Considered a source of pride for the local community, phase one of Portland International Airport’s renovation was revealed this summer. The newly designed space introduces biophilic elements that create a tangible connection to its Pacific Northwestern surroundings. Fisher Marantz Stone collaborated with ZGF Architects in illuminating the new-look terminal.

Seeing your local airport as a beloved source of pride may seem, to many of us at least, an unusual viewpoint to have; but then, Portland is an unusual place.

The slogan “Keep Portland Weird” has come to typify the Oregon city in recent years, and this was one of the driving forces behind the lighting design for the recent renovation and expansion of Portland International Airport (PDX).

“While I’m sure ‘Keep Portland Weird’ means various things to different people, in the context of this project, it reminded us to keep our focus on creating a warm and inviting experience for the traveller that was decidedly in and of the great American Northwest,” said Charles Stone, Founder of Fisher Marantz Stone (FMS), the lead lighting designers on the project. “By that, we mean that our lighting would support a constant connection to nature, the forest in particular, in an environment that tells you that you are home when you arrive in Portland.”

The constant connection to nature, and to Oregon’s beautiful, verdant landscapes, was also a primary design focus for the architects, ZGF, who sought to “evoke the feeling one gets while walking in the forest”.

Jacob Dunn, Principal at ZGF, adds: “The idea of a walk in the forest makes all the sense in the world given where we are in the Pacific Northwest. This drove us down a lot of different pathways, everything from the use of wood, respecting and being good stewards of this important cultural and natural resource, to the way that we think about light in the space, looking at different lighting archetypes and how we experience light as we are taking a hike through the woods.”

Central to this woodland theme, the renovated airport is now characterised by a vast, undulating, nine-acre mass timber roof.

Designed to celebrate Oregon’s history of forest product innovation, the wood used here was all sustainably and locally sourced from landowners and mills within a 300-mile radius of the airport, including sustainably harvested wood from small family forests, community forests and tribal nations.

Expansive glazing, coupled with 49 skylights across the site, provide views of the airfield and the surrounding forested landscape, as well as allowing for ample natural light inside, all further highlighting the design decision to reference the state’s natural beauty and cultivate a strong sense of place within the airport.

Through collaborations with Terrapin Bright Green and landscape architect PLACE, ZGF applied the concept of biophilia holistically throughout the airport. As a result, almost every corner of the terminal features touches of Oregon’s greenery and ample access to natural light. Pathways are filled with trees and plants, with 72 large trees – some up to 25ft tall – located at the seam and throughout the terminal; cascading gardens; and more than 5,000 strategically placed plants. The landscaping provides a sense of wandering through a forest, and acts as a wayfinding tool that guides passengers from security checkpoints to their ultimate destination.

The introduction of this lush greenery also helped to “break down the scale” of the airport and further enhance its position as a “beloved community architectural gem”.

Dunn continues: “We were expanding the footprint of the airport, but we didn’t want to feel like a faceless box, with a giant roof and a bunch of things happening on the ground. ZGF travelled with the PDX leadership to tour the latest and greatest airports, and this was one of the main criticisms – the airports were great, but they felt like people processing machines with one giant roof and a nebulous space below.

“So, the roof and the use of daylight was a big part in terms of defining the rooms within the terminal, and to make it feel like more of an episodic continuum from space to space, with clear thresholds defined by the geometry of the roof, and the experience from the light and skylights as you move through the different spaces.”

Such a clear focus and ambition from the architects meant that realising the lighting concept was relatively straightforward for FMS, as Stone explains: “Fortunately, the architect and landscape architects made it easy for us.

“When you stand in the terminal and look around, you are surrounded by a world of warm timber and oases of green. We provided a balanced illumination of the wonderful natural materials – mostly timber, and the abundant live greenery.”

Central to the lighting design was the introduction of 400 bespoke fixtures, that significantly contribute to the overall warmth of the terminal, highlighting the materiality of the timber roof, as well as providing general illumination to the space.

“The extraordinary custom, individually addressable, die cast aluminium pendant fittings evenly distribute 3000K, warm light onto the undulating roof, while downward light is a cooler 3500K,” Stone continues. “The shape of the fitting was derived from a classical form, but of course the visual texture created by the tines does take us back to one of the initial directives of ‘Keep Portland Weird’. These fixtures are more than a metre across at the top, but in the scale of the Terminal building, they don’t look large at all.”

These custom pendants work alongside a meticulously planned daylighting strategy, which consists of skylights of different shapes and sizes that filter daylight through the mass timber roof’s lattice and large-skylight openings, illuminating 60% of the terminal alongside the custom hanging fixtures.

“The various typologies of skylights were tuned to the ways in which we experience different types of light in the forest, but also in terms of their programmatic requirements for glare and functionality below,” Dunn continues. “We also looked at the way that light registers in a three dimensional field of objects; if you take a typical skylight, it’s just a plane – the roof and a hole – and the light comes through, it doesn’t catch anything other than maybe the skylight curve, but in a forest there are all the different trunks and branches and leaves in the canopy that catch and register that light in unique ways. Even the way that we articulated the lattice so that it would catch and refract and bounce around that light was something that was taken directly from these natural lighting archetypes that we had seen.”

Alongside this, depending on the space below, extra attention was taken to the type of glazing installed. In the ticket hall, for example, the skylights were frosted with frit to create more of a diffuse daylight effect, akin to the morning fog of a coastal forest. This, Dunn explained, served two purposes: it evoked another forest-like feeling, and also reduced the amount of glare for staff working in the ticket hall below.

Further to this, ZGF and FMS collaborated on some very sophisticated calculations and metrics surrounding the light levels and energy efficiency.

Dunn explains: “We had a couple of metrics and goals that were set forward, partially driven by our certification requirements, but also thinking about what the right metrics are to help drive us to create the right kind of space in terms of the way that it felt, and then also how much energy we saved. We knew that the daylighting was one of the key energy efficiency saving measures that we were employing, so we really wanted to make sure that we had enough light that made a significant impact on the energy use of the building as well.

“Usually, what we would do is look at spatial daylight autonomy, daylight simulation metrics, and generally there’s a single point in time in metrics where we use computer simulation to say, ‘during 9.00am on the Equinox, how much of this floorplan gets above a certain threshold of footcandles?’

“Then at some point, our calculation processes got more sophisticated. We said, ‘we care about 9.00am on the Equinox, but we also care about every hour the space is occupied’. We looked at annual simulations, which just explodes the way that we have to think about it, because now it’s a temporal metric over space. Our threshold became that we wanted there to be a 50% spatial daylight autonomy, which means 50% of the space is adequately lit for more than 50% of the time, and that then becomes a good benchmark that says it is going to feel like it’s daylit for most of the time, and we’re going to achieve those daylight savings.

“However, Portland is a really interesting animal – we have predominantly cloudy winters, and almost completely sunny summers, and the annual metric hides a lot of the nuance around designing for these conditions. This was all conversations that we had with Charles and the FMS team about what we use to drive this; we ended up focussing on the cloudy condition, because we know that we want the place to feel daylit on a typical cloudy Portland day in the wintertime.

“We also looked at very detailed tracking simulations and tools and methodologies to make sure that the sun was in the right place at the right time. Charles was a huge help with this, because when we were looking at what kind of visual contrast ratio is going to be acceptable versus painful in this situation, he could use his experience to say roughly what we should be shooting for.”

Speaking of the collaborative process between the architects and lighting designers, particularly on the daylighting strategy, Stone adds: “We spent a great deal of time together considering the roof apertures, the nature of the curves of the ceiling, dimensions and colour of the timber, treatment of the space above the timber slats, and other aspects of materiality, reflectivity, and aperture characteristics.

“We also carefully considered the character of the glazing, the overall light transmission, and the external shielding strategy; all around the compass of the curtain wall perimeter of the Terminal. Consideration of contrast ratios and glare were of paramount concern in our studies. A 365-day, quantative daylight analysis was performed. Physical models were built and studied. Yes, we spent a lot of time together on daylighting.”

On the sustainability targets, Stone added: “Of course PDX is a LEED (pursuing Gold) building and uses all LED sources – but so is every large project today. I think the magic of the sustainability of the lighting is in the daylighting design and its integration with electric light. ZGF produced exhaustive studies to ensure that the design maximises daylight utilisation. This is quite a challenge in the Portland climate where winters are grey and dark, and summers are replete with abundant sunshine and long days. The controls system designed by PAE is the other piece of the puzzle. As the system is commissioned and finetuned, PDX will substantially reduce electrical lighting costs.”

The abundant natural light in the space, coupled with over 70 fully mature trees and more than 5,000 plants throughout the interior landscape, strengthens the project’s biophilic ambitions, which also included more “indirect experiences of nature”, such as the non-uniform wood grain in the roof beams, the “biomorphic forms” of the domes and roof vaults, and even the “water ripple pattern” in the flooring, designed to evoke the flow and movement of the Columbia River, which runs through the Pacific Northwest.

The lighting further contributes to this feeling, particularly after dark, when the electric lighting can take centre stage. “If you walk about the terminal at night, you will see our dappled light concept in the areas of the trees and other greenery,” Stone adds. “We were able to introduce a higher contrast ratio to enhance visual interest than you would find in most airports. There is also crucial supplemental horticultural lighting.”

All of these design decisions help contribute to an environment that, in a marked contrast to typical airport settings, alleviates stress – something that was of primary concern for all parties involved.

“A big goal for the port was to destress the experience of travel, because often it is way too stressful,” says Dunn. “A good example of this is in one of my favourite spaces of the airport, right after you go through security and into the ‘recomposure area’, where you’re putting your belt and shoes back on. In most airports, you have to carry your tub to a crappy bench at the end of a security line or tucked away in the corner – it’s the least dignified experience after going through security. But for PDX, it’s a wonderful experience.

“You go through security, which has a higher ceiling with lower equipment, that creates a vista that pulls you through and makes it feel more open. There are then custom benches that are a series of planters either flush with the ground, or raised up to form seating, so when you’re around these full grown trees that are underneath this beautiful skylight, the sun’s coming in, it’s hitting those trees and creating a dappled light effect that connects you to nature as you go through this experience that could be really stressful. That is a perfect example of how, by being more biophilic, you create a better experience than the typical recomposure experience that you get from other airports.”

As a well-seasoned traveller, Stone agrees that the new design of the terminal has contributed greatly to an altogether more harmonious aesthetic. He adds: “I truly believe that the variety of visual experiences we helped create at PDX is going to make it a traveller’s favourite. Every time I walk through the Terminal, I say ‘Oh, wow!’. I’m a rather jaded, ‘millions of miles’ traveller, and PDX still thrills me.”

Another feature Stone was particularly impressed by was ZGF’s decision to prefabricate the new roof right next to the existing building, meaning that the airport could remain fully operational while the renovation was taking place.

Dunn explains this process in more detail: “One of the goals for the project was that we could not impact flight schedules at all – all work had to be done while the airport was 100% operational. This was a challenge, but it was achieved through the prefab onsite, next to the terminal building. This meant that it could be getting erected, and demolition could be happening at the same time. We would then move the new roof across the airfield by crane between 12 and four in the morning when there were no aeroplanes. It then took around two days for them to get connected to the building, which made it possible to keep it operational throughout.”

“The architect’s solution of building the new terminal roof at the other end of the airport, then moving it over the existing Terminal, and demolishing the old is just brilliant,” Stone adds. “We basically designed most of our work for a ‘new’ building. Tremendous cost savings were achieved by the overlapping construction technique; and the freedom it gave the design team helped produce a stunning result.”

Indeed, the completed part of the project – phase one of two – showcases what can be achieved when both architects and lighting designers push towards the same, biophilic goal. The marriage between architecture and lighting across the renovated terminal creates an atmosphere rarely seen in airports – one of rejuvenation and warmth.

Dunn was effusive in his praise of the lighting design, and the way in which it enhances the materiality of the architecture: “It is an incredible design – it reminds me of some of the cathedrals that I visited in Europe when studying abroad, it’s so thoughtfully designed.

“I love the hanging pendant strategy to give additional space to the occupied zone, to mediate that space between us and the roof structure with the combination of down and up lighting. This also reflects a nuanced understanding of how we experience light in the space. The uplighting of the pendant to light the bottom part of the domes of the roof was a fantastic move to be able to celebrate the architecture, and to engage with the way we experience light through surface brightness – through luminance vs illuminance. Overall, it animates the space in a way that is referential to the architecture, and also the way that we experience life.”

Stone adds: “The final product really looks like the renderings, and verifies the quantitative studies that were done. We built so many models and mock ups of the pendant light fitting and the ceiling that we knew exactly how it was going to look – except for the massive scale, I wasn’t prepared for that.

“We ran a many-stepped, reiterative design process. I am pleasantly surprised, but I had a lot of faith in the studies that we did. The effect of the warm, glowing roof, its visually interesting patterns, the curious and unique pendant, and the greater than average contrast ratios, are the secret sauce. The response from the travelling public has been fantastic too – Portland has something new to be proud of.”

Speaking of pride, Dunn shares how he has seen, first hand, the positive response from the local community towards the new-look terminal. “I was dropping my son off at school, and one of the other parents in our group said ‘has anybody seen the new Portland airport? It’s incredible,’ and they said to me, not knowing that I had worked on it, that they were moved to tears. That was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life,” he says.

“We knew it was a high risk, high reward kind of project. There was a lot of pressure to do a good job, because we knew the stakes and how much the community loved this airport, but we couldn’t be happier with the way that it turned out.”

Such local pride in an airport may seem weird to some of us, but Portland is a weird place. Let’s keep it that way.

www.fmsp.com
www.zgf.com