
On most Fridays at 1 p.m. during the academic term, PSU School of Architecture students and faculty gather to hear from professional designers and architects, academics, visiting artists, innovators, and students in the program. Friday@1 is a perfect way to wrap up each week of intense creativity in the studio and get inspired for the productive weekend ahead.
Free and open to the public. All are welcome.