In this session of our Digital Design Series, Bora Architecture & Interiors will present on their OAA award winning project - Volta Studio @ Electric Blocks.
Raw, Refined, and Measured: From Warehouse to Design Studio
CE Pending
Bora Architecture & Interiors presents Volta Studio @ Electric Blocks, a project that received a 2030 award at the 2025 Oregon Architecture Awards. Volta is a 1940s electrical warehouse that has been transformed into a design studio and beacon for the neighborhood. This net-zero carbon renovation offers a model for a flexible, high-performance workspace and demonstrates how design can support the community while meaningfully addressing climate, health, and equity--even with a light touch at a small scale.
Thank you to our 2026 Digital Design Series Sponsor:
Learning Objectives:
Learn how a visioning workshop held at project outset established three explicit goals of climate, health, and equity, and how the team used post-occupancy monitoring and measured data to verify that each goal was met or exceeded.
Identify how adaptive reuse and light-touch design interventions simultaneously reduce embodied carbon and support occupant health through strategies including daylighting, indoor air quality monitoring, thermal comfort, biophilic elements, and access to outdoor space.
Explore how Volta extended material selection beyond carbon metrics into supply chain equity, Design for Freedom principles, and PVC elimination, and how this framework can be applied to any project budget and scale.
Examine how programming decisions including a flexible community gathering space, neighborhood events, and public art were driven by stakeholder engagement from day one, and how a small office building can activate a neighborhood rather than simply occupy it.
Speakers:
Corey Squire, Associate Principal, Sustainability Director
Bora Architecture & Interiors
Corey Squire, AIA is Sustainability Director at Bora Architecture & Interior in Portland Oregon, and a member of the AIA's Strategic Council. He lectures nationally on a range of sustainability-related topics and was a creator of AIA Framework for Design Excellence, a resource that’s actively redefining excellence in the built environment. Corey is the author of the recently published book, People, Planet, Design: A Practical Guide to Realizing Architecture’s Potential.
Alisha Borden, Associate, Interior Designer
Bora Architecture & Interiors
Alisha Borden, NCIDQ is an interior designer at Bora with more than a decade of experience on a range of project types, including hospitality, commercial, residential, multifamily, higher education and historic revitalization. Upholding the vital role of community voices in design, she brings a thoughtful, research-centered approach to the design process to center the life experiences of building users. Alisha’s portfolio includes interior design leadership for award-winning workplaces as well as the community-based St. Johns Library renovation in Portland, Oregon.
Jeanie Lai, Principal
Bora Architecture & Interiors
Jeanie is a concept-driven architect and interior designer with 22 years of experience creating authentic spaces that capture the specifics of time and place. She believes the unique parameters of each client and project are the greatest source of creative inspiration — a philosophy that has shaped her work across collaborative environments and amenity spaces for corporate, higher education, and arts clients.
