Unmistakably Oregon: Finding a sense of place at the new Oregon Convention Center

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Written by Natalia Hurt, Oregon Business

Organic and inclusive, the remodeled Convention Center makes visitors feel at ease and at home.

Convention centers, like airports, can possess a disorienting quality that leaves guests forgetting which city they are in as they walk the nondescript halls. But of all the words that describe Portland’s newly renovated Oregon Convention Center — welcoming, organic, intuitive — Oregonian tops the list.

Each aspect of the design leaves visitors with no doubt as to where they presently are in the world.

Oregon Convention Center Executive Director Craig Stroud

“We really wanted to emphasize Oregon — a sense of place. We wanted to inform people, ‘You’re in Oregon,’ from the moment they walk in to the moment they leave,” explains Craig Stroud, executive director of the Oregon Convention Center.

A visitor wandering through the large facility will find echoes of Oregon’s natural splendor at every turn. In areas where people tend to gather, the carpeting breaks from its neutral tone into patches of color, emulating flower blooms or lichen.

The Oregon Ballroom and adjacent lobby showcase tree canopy and mountain range-inspired ceiling treatments.

The impression of trees courses through the space in the form of textured wall fabric reminiscent of a stand of trees, ceiling patterns that filter light like a forest canopy, wall art mimicking the rings of tree trunks and wood-based artwork.

“The topographic Cascade Mountain Range is stunning, ties right into the aesthetic and is something any native Oregonian would recognize,” Stroud notes, referring to an impressive, inverted ceiling installment that accurately outlines the features of the Cascade Mountain Range, such as Crater Lake and Mount Hood.

Read the full story here or view the digital edition.

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