The Commonwealth Building is a 14-story, commercial office tower in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Located at 421 SW 6th Avenue between Washington and Harvey Milk Streets, it was designed by

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Pietro Belluschi Pietro Belluschi (August 18, 1899 – February 14, 1994) was an Italian-American architect. A leading figure in modern architecture, he was responsible for the design of over 1,000 buildings.Belluschi, Pietro. (2007). In ''Encyclopædia Britannic ...

and built between 1944 and 1948. The building was originally known as the Equitable Building and is noted as one of the first glass box towers ever built, pioneering many modern features and predating the more famous

Lever House Lever House is a office building at 390 Park Avenue (Manhattan), Park Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The building was designed in the International style (architecture), International Style by Gordon Bunshaft a ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

History

New Equitable Building, Portland, Oregon (88602)

Construction on the building began in 1944, with it opening in 1948 as the Equitable Building. The building, which was built as the headquarters in Portland of the Equitable Savings and Loan Association, was originally intended to be 12 stories high but was later expanded to 14. It was the first tower to be sheathed in

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...

, the first to use double-glazed window panels, and was the first to be completely sealed and fully

air-conditioned Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

. In 1965, the building was renamed as the Commonwealth Building when the Equitable Center (now Unitus Plaza) opened, which was also designed by Pietro Belluschi. The Commonwealth Building was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

(as the Equitable Building) in 1976. In 1980, the

American Society of Mechanical Engineers The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is an American professional association that, in its own words, "promotes the art, science, and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe" via "continuing ...

(ASME) designated the Commonwealth Building as a National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark.Equitable Building Heat Pump (1948)
from asme.org In 1982, the building was the recipient of the

Twenty-five Year Award The Twenty-five Year Award is an architecture prize awarded each year by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) to "a building that has set a precedent for the last 25 to 35 years and continues to set standards of excellence for its architect ...

, of the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...

. In 1993, Weston Investment Co. LLC bought the building for $1.9 million.

Unico Properties Unico Properties LLC (formerly University Properties Inc) is an American private equity real estate investment and development company based in Seattle, Washington, focused on the north-west and west of the US. It was founded in 1953. As of Se ...

and Cigna Realty Investors bought the building in 2007 from Weston for $27 million, and spent $7 million more on renovations to the structure. The building was sold again by Unico in 2013 for $41 million when Unico bought out Cigna. Unico sold the tower to KBS in 2016 for $69 million.

Features

, the tower is of the International Style. The 14-story, -tall glass box tower is constructed of sea-green

glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of ...

and is sheathed in

Designations and awards

The building is listed on the

, and is also designated as a National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the ASME. The ASME History & Heritage Committee bestowed this landmark status for the specific feature: the first large commercial building in the United States to pioneer the use of

heat pumps A heat pump is a device that can heat a building (or part of a building) by transferring thermal energy from the outside using a refrigeration cycle. Many heat pumps can also operate in the opposite direction, cooling the building by removing h ...

for heating and cooling.

References

External links

*
Great Buildings Online: The Equitable BuildingBuilding Oregon: Equitable Building
{{Portal bar, Architecture, National Register of Historic Places, Oregon Skyscraper office buildings in Portland, Oregon Pietro Belluschi buildings National Register of Historic Places in Portland, Oregon Office buildings completed in 1948 1948 establishments in Oregon Southwest Portland, Oregon Portland Historic Landmarks

History

Features

Designations and awards

See also

References

External links