Kevin Cavenaugh

Founder

Guerrilla Development

Portland, OR

Kevin Cavenaugh is a designer and developer from Portland, Oregon. He has created a practice based on the principle of wearing as many hats as possible in the construction of a building. He typically serves as developer, designer, long-term owner and property manager.

He has most recently completed three buildings in Portland neighborhoods that use unconventional materials, exhibit strong environmental sensitivity, and bring lively uses to the street. By serving as his own developer, he can decide which risks he wants to take. By owning the buildings after they are complete, he brings the discipline of reasonable operating costs to the design process. And by serving as the property manager, he generates feedback for his future development/design projects.

His buildings includes such innovations as a well that brings water from 300 below ground (thus requiring less energy to heat it and cool it), an edible green roof that will serve as a food source for the fourth floor restaurant in the building, an arcade to reflect other buildings in the neighborhood, and sliding window-shading panels designed by 26 different artists.

As a fellow, Kevin Cavenaugh studied urban planning principles, especially the regulatory framework that tends to dampen innovative ideas, and landscape architecture.

Articles featuring Kevin Cavenaugh

Business

17 Inspirational Archipreneur Quotes that will Motivate You in 2017

In our interview series Archipreneur Insights we have spoken with more than 40 Archipreneurs. Experts and entrepreneurs in the field of architecture, building and development have answered our questions and giving us insight into their creative and unusual operations of their businesses and projects. From these interviews we want to share with you the most inspirational […]

Real Estate

Editor’s Pick: Crowdinvesting for Real Estate by Guerrilla Development

Welcome to Editor’s Picks, where we feature our favorite interviews, must-watch videos and innovative news from the architectural, design and building communities’ movers and shakers. This week, we want to share with you a video by Guerrilla Development promoting cowdinvesting for their next real estate project The Fair-Haired Dumbbell. Guerrilla Development is not your average […]

Projects

How to Develop a Used Car Lot into a Trending Food Court: The Zipper by Guerrilla Development

Welcome to our projects series where we present benchmarks of urban living – self developed by architects and creative city makers. This week we want to present you the project The Zipper by Portland based Guerrilla Development. We interviewed Kevin Cavenaugh, architect developer and founder of the real estate development company Guerrilla Development, last year. In the interview […]

Interviews

Archipreneur Interview: Kevin Cavenaugh, Designer & Developer

Welcome back to “Archipreneur Insights”, the interview series at archipreneur.com with people who do creative and uncommon work and projects within the architectural community. The series highlights people who have an architectural degree but have since followed an entrepreneurial or alternative career path in the field. This week’s interview is with Kevin Cavenaugh, the founder […]

Products featuring Kevin Cavenaugh

Report #04

Architect and Developer:
A Case Study Handbook to Getting Started

In our Architect and Developer report you can read 10 interviews of practicing Architect and Developers who share their stories and how they got started with the first projects. Learn from their first-hand experiences and be inspired to start with your own project.

Read Report

Quotes from Kevin Cavenaugh

"I would like to see architects be less passive in their roles and with their profession."
"I am at my best when I use my right brain and my left brain equally. Architecture school hones both of these hemispheres in a way that’s not common in other professions."
"Because I enjoy the experimentation more than anything I have found that I cannot have clients."