Restoration Hardware were introducing their new gallery store concept across the U.S., and their in-house design team initially needed an architect of record. Due to the complexity of proposing a large national retail store in Portland's historic Northwest District, our role expanded to help Restoration Hardware successfully navigate the historic design commission. The resulting design not only aligns with the Restoration Hardware gallery store brand, it blends in beautifully with one of Portland’s most vibrant architectural, cultural, and functionally diverse districts. Completed, the building feels like a stately European home: an expansive gallery space designed around a sweeping, curved grand staircase, with ancillary rooms drawing visitors in. Point of sales are discretely tucked away behind paneled cupboard doors. Tall, high-quality French windows open to the street. Plaster finishes and articulated framing, awnings, and cornicing add high-end details. Simple steel balustrades and regionally-specific glass rain protection awnings—unnecessary around Restoration Hardware’s California headquarters, but utterly essential in the Pacific Northwest—take cues from the surrounding buildings and complement the 23rd Ave and Glisan streetscapes. We delivered other regional adaptations to Restoration Hardware’s evolving brand standards. In California, for example, it’s possible to overlay stucco directly on the sheathing. For Portland’s rainy weather, we need to design a more layered system. Our challenge was matching the California brand’s look while adapting specific details to match our region’s environmental needs. The grand staircase culminates at an open-air, rooftop pavilion, where glazed elements create a minimalist design that echoes the surrounding contemporary buildings. Trees bring a green, living feel that embraces the Nob Hill residential areas nearby. A glazed, walled roof blends with a trellis to provide an environmentally controlled space. And of course, for a client concerned with parking in an area with limited street availability, we discretely designed one level of below-grade parking for 19 vehicles.