ZGF Architects has completed an expansion to the main terminal at Portland International Airport, installing a massive mass-timber roof that was prefabricated to keep the airport operational.
The airport’s giant roof was made from metal and glued-laminated timber (glulam) that forms over 400,000 square feet (37,161 square metres) of beams and lattice and spans nine acres (3.64 hectares), according to the studio.
ZGF likened the structure to the “overstory” of a forest – the top level of branches that creates the protective layer at the canopy level of a forest ecosystem.
A walk in the forest, all I could actually think about when photographing was how much I felt from the very beginning that I am walking in the forest, surrounded by trees and wood. My goal was to be able to somehow in images make people experience what it really feels to be in this incredible building. One image will forever stay in my head as the image that made me break the photography rules I had learned. It was an image of kids running through the airport. The light had changed and it was right above me creating a big flare in my lens, instead of moving I shaded half of the lens with my hand and the remaining light looked like rays of light coming from the skylight above. I now feel the best images happen when you go against the rules.
