AZ Awards 2025 People's Choice: Skylab HQ

People’s Choice: Adaptive Re-Use

Skylab HQ

Portland, Oregon, architecture firm Skylab transforms two Quonset huts into the ultimate – and undeniably dazzling – home base.

Year: 2025
Location: Portland, U.S.
Firm: Skylab Architecture, U.S.
Photos: Stephen Miller and Eric Fortier
Category: Adaptive Re-Use

The typical Quonset hut, a steel half-pipe structure, is known more for utility than attractiveness: The U.S. military invented the typology to be shipped and assembled easily. After Portland, Oregon, architecture firm Skylab acquired an industrial lot in the city’s north end, they transformed the two existing Quonset huts at the site into unique office spaces with spine-like skylights, floor-to-ceiling windows and a reflective scrim on the interiors that maximizes acoustic efficiency. While additional buildings made of cross-laminated timber round out the Skylab HQ complex, the huts are the main attraction — proof that even humble buildings can be made beautiful.