The Oregon Convention Center is a convention center in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

. Completed in 1989 and opened in 1990, it is located on the east side of 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 ...

in the

Lloyd District The Lloyd District is a primarily commercial neighborhood in the North and Northeast sections of Portland, Oregon. It is named after Ralph Lloyd (1875–1953), a California rancher, oilman, and real estate developer who moved to and started ...

neighborhood. It is best known for the twin spire towers, which provide light into the building's interior and for housing the world's largest

Foucault pendulum The Foucault pendulum or Foucault's pendulum is a simple device named after French physicist Léon Foucault, conceived as an experiment to demonstrate the Earth's rotation. A long and heavy pendulum suspended from the high roof above a circular ...

. The center is owned by

Metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urb ...

, the Portland area's regional government, and operated by the

Metropolitan Exposition and Recreation Commission Metropolitan may refer to: * Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories * Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England * Metropolitan county, a typ ...

, a subsidiary of Metro. The building was designed by the architectural firm of Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects (ZGF). It is the largest convention center in Oregon, at nearly . The complex includes of exhibit space. It features the largest ballroom in the City of Portland at . The original building was built in the late 1980s, opened in 1990, and was expanded in 2003. ZGF was also involved in designing the expansion. More recently, the building has become known for upward illuminating the twin spires yearly on September 11 in memorial of the events of 9/11. Portland Convention Center 2

The convention center has a focus on sustainability. It was the first existing one to receive the highest, platinum rating in the

U.S. Green Building Council The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), co-founded by Mike Italiano, David Gottfried and Rick Fedrizzi in 1993, is a private 501(c)3, membership-based non-profit organization that promotes sustainability in building design, construction, and op ...

's LEED certification program and is the only one to have it for operations and maintenance. A 6,500-panel solar array provides about 25 percent of the electricity used, and is the second largest one on a convention center in the country. The remaining electricity and gas usage is offset with renewable energy credits. In addition, a

rain garden Rain gardens, also called bioretention facilities, are one of a variety of practices designed to increase rain runoff reabsorption by the soil. They can also be used to treat polluted stormwater runoff. Rain gardens are designed landscape sites t ...

filters run off from the roof before it reaches waterways. A waste diversion policy is also in effect, requiring a deposit from large events and banning certain non-recyclable items. Reusable materials and surplus food is donated to local non-profits. The region's light rail system,

TriMet TriMet, formally known as the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon, is a public agency that operates mass transit in a region that spans most of the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon. Created in 1969 ...

's MAX, serves the center with a station on Holladay Street. The

Portland Streetcar The Portland Streetcar is a streetcar system in Portland, Oregon, that opened in 2001 and serves areas surrounding downtown Portland. The NS Line runs from Northwest Portland to the South Waterfront via Downtown and the Pearl District. The Lo ...

system began serving the center in 2012, with the opening of a new line called the CL Line; this was renamed the Loop Service in 2015. TriMet bus route 6 also serves the facility. The building and grounds also have an extensive set of

public art Public art is art in any media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and physically acce ...

, with works from over two dozen mainly

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Tho ...

artists. The collection includes paintings, plaques, glass and ceramic tiles, sconces, mosaics, bells, and parts of a large Douglas fir. Each of the towers has a focal point artwork, with a colorful 40-foot-long Chinese

dragon boat A dragon boat is a human-powered watercraft originating from the Pearl River Delta region of China's southern Guangdong Province. These were made of teak, but in other parts of China, different kinds of wood are used. It is one of a family ...

suspended in the east tower, and ''Principia'' by Jones/Ginzel, a dramatic

hanging over a gilded halo of rays and an inlaid fantasy solar system in the floor of the north tower. Construction on a , full-block "outdoor plaza" facility for convention-related activities started in 2011 across the street from the center, to the east. The plaza, known as the Oregon Convention Center Plaza, opened in January 2012.

has proposed a 600-room hotel adjacent to the Convention Center, to be built by Mortenson Construction, then owned and operated as a

Hyatt Regency Hyatt Hotels Corporation, commonly known as Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, is an American multinational hospitality company headquartered in the Riverside Plaza area of Chicago that manages and franchises luxury and business hotels, resorts, and vacat ...

. The $212 million hotel would be partially paid for by Metro using $60 million in revenue bonds and $18 million from Oregon Lottery funds, loans, and grants. The plan has attracted criticism from existing hoteliers as being an unfair subsidy, while Metro has championed it as a way to attract larger conventions. Suits from opponents were rejected in county courts, and in May 2015, the

Oregon Legislature The Oregon Legislative Assembly is the state legislature for the U.S. state of Oregon. The Legislative Assembly is bicameral, consisting of an upper and lower house: the Senate, whose 30 members are elected to serve four-year terms; and the ...

authorized Metro to issue the bonds. Construction of the Hyatt Regency Portland began in 2017, and the hotel opened in December 2019. The convention center has hosted the Northwest National Association of Music Education conference. The site is suitable for the event due to a large performing area and multiple rooms for chamber groups and lectures. There is an EMT in the building during events. The convention center was chosen as the host venue for the

2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships The 16th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics were held between March 17 and 20, 2016 in Portland, Oregon, United States. The event did not feature Russia. Following a WADA investigation into widespread and institutional doping practice ...

after Portland won their bid over

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. For the event, the building was fitted with a 200m track and seating for 8,000 spectators. On March 20, 2020, amidst the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic, the center was turned into Portland's second temporary shelter for the homeless population of the city in order to protect them from being infected by

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

. The shelter will cease to exist when Governor

Kate Brown Katherine Brown (born June 21, 1960) is an American politician and attorney serving as the 38th governor of Oregon since 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, she served three terms as the state representative from the 13th district of the ...

lifts the ban on large public gatherings.

References

External links

*
Oregon Convention Center on Emporis.com
{{IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics venues 1990 establishments in Oregon Convention centers in Oregon Lloyd District, Portland, Oregon Metro (Oregon regional government) Northeast Portland, Oregon Skyscrapers in Portland, Oregon Tourist attractions in Portland, Oregon

See also

References

External links