A brief history of Portland architecture, and a building by building look at the best, and some of the worst, buildings in downtown and surrounding areas. Anyone who has been to Portland and actually looked at the buildings knows that Portland's architecture is pretty special. There are only a few of the original turn of the century cast-iron frame buildings left, unfortunately, because they were torn down to build a freeway in the 1940s. The freeway is now gone (moved 14 blocks west, away from the Willamette waterfront), but only 10% of the buildings near the waterfront survived. The area around Skidmore fountain shows what Portland looked like then.
The book doesn't limit itself to just old buildings, though. There's a description and photo of the Henry building, the condo development completed in 2004 directly behind Powell's books. And the new Park Towers building, occupying the space across the street from the old Hamburger Mary's, is present as well.
This is a really excellent and detailed look at Portland's unique architecture. It would make an excellent guidebook for walking tours in downtown.
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