Projects

Nike

As might be expected of a company that produces some of the best-known sports apparel in the world, Nike’s corporate headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon is well-designed. When O+A came on board for an architectural refresh last year, its designers were impressed by the high quality of the original buildout. The goal of the refresh was to make the space more responsive to the way Nike’s people work today and bring it in line with the strong design ethos that guides all things Nike.

As might be expected of a company that produces some of the best-known sports apparel in the world, Nike’s corporate headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon is well-designed. When O+A came on board for an architectural refresh last year, its designers were impressed by the high quality of the original buildout. The goal of the refresh was to make the space more responsive to the way Nike’s people work today and bring it in line with the strong design ethos that guides all things Nike.

  • City Beaverton, OR

  • Year 2016

  • Size 70,600 sf

  • Team Mindi Weichman, Steve Gerten, Sarunya Wongjodsri, Renee Laput-Mendoza, Jon Schramm, Elizabeth Vereker

  • Photographer Jasper Sanidad

Three Ways To Run

O+A based its design on three runners—each representing a different form of exertion, each requiring a different kind of space. One hits the track—four crisp laps in designated lanes. Another runs in the street past landmarks and neighbors. The third takes off on a trail through the woods. O+A adopted these runs as metaphors for the kinds of spaces the office would provide. The trail is studio space and collaboration rooms where explorations and improvisations take place; the street is the central concourse with its landmark rig rooms and public meeting areas; the track is refined space dedicated to a single purpose.

Color Piled in Boxes

Because Nike is a company that makes stuff—tangible stuff you can hold in your hand—its offices were often used as storage areas for fabrics, rubber, thread, shoes—sometimes mountains of shoes. One of the project’s challenges was to figure out where to put this stuff. Storage cabinets were one solution. Proudly out in the open was another. While O+A was walking the site designers noticed stacked boxes of yarn in bright colors. These spools, used in the production of the Flyknit line, became the key components of a wall art installation—and a demonstration of the beauty inherent in manufacturing forms and functions.

A Space Shaped for Champions

For years when Nike signed endorsement deals with top-flight athletes the signing took place in a nondescript office more likely as not cluttered with shoes. O+A created a champion’s lounge, where the photos on the wall are of Olympic Gold Medalists and the seating is conducive to a champagne toast. Like all of O+A’s spaces at Nike, this one communicates to its users, whether visiting star athlete or everyday team player, that they enter these rooms as champions.