Portland-based Works Partnership Architecture is what 'works' for

It's easy to make the mistaken assumption that Works Partnership Architecture is developer Brad Malsin's personal design firm. Malsin makes the mistake himself.

Since forming in February, the three-person Works has landed architectural responsibilities on the redevelopment of two Malsin- owned Central Eastside properties, the B&O and Water Avenue commerce centers, and would have done similar work on a third had Malsin been tabbed to lead redevelopment efforts on the Portland Development Commission's Burnside Bridgehead project. The design firm is also Malsin's architect on a hotel in the coastal town of Wheeler, and Works performed minor design duties on Malsin's overhaul of Harrison Court, a 19th-century apartment complex along the Streetcar line in downtown Portland.

Malsin and one of Works' three principals, Carrie Schilling, are long-time friends, so when Schilling broke from DiLoreto Architecture to form Works with former Opsis Architecture designers Brett Crawford and Bill Neburka, the developer jumped at the chance to employ the services of three creative, younger architects in- house.

Wait, not in-house, said Malsin, laughing, amused at what's probably a mistake he's made on numerous occasions. More like next door. But it feels like (they work) in-house sometimes - they've done so much for me.

Even before the Burnside Bridgehead bid process, Malsin made a name for himself through the rehabilitation - but not necessarily preservation - of several 100-year-old buildings on both sides of the Willamette River.

His goal on those projects - to blend modern, effective design flourishes with the buildings' ancient bones - made a partnership with Works sensible, Schilling said. Malsin's redevelopment values, she said, mesh perfectly with Works' stated mission of adapted use, not historic preservation.

It's not so much historic preservation, Schilling said, it's more about utilizing existing building stock for current, progressive uses. It's not so much about restoring particular details. It's about understanding the importance of what's there without being restricted to that. This isn't historic preservation; adaptive reuse has more to do with taking what's there and moving it forward.

For the B&O and Water Avenue commerce centers, adaptive reuse means finding utilities for downtrodden buildings that don't currently engage Central Eastside residents, said Crawford, one of the two former Opsis designers. But, said Neburka, the other former Opsis employee, that's accomplished through minimalism and not doing too much, rather than by adding features or better defining interior spaces.

Malsin decided that, in each building's case, the utility most needed by the Central Eastside was affordable work space for young artists. So Crawford, Neburka and Schilling are designing friendlier facelifts for the properties but leaving the insides practically untouched, allowing future tenants, instead of the architects, to choose their look and feel.

These buildings were built almost as open-matrix buildings - they're warehouse buildings, Neburka said. All we're doing is adding the services to allow those buildings to function. Work space isn't necessarily Class-A office space. What (artists) are really looking for is basic, raw space that then can be used however they want to use it.

Malsin isn't the only developer employing Works at the moment. The firm is aiding the developers Thad Fisco and John Kellogg on the second of two redevelopments at the intersection of North Williams Avenue and Failing Street (the first will be the future home of the Old Lompoc brewery and a ReBuilding Center off-shoot). And it's teamed with Schilling's old employer, Chris DiLoreto, to design what will become the Lorlin Condos at Northeast 20th Avenue and Everett Street, where DiLoreto has half-ownership of the property. But Malsin is still the designers' No. 1 employer, and they hope the relationship stays that way.

I've always loved working with him, said Schilling. His approach is so much different from the typical developer approach - and it's so much like ours.

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