Kinesis has a new home!

I’m thrilled to announce that the Kinesis team has successfully relocated, and we’re busy settling into our new headquarters in Northwest Portland!

It’s been a long journey. But with a little elbow grease and a lot of patience, we’ve managed to locate and build out a space to meet our growing needs. I took a few minutes to compile a short photo-essay of the build-out process. Enjoy!

The Beginning

You may have heard us say it before, but at Kinesis, we’re all about transformation.

So, you won’t be surprised to hear that when we started looking for a new home, we didn’t take the path of least resistance. We found a space with huge potential – and committed to putting in the work and giving the love that it needed to become a truly exceptional working environment.

Here’s an image of the space when we began work on the build-out.

Needless to say… we’ve made some significant improvements. For starters, the space had no dedicated cooling system, and a “barely passable” heating unit. Worse, much of the previous work had been done “under the radar” – meaning, no engineering for seismic events (aka earthquakes) and no permits. We had to bring all of this up to code before progressing.

Here’s a view from up on the mezzanine at the start of construction:

When we first “broke ground,” the space was actually two adjacent units. Through the design process, and working with our co-tenants, Response Capture, we decided to eliminate the demising wall, opening the space for light and air. And, 24’ ceilings certainly help!

Looking around, you might be asking yourself: “Are those skylights?” Why yes, yes they are.

In fact, natural light was one of our main priorities during the move. Not only does our design team need proper lighting for color analysis and matching, but we know that natural light is an incredible addition to any work environment, and that it’s been proven to boost productivity in the workplace.

The Journey

Tearing stuff down is always fun – but so is putting it back together! Here’s a photo post-demolition, moving on to framing and electrical rough-in. Kudos to Inline Construction and 5-Star Electric for their work here:

You’re now looking straight into our conference room – which means the wall dividing the two units successfully came down without dropping the whole building! A good start!

The room in the far left of this photo (with the blue wheelbarrow) is where our new ping-pong table lives (thanks, Response Capture!), and the room just to the right of that has been transformed into our kitchen. The mezzanine sits above those two spaces.

Here’s the first manifestation of the upstairs office and work areas:

Also in this photo, you can see the seismic shear walls (basically plywood and OSB) that keep the whole thing from falling down in an earthquake. These walls tie into new footings (big concrete pads) cut into the floor.

Like many renovation projects, we ran into some unforeseen issues. Fortunately, I have some construction-savvy friends with some heavy-hitting equipment. They came in at crunch-time to help move the project forward.

Here’s my friend Clay, offering his expertise and his cutting torch to help with the mezzanine revamp.

I tapped my inner design nerd to choose the color scheme for the new Kinesis office. Here’s our color palette along with samples of the new carpet:

Crossing the Finish Line

You know you’re making progress when the new drywall goes up:

Here’s an image from the mezzanine – just a few weeks from move-in. We’re incredibly fortunate to be able to work with our partners at Reitmeier Mechanical - they’ve been invaluable in helping to get our state-of-the-art HVAC system (seen in this photo) up and running.

Here’s another image of the main room close to move-in, right as the new light fixtures went in. We replaced all of the old “energy-hog” fixtures with new, color-balanced units.

And a big “thank you” to Pacific Energy Concepts – they designed our lighting system, and helped get nearly a third of it paid for through the Oregon Energy Trust.

Move-In!

Before we knew it, moving day was upon us!

As much as we tried to complete projects in advance of the big day – we had some deadlines that didn’t care about our move-in schedule.

Jade knows that better than anybody. Here he is troubleshooting a website launch amidst moving crates, ladders, TV monitors, and an appropriately large box of Voodoo Doughnuts.

And the good news is that the hard work has paid off. We have a beautiful new home that is a truly Kinesis environment.

I speak for my entire team when I say that we’re incredibly excited to be in our new space, and can’t wait to share it with our friends and family.

We’ll be hosting an open house in January – so stay tuned for details! Until then, here’s a taste of what’s to come:

And, just for giggles, here’s a shot of the production team in their office space at our old location. They’re giving the thumbs up on the move – and to a bigger, brighter future!

It’s pretty easy to get in touch with us these days. We kept the same phone numbers, and have listed our new address below.

1627 NW 14th Ave
Portland, OR 97209

Thanks for your continued interest in our progress, and support for our efforts. Looking forward to seeing you at the open house in January!
Best,

Shawn