Mahlum Architects will join Greta Thunberg in a “Skolstrejk för klimatet” (“School Strike for the Climate”), a Global Climate Strike demanding an end to the age of fossil fuels. On September 20, millions of us will walk out of our workplaces, schools, and homes to join Thunberg and other student activists across the world who are demanding immediate action in addressing the Climate Crisis.

Since its inception in 2011, the Seattle Design Festival (SDF) has given the local community an opportunity to celebrate our rich design landscape and provide a venue for Seattleites, visitors, businesses, and designers to engage in dialogue with one another about how design impacts our lives and our city. Each year, the festival selects a theme for designers to respond to, and this year it’s all about Balance.

In honor of Earth Day, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on the Environment (COTE) announced the 2019 recipients for its highest honor, the COTE Top Ten Awards.

We are delighted that the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) announced on April 15 that two projects received Honorable Mentions in the 2019 SCUP Excellence Awards program.

Every architect has played with LEGO blocks at some point in their life – and many still do. The simplicity of modular, color-coded blocks lets one inject creativity and beauty with limited, and even then only self-imposed, constraints. So, when asked to develop the Mid-level Challenge for the 2019 NWACUHO (Northwest Association of College and University Housing Officers) Conference last February in Portland, Mahlum turned to the venerable block for inspiration and invited housing professionals to develop their ideal student community.

We are thrilled that the American Institute of Architects announced on January 29 that Arlington Elementary School in Tacoma, Washington has been recognized with a 2019 Honor Award. Arlington was chosen in part because its design “eschews basic assumptions and promotes a new model of civic practice in education.”

Washington State is establishing itself as an early leader in mass timber design and construction – a building system that revitalizes rural communities with living wage jobs, fuels economic growth, and provides new high-tech sustainable building materials. Though its use has been previously restricted by International Building Code, recent changes will ensure that new code language and new mass timber building types may be available to designers as early as 2019.

On July 27th, Mahlum’s Commitment to Community (C2C) committee organized a silent art auction in our Portland office to benefit Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC). RACC is a local non-profit organization that makes the arts more accessible to the community.

Mahlum and the Director of Housing at the University of Oregon, Michael Griffel, hosted an “evening listening session” with the residents of UO’s newest residential community – Kalapuya Ilihi. Happily, what we heard was resounding positive feedback about living in this new space.

On a warm evening in May, we invited the community to join us in our Portland office for an open house exhibit showcasing the work of the elementary school students and design professionals participating in the Architects in Schools program.