The new adidas campus in Portland, Oregon, celebrates sport as a model for living. Three buildings—a 182,000 sq. ft. office structure, a 31,000 sq. ft. boutique fitness center, and a 54,000 sq. ft. sales team office—look out to a soccer pitch from spaces designed to echo the values the field represents: teamwork, integrity, agility and playfulness. When Studio O+A was formulating design development for this project, one approach was to align the spaces aesthetically with adidas’s products. In some cases, that meant translating adidas fashion elements like shoe treads or fabric selections into architectural gestures. In others, it was a process of capturing the spirit of a sport in a representative space. In every case, it meant bringing to the design adidas brand values: inclusivity, credibility, sustainability.

The GOLD building is as fit as the athletes it serves. The “open offices” mean open to multiple uses and act like workshops with 100% unassigned desks (designated by teams). As a LEED Gold-certified project, it makes use of innovative materials sourcing and construction techniques that point to new paths to sustainability and energy-efficient design. LEVER’s structural weaving of pre-cast concrete, glulam beams, and cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels results in a modern workplace with the spaciousness and warmth of a lodge in the Northwest woods. Adding to the warmth of the space are custom tables fabricated from trees felled to clear the construction site and tagged to indicate their origins.

By maintaining the highest wellness and environmental standards, the GOLD building supports a healthy workforce and communicates to employees that their physical, social and mental wellbeing is a priority.

The Performance Zone represents one of the company’s core beliefs: that sport has the power to change lives. This idea informs brand gestures throughout the building and is not only a brand concept—it’s the function of the space. The boutique gym is a comprehensive collection of specialty spaces drawn together by a design that celebrates fitness as a branch of wellness and wellness as a virtue that contributes to the universal good.

Finally, the RED building is the place on campus dedicated to adidas’s sales team. The ground floor has a coworking lounge with a variety of settings to support various user preferences. The building includes showroom and presentation spaces that are adaptable and can host external visitors. It provides incubator-like spaces where teams can explore and showcase their in-progress work in an ideal setting. The new adidas campus reflects what the pandemic has taught us about what employees want in a workplace with health, wellbeing and sustainability at the forefront. Though rooted in the culture of its Portland locale, the campus feels universal in what it can teach us about design—and in what it suggests about the future of work.