Wells Fargo Center is a 40-story, tower and adjoining five-story

office building An office is a space where the employees of an organization perform administrative work in order to support and realize the various goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific du ...

with three basement parking levels in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

. The tower became the tallest building in the state of Oregon when it was completed in 1972.

History

The building and a connected five-story building were designed by Charles Luckman and Associates. Originally named the First National Bank Tower, the building opened on April 17, 1972, and was formally dedicated on May 25, 1972. At that time, the bank occupied the first 21 floors of the tower and the entire connected, five-story building, which is known as the Data Processing Building. The name was changed to the First Interstate Tower in 1980–81, after Western Bancorporation, the parent of First National Bank of Oregon, changed its name to

First Interstate Bancorp First Interstate Bancorp was a bank holding company based in the United States. Headquartered in Los Angeles, it was the nation's eighth largest banking company. Although First Interstate Bancorp was taken over by Wells Fargo in 1996, the name ...

.Sorensen, Donald J. (August 19, 1980). "Firm, banks to change name". ''The Oregonian'', p. A10. The current name was adopted after

Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with a significant global presence. The company operates in 35 countries and serves over 70 million customers worldwide. It is a systemically important fi ...

purchased First Interstate in 1996. Upon opening in 1972, the Wells Fargo Center dwarfed all other buildings in downtown Portland. Public outcry over the tower's scale and the potential of new development to block views of

Mount Hood Mount Hood, also known as Wy'east, is an active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range and is a member of the Cascade Volcanic Arc. It was formed by a subduction zone on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast and rests in the Pacific N ...

led to height restrictions on all new development. The public areas underwent extensive renovation in 2001, including the addition of more retail space. Renovations were completed in 2002 at a cost of $35 million. Focused on the lobby area, the work included the addition of a display on the bank's history. The center had been the headquarters of

Willamette Industries Willamette Industries, Inc. was a Fortune 500 forest products company based in Portland, Oregon, United States.Weyerhaeuser The Weyerhaeuser Company ( ) is an American timberland company which owns nearly of timberlands in the U.S., and manages an additional of timberlands under long-term licenses in Canada. The company has manufactured wood products for over a c ...

. In November 2017,

Starwood Capital Group Starwood Capital Group is an investment firm headquartered in Miami Beach, Florida. It is managed by Barry Sternlicht. It was co-founded by Sternlicht and Robert Faith in 1991. In 1993, Faith left Starwood to found Greystar Real Estate Partn ...

purchased the tower and adjacent carriage building from Wells Fargo.

Details

Wells Fargo Center contains the regional headquarters of

Wells Fargo Bank Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with a significant global presence. The company operates in 35 countries and serves over 70 million customers worldwide. It is a systemically important fi ...

. The tower is located in

Downtown Portland Downtown Portland is the central business district of Portland, Oregon, United States. It is on the west bank of the Willamette River in the northeastern corner of the southwest section of the city and where most of the city's high-rise buildi ...

, in the block bounded by Southwest Fourth and Fifth Avenues between Southwest Columbia and Jefferson Streets. A

skyway A skyway, skybridge, skywalk, or sky walkway is an elevated type of pedway connecting two or more buildings in an urban area, or connecting elevated points within mountainous recreational zones. Urban skyways very often take the form of Cover ...

connects the tower to the adjacent five-story Data Processing Building, which is also part of the Wells Fargo Center. The 40-story building is the tallest building in Oregon, and the third largest office building with . The main bank lobby is home to an authentic 1870

stagecoach A stagecoach (also: stage coach, stage, road coach, ) is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by ...

from Wells Fargo's past. Architectural details include extensive use of

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...

. There is a total of of white Italian marble, thick. The exterior of the building has columns of bronze-tinted glass, white Italian marble, and anodized aluminum running the entire height of the building.

Reception

The design of the building has been criticized for a variety of architectural issues.

Ivan Doig Ivan Doig (; June 27, 1939 – April 9, 2015) was an American author and novelist, widely known for his sixteen fiction and non-fiction books set mostly in his native Montana, celebrating the landscape and people of the post-war American West. W ...

, writing about Portland for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' in 1976, stated the building was "huge and sleek and featureless".

Museum

A branch of the Wells Fargo History Museum is located in the building's lobby. The museum's exhibits include an 1854

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

and mining equipment, and displays about the company's use of

steamboats A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. The term ''steamboat'' is used to refer to small steam-powered vessels worki ...

along the Columbia and

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 ...

References

External links