Holst Headquarters

Our new office on the third floor of the Eastside Exchange building fits the way we work. In what was originally an awkward U-shaped plan broken up into separate office suites, we envisioned an open office that facilitates collaboration and maintains intimate workstation “neighborhoods” without hierarchy. Working within the historic building’s twenty-foot bay width, each six foot wide workstation maintains close access to daylight and views of downtown Portland or the burgeoning Burnside Bridgehead neighborhood.

The material approach for the interiors takes cues from the industrial quality of the former warehouse building. A raw but refined aesthetic combines clear-coated steel, plywood, and a greyscale palette contrasted with plentiful greenery and sunlight throughout—and sets an appropriate, durable, sustainable, and long-lasting background for our work and daily activities to take center stage.

Four conference rooms of various sizes, along with a phone room, privacy room, library, and large open kitchen provide a plethora of spaces for formal and informal meetings of all sizes with varying privacy requirements. A dedicated workshop supports inhouse model-building, 3d printing, and other small construction projects.

Eastside Exchange is a LEED-CS Silver certified building. In choosing materials, fixtures, finishes, and furniture for the office, we made choices to avoid harmful materials and support the health and wellbeing of our staff. We identified five materials to “red-list”: added formaldehyde, halogenated flame retardants, perfluorinated compounds, phthalates, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in wet-applied products. In addition to avoiding those materials, we specified all LED lighting, zoned controls, and occupancy sensors to support minimal energy usage.

With the design of the new Holst Headquarters at Eastside Exchange, we have created a physical demonstration of our commitment to design and technical excellence, functional ingenuity, and economic and resource efficiency—a space that feels like home for us now and into the future.