By Linda Baker

Photos by Justin Tunis

“We have been pushing ourselves like never before on high-performance building design,” says Bob Packard, 60, ZGF’s managing partner. A new generation of “bright, inquisitive” employees is also challenging and energizing the firm, says Packard, who came on board in 1979. He laughs: “I try to provide support and get out of the way.”

The biggest architecture firm in Portland and the fourth-largest in the country, ZGF, founded in 1959, is known for its diverse portfolio, from medical and university facilities such as Doernbecher Children’s Hospital and the University of Oregon’s Jaqua Center, to U.S. Embassies in Turkey and Bulgaria. Employing 460 people in five cities — 250 in Portland — the firm takes an equally holistic approach toward each of the projects it undertakes. “We think of it as macro to micro,” Packard says. “From the community and urban context, down to the craftsmanship of the building, what you see, touch and feel.”

An emphasis on “fundamentals,” including customer service, also characterizes the ZGF approach. “We believe being a great design firm is the value we bring to customers,” says Packard, who speaks in careful, measured tones and favors a conservative blue-pinstripe style. “But it’s an unfulfilled value if we deliver innovative design at the expense of meeting a client’s needs, schedule and budget.”

Today, rapidly evolving technologies, from 3D architecture modeling software to energy-saving materials, are stretching the boundaries of the ZGF universe. So are designers such as 44-year old Eugene Sandoval, the lead architect behind Twelve West and the new Port of Portland headquarters. The latter, a recipient of a 2010 Metropolis Smart Environment Award, features a ship’s hull-inspired design, geothermal heating and cooling, and a “Living Machine,” an indoor wetland that treats all the building’s wastewater for reuse in toilet flushing and cooling towers.

The new Clif Bar headquarters in Emeryville, Calif., is another example of ZGF’s next-generation approach. Located in a reclaimed warehouse, the 75,000-square-foot building features custom door pulls fashioned from reclaimed bike frames, open workspace architecture, and the largest electronically enhanced solar array in North America, providing nearly 100% of the office’s electricity.