Waterfront Park southern section, from Hawthorne Br

RiverPlace Marina and Marquam Bridge in 2007

RiverPlace is a mixed-use district of

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. Although not an officially recognized neighborhood, its borders can be considered to be

Naito Parkway Naito Parkway is a major thoroughfare of Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. It was formerly known as Front Avenue and Front Street and was renamed in 1996 to honor Bill Naito. It runs between SW Barbur Boulevard and NW Front Avenue, and adjac ...

to the west, the

Willamette River The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward b ...

to the east, and the

Marquam Bridge The Marquam Bridge is a double-deck, steel-truss cantilever bridge that carries Interstate 5 traffic across the Willamette River from south of downtown Portland, Oregon, on the west side to the industrial area of inner Southeast on the east. ...

(which carries

I-5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Californi ...

) to the south. The area was

brownfield land In urban planning, brownfield land is any previously developed land that is not currently in use. It may be potentially contaminated, but this is not required for the area to be considered brownfield. The term is also used to describe land prev ...

before it was developed.

History

The land which RiverPlace occupies was formerly part of

Harbor Drive Harbor Drive is a short roadway in Portland, Oregon, spanning a total length of , which primarily functions as a ramp to and from Interstate 5. It was once much longer, running along the western edge of the Willamette River in the downtown are ...

, an expressway running along the west bank of the Willamette River. In 1976, Harbor Drive was demolished and replaced by Waterfront Park for much of its distance, except for the area where RiverPlace would be developed. The

Portland Development Commission Prosper Portland, formerly the Portland Development Commission (PDC), is the community development corporation A community development corporation (CDC) is a not-for-profit organization incorporated to provide programs, offer services and engage ...

invested $6 million in improving the infrastructure and livability of the area throughout the early 1980s, including a marina by 1985. 1985 also marked the opening of the RiverPlace hotel, a small

condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...

complex with amenities, a floating restaurant on the river, a

marina A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : ''marina'', "coast" or "shore") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships o ...

, and boutique shops. The RiverPlace development was completed in 1995, by which point it had 480 residential units, 26,000 square feet of retail space, and 42,000 square feet of office space (not including the headquarters of Pacific Gas Transmission, which are also in RiverPlace). The Portland Streetcar NS Line was extended through to the area from

Portland State University Portland State University (PSU) is a public research university in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1946 as a post-secondary educational institution for World War II veterans. It evolved into a four-year college over the following two decades ...

in 2005, and the system's CL Line (subsequently reconfigured as the

Loop Service The A and B Loop is a streetcar circle route of the Portland Streetcar system in Portland, Oregon, United States. Operated by Portland Streetcar, Inc. and TriMet, it consists of two services within the Central City that travel a loop between th ...

) was extended to the area in 2015. The

MAX Orange Line The MAX Orange Line is a light rail service in Portland, Oregon, United States, operated by TriMet as part of the MAX Light Rail system. It connects Portland City Center, Portland State University (PSU), Southeast Portland, Milwaukie, and ...

, a light rail line which opened in 2015, runs on elevated tracks through the west end of the district, but does not have a stop within it.

References

External links

* {{coord, 45.509, -122.674, type:landmark_region:US-OR, display=title Neighborhoods in Portland, Oregon Redeveloped ports and waterfronts in the United States Southwest Portland, Oregon