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

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

with three levels of parking below the surface in

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 ...

. 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 that was taken over in 1996 by Wells Fargo. Headquartered in Los Angeles, it was the nation's eighth largest banking company. The name (along with the company logo) h ...

.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 corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and intern ...

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 is a potentially active stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc. It was formed by a subduction zone on the Pacific coast and rests in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located about east-southeast of Portlan ...

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 Weyerhaeuser () 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 also manufactures wood products. It operates as a real e ...

. 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 Partners ...

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 corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and inter ...

. The tower is located in

Downtown Portland Downtown Portland is the city center 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 buildings are found. ...

, 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 enclos ...

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 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 four horses although some versions are draw ...

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

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...

. 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, writing about Portland for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

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

Museum

A branch of the

Wells Fargo History Museum The Wells Fargo History Museum is a museum operated by Wells Fargo in its corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California that features exhibits about the History of Wells Fargo. It includes original stagecoaches, photographs, gold nuggets ...

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 p ...

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. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...

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 b ...

References

External links