Mayer/Reed, Author at Mayer Reed

A Pledge for Sustainable & Healthy Materials

It used to be that selecting environmentally responsible materials meant using local and recycled content, sustainably harvested wood and low VOC paint. Today, the architecture and design community recognizes that we can do even more through our material choices to impact human health, climate, environment and society. Until recently, though, we didn’t have the information we needed to avoid harmful materials.

This is changing.

Designers and manufacturers are now engaged in a movement to advance content disclosure of architectural building products so designers can understand the environmental and social impact of the materials they specify. With this knowledge, we hope to drive the development of healthier material and product options through increased demand.

Mayer/Reed is one of the 114 design firms that signed the (Portland initiated) Materials Transparency Pledge. We pledge to support the efforts of the Living Product 50 manufacturers to share the responsibility required to make materials transparency work. For those manufactures that have taken the lead by supplying HPDs, EPDs, Declare, Cradle to Cradle, Green Guard Certifications, thank you for your investment to supply this information. To complete the loop, as designers we pledge to:

Support Human Health by preferring products that support and foster life and seek to eliminate the use of hazardous substances.

Support Climate Health by preferring products that reduce carbon emissions and ultimately sequester more carbon than emitted.

Support Ecosystem Health by preferring products that support and regenerate healthy air, water, and biological cycles through thoughtful supply chain management and restorative company practices.

Support Social Health and Equity by preferring products from manufacturers who secure human rights in their operations and supply chains.

Support a Circular Economy by reusing buildings and materials; and by designing for material efficiency, long life and perpetual cycling.

We’re in an exciting time for design, with opportunities to create places that push past the old benchmarks for sustainability. But a system change will only find success when individual designers, owners and manufacturers change their patterns. Will you join the movement?

To read the full pledge or join the signatories: www.pmtc-pdx.org/about.html

Mayer/Reed to Design Signage for Sea-Tac Airport Expansion

Mayer/Reed has started work on a major expansion at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport with joint design leaders the Miller Hull Partnership and Woods Bagot. As the team’s signage and wayfinding designers for the expansion of the C1 Building between C and D concourses, we will support an elevated traveler experience. The 110,000-square-foot, $340 million expansion – including new retail, dining, office, lounge and amenity spaces – will be sustainably designed with a focus on the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest and its cultural and culinary offerings. With a projected completion date in 2027, we look forward designing a signage system that offers both clarity and delight for the Sea-Tac traveler.

Mayer/Reed Selected for St. Helens Riverwalk Design

The City of St. Helens, Oregon has selected Mayer/Reed to lead design of a destination riverwalk along the Columbia River. The project will create recreation space, community gathering areas and environmental restoration through improvements to Columbia View Park and adjacent former industrial property.Since 2014, city leaders have worked toward reconnecting the community to a riverfront once dominated by industry. With the purchase of former mill sites, the City seeks to establish a new riverfront district. The riverwalk will be the first built project and an economic driver for the greater riverfront redevelopment.

The riverwalk will proceed in phases with the first phase improving the existing Columbia View Park and a portion of adjacent vacant property. Improvements to the riverbank, a new outdoor performance venue and riverwalk structures and amenities will set the tone for phase II which will provide conceptual design for the remaining 2,870 feet of riverwalk.

In a separate project, Mayer/Reed will support an Otak-led team in establishing infrastructure for the planned mixed-use development. The work will ensure seamless pedestrian and landscape connections between the riverwalk and the development.

Experience the Kaleidoscopic Canopy at the Portland Winter Light (non)Festival

Need some color and light in your life? The Portland Winter Light Festival heeds the call, this year as a dispersed, free “non-festival” that allows plenty of social distancing.

Come experience Mayer/Reed’s Kaleidoscopic Canopy installation at Oaks Park. We’re painting with a big brush, utilizing the 80 ft. tall trees as a canvas. Within this arboreal canopy of color, illuminated mylar curtains reflect a kaleidoscope of moving color, picking up accents from amusement surroundings like the aurora borealis. Down on the ground, we’ll stoke a glowing fire pit in a historic picnic shelter to warm visitors. We thank our partners at Oaks Park for welcoming this display amid its stalwart oak trees.

We’re helping to light up downtown as well. If you’re near the Morrison Bridge, look up to see our 8th floor studio windows aglow at SW 3rd and Washington. We call this display “Wish You Were Here.”

Visit Kaleidoscopic Canopy at Oaks Park this weekend and next, 6 to 10 pm, February 5-6 and 12-13. And check the map to find all kinds of other dazzling light exhibits throughout the city. See you from a distance!