Architecture & Design
Portland, OR
Parti Architecture designs beautifully crafted buildings and spaces that help communities thrive.
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What we do
We specialize in Affordable Housing, Modular Design, Adaptive Reuse, Restaurants and Commercial Spaces.
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Studio
COMMUNITY
OVER COMMERCE!
Women-led and concept-focused, Parti was founded based on the belief that the design is a powerful change agent. Our work is rooted in building community, not prestige.
Parti architecture is defined by agency, advocacy and most importantly, our alliances. Our definition of success is when a ‘high design’ aesthetic is made accessible to small businesses, nonprofits and public agencies. We believe design should play a crucial role in restoring and renewing reasons for hope. Our research department examines the intersection of architecture and social justice with a focus on women and the built environment.
Yes, we are a full service architectural firm, particularly skilled at navigating city bureaucracy and never failing to pull a permit or execute a client request; however, it is the impact that a project has on its community that fuels our work. Our portfolio of affordable housing for domestic violence survivors, old buildings repurposed with new functions, beloved restaurant institutions revived and refreshed, and thriving small businesses attest to the alignment of our values in our projects.
Feasibility Services
Project goals are defined. Initial programming happens and the big picture ideas are applied to physical space on a site (or multiple sites). Testing SF goals, seating counts or unit counts and the overall building massing against preliminary zoning and building code requirements happen here. This phase generally results in a vetted preliminary design with consideration of meeting applicable jurisdictional requirements.
Schematic Design
If no feasibility has been done, then this is the starting point for assembling the guiding principles into a design. If feasibility has been done, then this phase is generally shortened as the preliminary design gets flushed out. Deliverables include a site plan, floor plan(s), sections, elevations and a 3D model. Typically, the drawings include overall dimensions, and can be used for a rough order of magnitude construction cost. Schematic design includes the in depth research phase of the project, when zoning requirements or jurisdictional restrictions are discovered and addressed.
Design Development
This design phase includes adding mechanical, electrical, plumbing design and the coordination required for doing so. Deliverables include more developed floor plans, sections, and elevations with full dimensions. These drawings typically include door and window details and outline material specifications.
Construction Documents
The construction document phase produces a set of drawings that include all pertinent information required for the contractor to price and build the project.
Bidding and Negotiation
Assist owner with creation and compilation of the bidding documents, general contractor recommendations and bid set distribution. Respond to questions from all bidders and issue any required additional information. Assist owner with evaluation of bids and selection of contractor.
Construction Administration
Site visits, respond to contractor RFI’s and reviewing submittals to ensure construction is happening per construction documents and design intent.
Shea Gilligan
Managing Principal
With over a decade of experience in the Portland market, Parti Architecture is led by Shea Gilligan. Her career is defined by a mastery of complex urban projects, managing various multi-tenant adaptive reuse projects, becoming a ‘go-to’ for local restaurant design and building lasting, meaningful relationships with non-profit and public agency leadership. Parti is think-tank based in read world practice re-examining both the figure of the architect, herself and the designer’s role in creating spaces that heal, unify and solve problems.
Parti symbolizes the new wave of firm devoted to accountability, inclusivity, and design which emphasizes women’s empowerment/equity and protection of the environment. Fiercely collaborative, this team has been assembled to change the discourse around who benefits from architecture, what and who informs design, how quickly we can affect and implement change and why we are so motivated to challenge rather than maintain the status quo. The formation of this firm is the evolution of architectural intelligence, optimism and trust in female leadership.
Since graduating from Columbia University’s 3 year architecture master’s program in 2011, her career since then has been focused on advancing her craft and building a practice based almost entirely on the word of mouth of satisfied, repeat clients.
Although Shea’s career began in New York City, it wasn’t until moving to Portland, OR where her leadership abilities emerged professionally. After working at one small firm for 11 years, winning multiple large projects, creating a brand and loyal clientele, she left as a principal to start Parti in 2025.
Parti is Shea’s vision for how design can empower women and build a future which is rooted in resiliency. Parti’s breakout project in Bandon, OR will be 40 net zero units of affordable housing for domestic violence survivors – a project which rests at the intersection of true prosperity – socially, environmentally and economically. Outside of architecture, Shea can be found with her family, on her yoga mat, and in the sanctity of nature.
Lori Brown
Head of Research Department
Lori Brown was appointed a member of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-Habitat Advisory Group on Gender Issues (AGGI), 2025-2027. As an author, her most recent publication co-edited with Dr. Karen Burns, The Bloomsbury Global Encyclopedia of Women in Architecture, 1960-2020, addresses women’s marginality in architecture’s discourse. Lori’s second book, Contested Spaces: Abortion Clinics, Women’s Shelters and Hospitals (2013) investigates how legislation affects politicized and securitized spaces. In addition, she curated, organized and participated in Feminist Practices, an international group of women designers and architects whose work engages feminist methodologies which was published as an edited book, Feminist Practices: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Women in Architecture by Ashgate in December 2011.
Lori Brown has been teaching at the Syracuse University School of Architecture since 2001. She has been awarded artist residencies at Macdowell, Jentel and Caldera and her work has been exhibited widely. She is a registered architect in the state of New York, a member of the American Institute of Architects and the American Association of University Women. In February 2022, Brown was elevated to the AIA College of Fellows. Lori has a B.S. in Architecture from Georgia Institute of Technology; and her M.Arch from Princeton University.
Ron Eng
RA
With more than 33 years of professional experience & 20+ years in design education, Ron has been Director of Design at Formactiv since its creation (founding the practice in 1999 with Eugenie Huang). Having completed projects at scales ranging from boutiques, galleries and townhouses, to large mixed-use and institutional projects, Ron has maintained a practice that strives for a collaborative and often pedagogic approach to Designer-Client relations. Though the majority of the work has been in the New York City area, project locations have ranged from the Hollywood Hills to the Bund in Shanghai. Prior to founding Formactiv, Ron worked in the offices of Rafael Vinoly Architects, Davis Brody Bond Architects, and Greenberg Farrow Architects. Ron is a Registered Architect in New York State, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Oregon and New Jersey and is an active Researcher, having previously taught at MIT, Pratt Institute, the Parsons School of Design and on juries at RISD, RPI, NYIT and City College of New York. With four generations of family cultivated in the Tri-State Area (and two more generations of tinies in development), Ron is a proud Alum of Stuyvesant High School ’87 and MIT B.S.A.D. ’91 + M.Arch ’94 and is an avid collector, with an overflowing collection of books, furniture, toys and other ephemera.
Projects
Archive 2015 – 2026
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