Art foundation in Oregon is a green space for creating

Sandy Bodecker founded the N M Bodecker Foundation in 2017 to create a collaboration and presentation space for creatives and artists in Portland, Oregon. The warehouse in Portland is designed to look like a labyrinth that reminded Bodecker of the journey of discovery he loved in the creative realization process. Now, the building has evolved as a unique art space for the Pacific Northwest.

The designer cited Gordon Matta Clark’s “Building Cuts” as inspiration for the design of the Bodecker Foundation. Materials include repurposed items from the remodel, as well as contemporary carpet, steel, exposed plywood and wood trusses with custom lighting.

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“The warehouses were cut into and modified, while retaining the memory of their historic boundaries,” Bodecker said. “Peeling back the roof of one and slicing the other, the warehouses were remixed and fused together with a new central core building.”

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The warehouse space is 7,769 square feet on multiple stories. The interior includes living areas and informal performance spaces, a recording studio and even an indoor skate park. Outside, living roofs and nearly 2,000 square feet of yard space complete the sustainable aesthetic. A third of the site is reserved as green space outside to manage water runoff.

Unfortunately, Bodecker passed in 2018, after which the foundation moved into the space fully and made the work and performance spaces available to artists. Bodecker loved the feeling of curiosity and discovery in creating art that takes you back to being a kid discovering the world.

The Bodecker Foundation said, “The collage of activities intersect and overlap to inspire a passion for collection, making and playing.”

The new programs available in this space build around this core idea. The main spaces remain open to each other on the ground floor to encourage collaboration and cross-pollination of ideas for artists, musicians, performance artists and skaters. The homier living spaces for the artist in residence programs are located on the second and third floors, overlooking the public space below.

+ Skylab Architecture and Bodecker Foundation

Photography by Jeremy Bitterman