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When Alexander “Sandy” Bodecker died of throat cancer at age 68 last October, he was hailed as one of the most creative minds in Nike history. He left behind a litany of sneaker innovations and marketing triumphs, including the sportswear giant’s first skateboarding shoe.
He also left behind the Sinbin.
That’s the official nickname of Bodecker’s 7,769-square-foot home in Northwest Portland’s Alphabet District, a pancake’s flip away from Stepping Stone Cafe. Skylab Architecture—the same firm that designed the Doug Fir and the city’s sewer workers palace—took two industrial warehouses and began slicing and stacking. For years, passersby wondered what was going in there. The answer: everything. By last summer, the compound would grow to include a skate bowl, a DJ booth, a sand beach with a fire pit, a bamboo garden, and a putt-putt golf course. Topping it all? A metal fun slide, three stories above the Nob Hill neighbors.
It’s become commonplace to bemoan that Portland has become a playground for the rich. Sinbin doesn’t exactly defy that criticism. But in the brief time he occupied it, Bodecker made the space a hub for artists—its two apartments were leased to visiting musicians. As memorials go, it’s a tribute to how Portland, and Bodecker, built a fortune on pure imagination.
