Confidently planted in the heart of downtown Portland, Buchalter’s Fox Tower office establishes the firm at the cutting edge of legal workplace design. At a time when many businesses departed the downtown area, Buchalter decided to settle down and proudly make their mark on Portland in Fox Tower.
Designed around equitable access to light and the biophilic benefits of bringing the exterior inward, expansive windows provide sweeping 360º views of Portland and the Pacific Northwest beyond. Glimpses of Mount Hood, historic downtown Portland, and the forested West Hills provide the office with a unique identity and sense of location. Retractable glass walls carry daylight deep into the plan while allowing the office to flex for events, gatherings, and evolving workstyles.
Pushing the envelope of corporate design, the interiors elevate Buchalter’s black-and-white standard, bridging the PNW aesthetic with a modernized professional office. The law firm’s Portland office design is inspired by innate patterns of nature: Wood tones add warmth, sumptuous textiles echo trees peeking through fog, and cove lighting encircling a charcoal-grey recessed ceiling suggests a storm cloud with a silver lining. A conference room carpet patterned like a dry riverbed nods to water’s influence over time, while green accents reflect the vibrancy of living plants.
Doing away with “front of house” and “back of house,” Buchalter Fox Tower invests in every space—not just client-facing ones—creating an elevated, equitable experience for all through inclusive access to window light. Even the main hallway is designed to transform: retractable glass walls open adjacent offices for multiple uses, and a dramatic transition from carpet to plank tile signals openness, mobility, and shared energy.
The client hospitality center doubles as the employee break room, maximizing the footprint with flexible workspaces and lounge settings, from a window library to a break room bar and entertainment area. Warm reflective gold details against dramatic black walls, subtly placed fixtures, and textured glass shelving amplify ambient luminosity and encourage interaction, while tactile materials and varied surfaces respond to a renewed desire to touch, gather, and fully rejoin life after the pandemic.
