When the new main terminal opens, most of the concession stands will be clad in Valerie Carey’s innovative recycled-wood panels. You won’t be able to see the results of her hard work, though—and that’s fine by her.
Valerie owns Portland’s Sankofa Lumber, a two-year-old company that collects wood waste from construction companies, then sells it back to builders in the form of pre-cut lumber and her SecondStory line of architectural panels made from recycled plywood or OSB (similar to particle board).
If this sounds a little like what you buy at Portland’s ReBuilding Center, you’re not wrong—Valerie actually moved to Portland in 2015 to manage the center. She has also built houses for her dad’s construction firm, gotten her master’s degree in sustainable development, and worked for City of Roses Disposal and Recycling. “If I look at my resume, I would never hire myself,” she jokes. “What I'm doing is the only thing that I'm qualified to do.”
The reason you won’t see Sankofa’s wood panels—which are made from scraps of mass timber left over from constructing PDX’s new roof—is that they’ll be covered in white-oak veneers from small family forests and mills throughout the region. But local carpenters and cabinet makers are falling in love with the way Carey’s products look on their own.
We had a few questions for Valerie:
What was the inspiration for Sankofa?When I was managing the ReBuilding Center, I always felt that the DIY backyard creative reuse, as inspiring and cool as it is, is not going to move the needle very far. When you consider that construction is responsible for 20% of all solid waste, and wood is half of that, we’re talking about 35 million to 40 million tons of wood a year.
That pencils out to 20-25% of the virgin lumber we harvest on an annual basis. Imagine going to the grocery store, and you end up throwing away 25% of what the farmers harvest. Most construction waste doesn't get turned into mulch. It’s ground up for industrial boiler fuel. That's “recycling” for wood waste.
What’s the wood that Sankofa salvages and sells?We take in mixed wood waste, from framing lumber scraps to bracing that they're tossing. It's perfectly reusable—it's standard to overorder your lumber package so you don't wind up sending a $40-an-hour carpenter with the truck for that last 2x6 you need.
With plywood, when a building gets “skinned” on the outside with standard plywood sheets, there's going to be scraps. We came up with cross-laminated panels made up of scrap plywood. Now they are being installed as wall paneling, countertops, work surfaces, drawer fronts, and cabinet doors.
How did you recycle the wood from the airport’s own roof into panels for the interior of the terminal?
It was a happy accident. PDX was looking to incorporate the reclaimed-plywood panel that we produce into custom panels with white oak facing. I'm buddies with Timberlab, which did all the custom cutting for the roof. They told me they had a ton of off cuts, and I'm like: “I have an idea!”
What does Sankofa mean?It’s a term from Ghana. The original way I heard it translated is “It’s not taboo to go back and retrieve what you've forgotten.” My mom's from East Africa, and there’s an alternate term in the Tigrinya language. But the influence of West Africa on the African American experience in this country was more important to nod to.
What did it mean to provide these panels to PDX?I feel like everything that I knew to be possible just got validated on a very big scale. It’s not a bespoke, small project that few people are going to see. It's huge. And I'm also really proud of how hyper-local this is. Our manufacturing partner is 30 minutes outside Portland. The people applying the finishes are within a 30-mile radius. And that's not including the Oregon white oak, which came from within a 100-mile radius.
It really speaks to the determination of everyone working on this project to highlight the Pacific Northwest’s ethos of sustainability and to do things differently. We don't have to do it the same way it always has been done.
Tom Strong - Chief Executive Officer, Skokomish Indian Tribe, Skokomish Washington
"We're foresters in that we're stewards," says Tom Strong, Chief Executive Officer of the Skokomish Indian Tribe, which manages 2,000 acres of Washington forests for its 800 tribal members. "We're not cutting and planting, seeking to develop our lands into a commodity. Instead, we're doing it to restore the forest."
Over the past 100 years, the two dams on the North Fork Skokomish River have had a major impact on the entire ecosystem of Skokomish land. "We want to restore the entire Hood Canal watershed," Tom says. The forests are just one part.
Selling wood from Douglas fir trees the tribe selectively thinned will help fund this restoration. "We don't have an endless amount of money," Tom says. "But we would like to think we've got an endless amount of time."
Ben Hayes - Co-owner, Hyla Woods, Cherry Grove, Oregon
Ben Hayes is a sixth-generation forester who manages Hyla Woods, outside Cherry Grove, Oregon, with his father, Peter. He is also a sustainable-forestry consultant. At Hyla Woods, the Hayes experiment with selective thinning and patch cutting, instead of clear-cutting, to foster diversity of tree species, ages, and sizes.
"When you look 100 years out, having greater complexity in terms of species and the structure of the forest, you can increase the forest's resilience in the face of extreme weather and drought," he says.
"We're working toward a model of forestry that you could practice for the perpetual future,” Ben says. “It's a model that lifts up both rural and urban communities and the ecosystems we rely on."
Richard and Ann Hanschu - Owners, Doneen, Forest Grove, Oregon
Ann Hanschu's father first bought land outside Forest Grove, Oregon, in 1956. Ann grew up trailing her father around the forest, learning from him. The Hanschus now have three children, four grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
Richard says, "We're planting trees that our grandchildren will see the profits from — not even our children. It's long-range thinking."
"A lot of the timber is older,” Ann adds. “We're laddering it with trees of different age groups — some 30-40 years old, some 10-20 years old — so the land can continue to produce a sustainable amount of wood."
Herman Flamenco - Central Cascades Conservation Forester, The Nature Conservancy, Cle Elum, Washington
"We know historically that the stands we're working on were overstocked," says Herman Flamenco, Central Cascades conservation forester for the Nature Conservancy, of the 50,000 acres outside Cle Elum, Washington, the organization manages. Thinning the trees welcomes in light and biodiversity.
Some loggers in the region worry that this low-impact approach to forestry yields less lumber, and less profit, than clear-cutting. One local outfit took on this labor-intensive challenge, selectively harvesting Doug fir trees from steep slopes.
"Western Washington is wetter. In our dry climate, there's less moisture and increased fire risk," Herman says. "As we look at climate change, it's just going to get dryer. We want to make sure we can keep our forests around."
In the 1950s, back when people wore fancy hats to the airport, PDX’s main terminal had brown terrazzo floors.
By the 1970s, blue carpet sporting the old Port of Portland logo replaced the terrazzo. The airport was so concerned about keeping the carpet clean that we banned gum-chewing indoors.
In the 1980s, PDX replaced the ski-chalet paneling in the Clocktower Plaza with high ceilings and skylights, but kept the blue carpet.
SRG Partnership, a Portland-based architecture firm, designed the pattern for the now-iconic carpet on the layout of the airport runways.
The Clocktower Plaza, post-1988, with the iconic carpet.
The Clocktower Plaza (before its demolition in 2021-22) with the new carpet.
The flexible interior spaces were designed with the future of travel in mind — and to give you plenty of comfortable spots to recharge before your next flight.
Two permanent installations from acclaimed contemporary artist Jacob Hashimoto hang like clouds above the concourse’s common areas.
Shops and restaurants are clustered together like city blocks, with a pedestrian-friendly scale and lots of room to spread out.
PDX’s swanky new bar, Juliett, honors women in aviation with mid-20th-century style, top-class cocktails, and local wines and beers.
Sky-high windows fill the interior with daylight while maximizing the concourse extension’s energy efficiency.
At the east end of the concourse, a wall of windows opens up this epic view of Mt. Hood, where you’ll definitely want to pose for a photo before takeoff.
The Concourse E extension project is the dedicated home for Southwest Airlines at PDX, with six new gates.
Remember the view of Mt. Hood on Concourse E? It’s coming back, brighter than ever.
Tillamook’s menu includes the best of the classics with fried cheese curds and a signature grilled cheese.
Calliope takes its name from one of Oregon’s native hummingbirds and showcases creative and playful keepsakes.
Grab your favorite book, magazine or newspaper at Your Northwest Travel Mart.
Concourse B's 38-foot-high ceilings and 6,900 square feet of windows don't just let light in. They let you watch the airport in action. "I think this airport gave us a chance to celebrate the romance of flight," says Gene Sandoval of ZGF, the architecture firm that designed the new concourse.
ZGF Architects was inspired to bring the Pacific Northwest’s natural world indoors. You can contemplate the plants hanging from the ceiling and the Oregon white-oak walls as you relax in B’s comfy new seats. (Bonus: More power adapters!)
RYAN! Feddersen’s art installation, which fills the concourse, is made up of three interconnected pieces. The “Sentinel” landscapes and abstract “Habitat Tiles” are pictured here.
RYAN! is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. She draws inspiration from the region’s traditions and landscape for these pieces, which include the gently rolling “Cloud Walk” overhead.
Nicole and David Mouton, in partnership with HMSHost, opened an outpost of Portland’s beloved Screen Door Restaurant on Concourse B. Find Screen Door’s legendary fried chicken and waffles here from breakfast until dinnertime.
Sam and Nick Purvis, the brothers behind Good Coffee, source fresh coffee beans and teas from all over the world. Pick up a pastry or a bag of beans, too!
Our new rental car center opened in November 2021.
All rental car brands are now on-site at PDX – no more shuttles to pick up your car.
Perez Westbrooks' colorful digital mural celebrates Northwest flora.
Ben Butler's swirling wood sculpture is made from reclaimed Douglas fir.
The new facility also adds 30 ADA parking spots, more than 30 electric vehicle charging stations, and 2,200 long-term parking spaces to the airport.
Adding more lanes to our new, relocated exit toll plaza helps you leave PDX more quickly.
Every design decision we make is about keeping the heart and soul of PDX intact. You’ll see homages to all the things you love about our city and region in the new airport designs.
You’ll notice subtle nods to the Pacific Northwest landscape throughout the space. Natural light, living trees, and native Oregon foliage may give you the feeling of walking through a park.
The new terminal’s wooden ceiling, made from sustainably grown, local Doug fir, might remind you of daylight filtering through forest canopies.
This will be your new view when entering the spacious ticket lobby at PDX. The nine-acre wood roof is so distinctive you’ll be able to spot it from the air.
The ripples and currents of pristine Northwest rivers inspired the new terminal’s curvy profile.
Expanding the heart of PDX creates more space for our beloved local shops and restaurants — not to mention local humans (and visitors, too).