Exterior render D
The proposal for the new NW Film Center building at the north end of Shemanski Park creates a new hub for Portland, Oregon's film community. The building is located in Portland's downtown district and faces the main live theater in Portland which stands across the park from the building. The new building will house the existing NW Film Center which is currently housed adjacent to the new building. Additionally it will include their film school, classrooms, two green rooms for filming, film processing labs, computer labs, recording studios, editing space as well as the organization’s faculty and staff offices. There will be an independent movie theater in conjunction with the bar serving food and drinks from a local food cart chef. The building will also be the new home of the Portland Art Museum’s media arts gallery space housing permanent and rotating media arts exhibits. The second floor central breezeway establishes the film school and gallery main entrance as well as the start of the exterior staircase. The staircase wraps around the exterior leading to an exposed roof deck serving as a raised extinction to the adjacent Shemanski park, open for community engagement and school related functions.
Exterior render A
The building’s L shaped plan was designed to encourage movement from the Portland Art Museum’s current buildings and the park into the building’s courtyard where the patron can either proceed up the main stairs to the roof deck or into the theaters on the ground floor. The theaters are distinctively shaped and clad in a textured concrete panel distinctly different from the rest of the building making it easy to locate from the outside. The film school’s many classrooms are located according to their need for non perforated walls with the opaque rooms in the short end of the L and the transparent spaces in the skinny neck of the L.
The building is further organized from the ground up housing the most visited spaces on the ground floor with the film school on the upper floors. There is a direct exterior path for visitors to use to access the roof deck. Due to the unique characteristics of a film school and the need for large non perforated spaces the building is rapped with opaque glass panels attached to an outer metal frame, which are then rotated based on the interior program and exterior views most desired.
Exterior render B
View of exterior stairs from roof deck. To the left Portland Art Museum’s Mark Building and, beyond that, Shemanski Park running past the proposed building. The glass panels making up the facade are oriented to curate specific views from the building. Here panels are rotated to allow for views toward the Mark Building, park and downtown.
Section A
Interior render C
Exterior Render F
Interior render E