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Works Partnership Architecture has emerged as one of the progressive architectural design studios in the Pacific Northwest. Created in early 2005 by principals Carrie Schilling and William Neburka, WPA has established a design approach rooted in clear conceptual diagrams applied across a wide spectrum of project scales. From the firm’s first built project, the adaptive reuse of a 170,000 square foot industrial cereal mill, to a recently completed 7 story mixed-use tower in a historic district, WPA strives to bring thoughtful engagement to each project. In the last 4 years the Portland Chapter of The American Institute of Architects has presented WPA with eight design awards for these and other ongoing projects.
WPA is a convergence of 10 professionals with a broad base of experience in a wide variety of building types, facilities, and planning issues. The partners, Carrie Schilling and Bill Neburka, draw from more than 35 years of combined practice. Every staff member brings his/her own professional strengths to a firm devoted to sustainability, urban adaptive reuse, and city concepts.
Works Partnership Architecture is dedicated to design integrity and client service on complex and challenging projects. W.PA strives to implement sustainability on a relevant scale that incorporates both social and economic issues, and draws in expertise from a wide variety of disciplines to refine and achieve these goals. Our process is akin to the workshop floor- an unpretentious place that will be welcoming to all who choose to participate. We can create an environment where ideas can be discussed, strategies formulated, and new vision of the task at hand can take root.
WPA’s work explores the elemental relationship of skin and frame. The expressive potential between enclosure and structure finds a natural fit in WPA’s work with private and public development and the necessarily stringent budgets. In revealing the essential nature of fabric and bone, these projects explore the poetic value of economy. Each inquiry seeks a core vitality, imbuing the project with a layered conceptual syntax; allowing the building to speak profoundly.
Often, through a strong central concept, economies can be achieved at all scales. Structure can find its lightest state; enclosures can speak simply and effectively; buildings can serve their intent more directly. We work to find the simplicity in things; because in that simplicity there will be an economy of means: and in that economy there is often a truth. And in that truth there can be a profound beauty.
