The Glass Lab

Tryba Architects completed the renovation and adaptive reuse of The Glass Lab, a 46,000-square-foot former glass factory in the Portland Innovation Quadrant (Portland IQ). The team collaborated with Portland-based owner ScanlanKemperBard (SKB) and Lorentz Bruun Construction to turn the vintage two-story industrial building into a community-oriented creative hub for the next generation of creators and innovators. The team’s integrated approach balanced respect for the building’s 1950s warehouse-style architecture with the area’s forward-thinking ethos.

Original building elements were restored and revealed, preserving the building’s historic character within an open, flexible work environment. The combination of exposed concrete, old-growth timber beams and tongue and groove wood floors helps to maintain a raw, authentic feel throughout the building while extensive window lines, soaring ceilings and large skylights keep the space naturally bright.

“The Glass Lab” identity and program of experiential graphics contemplate the properties of glass as an expression of the building’s past. Throughout, bold stenciling and painted lettering pay tribute to the building’s industrial heritage while celebrating its emerging spirit of innovation in craft manufacturing. Concrete floors, clean white walls, blackened steel details and birchwood accents informed the signage program’s monochromatic material palette, with bursts of industrial yellow used throughout to mark key entry points to the building, amenity areas and suites.

A new creative hub for the Portland Innovation Quadrant (Portland IQ).

Geometric motifs are inspired by functional markings, but signal welcome and collaboration.

The branding and graphics pay tribute to the building’s industrial heritage while celebrating its emerging spirit of innovation in craft manufacturing.