Research-based design innovation: Robinson sees innovation as a core component of the design process and an opportunity for architects to demonstrate their value to society. In 2015, LEVER's design for "Framework" was awarded the $1.5 million United States Tall Wood Building Prize to fund the necessary full-scale fire, structural, and acoustic testing necessary to demonstrate the viability and safety of timber high-rise structures. Regenerative Architecture: Robinson is focused on how LEVER’s work can evolve the extractive model that underpins contemporary building to a place where material choices can be catalysts for restoring the landscapes, communities, and ecologies that—while not on the site the building occupies—are still very much connected to it.
Thomas Robinson is the founder of LEVER Architecture, a research-based design practice in Portland, Oregon and Los Angeles, widely recognized for material innovation and for pioneering work with mass timber.
The work encompasses multiple scales and typologies, ranging from affordable housing to academic, corporate, and the arts. In parallel with their projects, the firm develops and tests next generation building assemblies and sustainable tools—a research effort supported by more than $3M in grant funding. For this commitment to groundbreaking design, LEVER was recognized by Fast Company as one of the world’s most innovative companies; and in 2017, was named to Architectural Record’s Design Vanguard and the Architectural League of New York’s Emerging Voices. Robinson has lectured nationally and internationally in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and South America and has served as a design critic at Harvard, Columbia, Yale, USC, UCLA, and the University of Oregon.
Selected current projects include Maine’s Portland Museum of Art, Portland State University’s School of Art + Design, two libraries for Multnomah County, a multi-building campus project for NBCUniversal, and 843 N Spring Street, a creative development and one of LA’s largest Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) buildings.
Architizer, Top 100 Firms in North America, 2024
Architect’s Newspaper, Best of Practice Awards, Architect Medium Firm—West, 2024
Fast Company, World’s Most Innovative Companies, 2022
James Templeton Kelley Prize, Harvard Graduate School of Design, 2000
Eisner Award, UC Berkeley, 1991
