When we outgrew our first HQ a couple years back, we set out to build a new loft-like office space in inner-SE Portland.
We wanted the new space to be a physical expression of what we strive for in craftsmanship, stewardship, and managerial practice. So we constructed the project from reclaimed and recycled materials and asked the architects at Scott Edwards Architecture to design an open floor plan that facilitates communication. They did a fantastic job on the office tenant improvement design (Learn more about our office tenant improvement services). It’s a great space to work in. The unsung hero in this design? The office’s upcycled sliding doors.
The flexibility of sliding doors makes perfect sense for Hammer & Hand’s busy office environment. The two sliding doors are hung from a top rail, with no rail at bottom – guided entirely with 3 cleverly-placed router bits (a.k.a. following bits) embedded in the floor. A connecting swing door completes the three-door “triptych”.
Open, the doors facilitate collaboration and exchange between staff and management, and connect the office of founders Sam Hagerman and Daniel Thomas with the adjoining conference room and overall office. Closed, the doors create sound-dampening for a private suite, yet allow light to penetrate. Whether open or closed, the doors’ translucency maintains the architectural intent of open space.
Upcycling is central to both the interior aesthetic as well as our overall construction philosophy. The office’s building shell is clad in rough barnwood stock that we’ve been collecting from disassembled local Oregon barns for years. We laid the floors with reclaimed bleacher stock from local schools.
Our carpenters constructed the doors entirely from items otherwise left for dead: framed with reclaimed, planed barnwood, complete with iron stained nail holes and powder post beetle tracks, and glazed with reclaimed glass panels created by Second Glass from junked windshields.
The swing door boasts two recycled pull handles, one vintage hammer from my grandfather and another retired hammer from a veteran Hammer & Hand carpenter. The doors therefore use both the embodied energy of upcycled materials as well as their embodied narrative, with the hammer pull handles paying homage to both the founding of our company as well as to the men and women who make it thrive today.
Though just one element of our new HQ, the upcycled sliding doors really encapsulate the fine and responsible work that we strive for.
– Zack
P.S. Learn more about our commercial remodeling work.
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