Protruding corner windows that are set at different angles front this timber-framed, three-sided building in northern Portland designed by American firm Works Progress Architecture.

The Portland Flatiron building is located on a sloped, triangular site in the city's Boise Eliot neighbourhood. Rising five storeys, the building contains retail space on the ground level and offices up above. There also is a basement level for parking.
The project is named after Manhattan's Flatiron Building ? a thin, triangular tower that was designed by Daniel Burnham and completed in 1902. There also is a small, triangular historic building in downtown Portland that is named the Flatiron Building.

Like its precedents, the new Portland Flatiron building has a plan and massing strategy that was driven by highly irregular site conditions. Encompassing 24,000 square feet (2,230 square metres), the tower features a triangular plan and three elevations ? a first for local firm Works Progress Architecture, or WPA. "Creating a concept of a building with only three elevations was a first for our firm and stood out as a special opportunity to lace the facade together in a way that would never occur in a standard four-sided structure," the studio said in a project description.

The facades are wrapped in dark metal and rectangular windows. Various cutouts and projections give the building a dynamic appearance. On the corners, boxy forms with glazed fronts push outward in different directio...