The NM Bodecker Foundation was established in 2017 by Sandy Bodecker to provide creative communities with a dynamic mix of in-person spaces for workshops, gathering, and collaboration. Housed in a collection of repurposed 1950s-era warehouses and a former parking lot in northwest Portland, the Foundation occupies what was originally conceived as Bodecker’s creative home. Bodecker was inspired by the sense of discovery that comes from the journey and of seeing things in new ways; his analog was that of a labyrinth and the building is an embodiment of that idea.
The warehouses were combined, integrated, and reworked into a shifting mix of exterior and interior environments. Taking a cue from Gordon Matta Clark’s “Building Cuts,” the warehouses were cut into and modified while retaining the memory of their historic boundaries. Peeling back the roof of one and slicing the other, the warehouses were remixed and fused together with a new central core building. The 7,769-square-foot multi-story solution blends the past with the future through the interplay of interior spaces including living areas, as well as a series of informal performance spaces, a state-of-the-art recording studio, and an indoor skate park. The build-out includes living roofs and nearly 2,000-square-feet of outdoor yards—a third of the site kept as green space to manage stormwater and connect the complex with the natural world. From the street, the rectangular warehouse forms are balanced with complex prismatic forms to create a rich visual composition.