Weathered steel and juniper siding clad the cross-laminated timber community centre that Lever Architecture has added to the Oregon outpost of The Nature Conservancy.
The local firm added a one-storey volume made of cross-laminated timber (CLT) to a three-story building that was completed in the 1970s on a corner plot in Portland's Buckman neighbourhood.

The project forms the Oregon offices of The Nature Conservancy, a non-profit organisation founded in 1951 to conserve lands and waterways around the world. It has offices in almost every US state and is headquartered in Virginia.

The cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels, which comprise layers of lumber glued together, are made from Douglas fir from the region. The panels were also manufactured in Oregon. Lever Architecture claims the extension is of the first to be made with CLT produced in the US. "The addition is one of the first in the US built with domestically-fabricated CLT panels that are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)," the studio said.

In addition to the panels that use local materials, other aspects also make the most of Oregon's natural materials. Juniper siding on the exterior was sourced from The Nature Conservancy's conservation site in Eastern Oregon, Juniper Hill preserve.
Cedar boards sourced from trees in the coastal Willapa Bay reserve are used on the green roof of the extension. Lever Architecture also chose native plants for the rooftop including bushes and wildflowers fr...