Since 1968, SERA has restored, transformed and created from scratch a myriad of exciting projects – projects that pique the interest and enrich the lives of the people who interact with them. From a sparkling marble hotel bar and a daylit workspace, to a place to sleep at night, and a newly-walkable Main Street, our work […]
Reflecting on SERA’s 50-year history loops back to the firm’s genesis. In 1968, Bing Sheldon and a group of creative individuals with different skills formed the Design Collaborative, which was an early model of how work is done today. By 1971, I joined them, forming the foundation for SERA. The world was changing fast in […]
We’re envisioning downtown Beaverton’s revival and putting pedestrians first. Today, when you ask the average Beaverton resident “Where is downtown?” you’ll sometimes get a puzzled look and a return question: “Beaverton has a downtown?” But this is changing fast, and yesterday’s city approval of a new Urban Design Framework Plan, developed by a team led […]
I went to a lecture last week by Martha Schwartz, a world-renowned landscape architect who became famous for challenging the status quo by using purple aquarium gravel and shellacked bagels in the midst of a very formal, baroque garden setting. Also a Harvard professor, Schwartz discussed how her class at the Graduate School of Design […]
With a photo of a blue recycling bucket on it, a recent cover of Willamette Week tells us “You’re Doing It Wrong.” The story reiterates what we already know: Portlanders are very enthusiastic recyclers. Unfortunately, “a large percentage of what Portlanders throw in their bins is actually garbage.” And as a result, “the chief buyer […]
Every year at SERA, we have an internal event to celebrate the efforts we take to make a more sustainable world. And over the years, we have had some very ambitious projects deliver on their sustainability goals such as EGWW, the Erb Memorial Union, Savier Street Flats and many others. But in celebrating our sustainability efforts […]
Last week we celebrated the topping out of the Charles D. Cameron Public Services Building (PSB) in Washington County, marking the completion of exterior shear walls on the building’s north wing. It has almost been a year since construction started on the PSB, and two years since design wrapped up – a truly celebratory occasion […]
This week, the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) recognized our project, the Oregon State University Cascades Long Range Development Plan with the 2018 Honor Award of Excellence in Planning for a New Campus. The SCUP Excellence Awards program is a national “juried competition that showcases how using strategic, integrated planning can result in exemplary buildings, grounds, […]
This summer in Portland, we’re excited to offer two internships to current architecture and urban design and planning students! Bring your unique perspective to real projects at every phase of the design process and collaborate with our design professionals in a vibrant studio culture. Apply now! Why intern at SERA this summer? Enriching experiences! SERA’s […]
SERA’s PlyPAD has finally been installed in Kenton Women’s Village! This unique, pro-bono project sought to create an affordable, easily-replicable shelter using CNC-milled plywood. It is now the fifteenth tiny home for a formerly houseless woman, just steps away from SERA’s original POD home. The PlyPAD is a small project with a layered history: after […]