By: Chuck Slothower

Few architecture firms have put as large a stamp on Oregon as has TVA.

The firm designed Park Avenue West, the largest office building to be constructed in Portland since the 1970s, and Fox Tower. TVA also designed Matthew Knight Arena – the University of Oregon basketball palace.

Most recently, TVA drew up Fremont Tower, a 17-story, 236-unit residential building now under construction on Naito Parkway. Permits are pending for Flatworks, an eight-story, 140,000-square-foot, cross-laminated-timber office building that shows the firm can learn new tricks.

TVA has also been a go-to architecture firm for Nike, designing more than 70 projects from Beaverton to Shanghai.

It was through a Nike connection – Craig Cheek, a former executive – that TVA was hired to design a baseball stadium along with Populous, a Chicago firm. TVA’s renderings are the eye candy for an aspirational push to persuade Major League Baseball to expand in Portland.

TVA founder and design principal Robert Thompson said the group expects discussions will pick up again as the pandemic wanes.

“The ballpark’s going to be picking up steam again,” he said.

TVA was able to push through the pandemic-dented economy with no layoffs, Thompson said. The firm guarded against dips in commercial activity by “aggressively diversifying” and emphasizing institutional work after the Great Recession, he said.

Projects planned before the pandemic have continued into construction, and the firm’s pipeline is healthy.

“We have a nice steady flow of new work and new opportunities,” Thompson said.

– Chuck Slothower