JSA/MIXdesign Spring/Summer 2026 Newsletter

Portland Community College Health Technology Building Opens

JSA/MIXdesign collaborated with Woofter Bolch Architecture on the renovation of Portland Community College’s Health Technology Building at the Sylvania Campus, which officially opened on May 5, 2026.

The renovation transforms the existing Health Technology Building through a series of strategic interventions designed to improve accessibility, connectivity, and student belonging. A new two-story east–west atrium cuts through the former double-height swimming pool, creating a central circulation spine and gathering space. The former pool has been converted into classrooms for Exercise Science, Fitness, and Health Professions programs, while a new all-user locker room has been integrated beneath the existing gymnasium.

The all-user locker room represents a pioneering new model for inclusive health and wellness environments. Instead of requiring all users to choose between conventional gender-segregated locker rooms, the facility offers a range of options: a shared central locker area, fully enclosed wet cabanas with showers, dry cabanas for changing, and an all-user inclusive restroom. Smaller traditional men’s and women’s locker rooms are also provided for users who prefer a gender-specific space. Together, these choices offer greater privacy, flexibility, and dignity for people of different ages, abilities, gender identities, religious backgrounds, and comfort levels.

Stalled! Receives 2026 W Awards Research Prize

In May 2026, Stalled!, JSA/MIXdesign’s design-research initiative for inclusive restrooms and locker rooms, received the 2026 W Awards Prize for Research in Gender and Architecture from The Architectural Review. The award recognizes research projects that address the spatial implications of gender and sexuality.

Launched in 2016 in response to national controversies surrounding transgender access to public restrooms, Stalled! has become one of the central areas of JSA/MIXdesign’s practice. Through projects with institutional clients, the initiative develops all-user restroom and locker room designs and guidelines that address the overlapping needs of people of different ages, genders, religious backgrounds, abilities, and comfort levels.

Joel Sanders, Principal of JSA/MIXdesign, traveled to London to accept the award on behalf of the Stalled! interdisciplinary team of collaborators, including Susan Stryker, Terry Kogan, John Pachankis, Antonia Caba, and Quemuel Arroyo. At the ceremony, held at the Architectural Association, Sanders presented “Stalled!: Inclusive Restrooms and Locker Rooms,” tracing the evolution of the initiative and showing how its inclusive design principles inform JSA/MIXdesign’s broader approach to research, engagement, guidelines, and built work.

To learn more about Stalled! click HERE.

Lectures + Events

Recent

• Magda Mostafa at the Hellenic Parliament Museum of Art, Embodiments: Art, Atmospheres and Sensory Worlds, June 15-17, 2026
• Hansel Bauman’s DeafSpace at Architect@Work Warsaw, Wise Habit: The Power of Three Exhibition, May 2026
• Magda Mostafa at Clerkenwell Design Week, Inclusive by Design: Colour, Lived Experience and Inclusion Panel, May 20, 2026
• Joel Sanders at the NY11+ Awards Luncheon at the United Nations, Critical Interiors: Design for All, April 21, 2026
• Joel Sanders at the 5th Annual Symposium for Disability and Accessibility at Yale, The Aesthetics of Access Panel, April 09, 2026
• Joel Sanders at the Long Island Museum Association, Building Access: An Inside Look at the Museum of Disability History, March 30, 2026
• Magda Mostafa at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Dublin, Ireland, The Future of Work: Neurodiversrity Summit, 2026, March 20, 2026

Awards + Recognition

Recent

• Magda Mostafa awarded LDE Global Fund Grant to study the future of the Neuro-Inclusive City in collaboration with Lieden University, TUDelft, and Erasmus University in the Netherlands