Hacienda CDC Verizon Innovation Labs

Technology labs increase access and build community

Scott Edwards Architecture partnered with Hacienda CDC, Verizon, and GSI Builders to develop three Verizon Innovation Lab locations in Portland, Oregon. The mission of these spaces is to increase access to technology in economically disenfranchised communities. Each Lab has a welcoming reception area and flexible, technology-driven classrooms that facilitate both educational events and independent study. SEA’s designs operate within the Verizon brand guidelines while also finding moments to personalize each Lab to its specific neighborhood, using color and imagery to respond to context.

Client
Verizon, Hacienda CDC

Location
Portland, OR

Size
1,000 sf and 2,000 sf

Year
2023

Artist Tashina Suzuki created the mural at the Cully Learning Center’s reception desk. Suzuki is a Japanese-American fine artist creating works that explore the inter-dimensional wonders of light and divine feminine power in relationship to the spiritual and natural worlds.

Artist Daniela Del Mar created Somos Live Wires for the reception desk at the New Columbia Learning Center. The design elements are created from lego forms to speak to the confluence of traditional handcraft with computer literacy.

Each of the Verizon Innovation Labs is contextualized to provide a space reflective of the neighborhood’s needs and wants. The Cully Learning Center is located within the Hacienda CDC Headquarters and supports distance learning for students, offers room for Hacienda’s Empresarios small business incubator program, and connects community members with the Free Geek computer distribution program. The Jade District Learning Center is located within the SE Portland Community College campus and offers the same programming as Cully. It also has the added benefit of being embedded within a higher learning institution, cultivating a further connection between the community and this active local institution.

The New Columbia Learning Center Lab is located within Rosemary Anderson High School’s Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center, an alternative school that reconnects alienated at-risk youth and adults to education, career training, and culturally specific wraparound programs. This Lab is designed to support all the same programming as Cully and Jade while also offering a recording studio space. Programs like iUrban Teen use the recording studio to help students produce music.

SEA worked within each of these existing spaces to implement Verizon’s program and brand. Recurring elements like cork flooring, reconfigurable furniture, and particular attention to accessibility, along with the focus on technology, link all three. Each space is also personalized by custom murals painted by a local artist. The murals illustrate the location’s community context.

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