Washougal Incubator Block

Program and tectonics drove the design of this main street infill building in a small Washington mill town.  The program for the building was to be a micro format retail and commercial building that was required to be low maintenance and long lived. The potential of the brick tectonic was expanded in scale to inform the building massing and illustrate how repetitive units can collectively create a cohesive whole. We posited the building as a loose stack of programmatic blocks, each space operating on the scale of the singular, and collectively giving the building its overall form. The resulting massing can be read as a sculptural singularity or allowed to fluctuate in scale in relation to its materiality. This duality sponsors and activates the pedestrian realm with a series of varied and literate street walls.

Typology Commercial
Location Washougal, WA
Client Lone Wolf Development
Status Completed
Date 2012

Team

Architect Carrie Strickland, Bill Neburka
General Contractor R&H Construction, Inc.
Structural Engineer DCI Engineers
Photograph Joshua Jay Elliott

Awards

  • AIA Oregon Citation Award 2009
  • AIA Portland Sustainability Award 2012
  • AIA Northwest & Pacific Region Design Award 2013