The Portland Art Museum‘s Rothko Pavilion is ready for its public debut after a decade of conception and planning, and nearly three years of construction.

The $116 million project’s centerpiece is the pavilion, a thoroughly modern, four-story glass box that bridges two 20th-century museum buildings.

Perhaps most emblematic of the project: Signs in the museum refer to the Mark building, built in 1970, as the North Wing, while the original Pietro Belluschi museum building, built in 1932, is now the South Wing.

It’s all one Portland Art Museum.

“Connectivity was really the core architectural mission of the project,” said Tim Eddy, principal at Hennebery Eddy Architects. The local firm partnered with Vinci Hamp Architects of Chicago to design the project.

The major design problem was how to combine the two existing buildings. The solution, the architects decided, would be a glazed box. They added two elevators and a central staircase, and several subtle step-downs to help navigate at least 11 grade changes between the Mark and Belluschi buildings.

The result is a landmark civic project for Portland.

Inside, natural light floods the Rothko Pavilion. Designers used fritted glass to both reduce glare and avoid bird strikes. Heating and cooling run through the floors. Sound deadening was used extensively, and the building has only the quiet hum of the ventilation system bringing in fresh air.

“It was not intended to be a focal third building,” Eddy said. “It was really intended to connect the existing buildings.”

The project adds about 100,000 square feet of new and renovated interior space. Curators have filled that space with new exhibits of Mark Rothko paintings, Pacific Northwest and Native American art, an entire floor dedicated to contemporary Black artists, and a series of immersive digital works.

The connections between buildings should make it easier for visitors to navigate to the various galleries, museum officials and designers said.

“Everyone gets to see more of the art,” said Phillip Hamp, principal at Vinci Hamp Architects.

Outside, a gold-ring sculpture made of gilded timber — “The Sun” by Swiss-American artist Ugo Rondinone — dominates the west side along Southwest 10th Avenue, with views of the West Hills. To the east, visitors can look toward the Hawthorne Bridge and Mount Hood.

The pavilion “creates a new, welcoming central front door to the museum,” said Brian Ferriso, the art museum’s director.

Museum officials raised $116 million for the project itself and $30 million more for an endowment.

Designers took transparency seriously. Pedestrians can look inside the museum, viewing art from a passageway or the sidewalks. Museumgoers can see the city outside the structure.

Outdoor terraces on the fourth floor provide views and resting spots, and space for events. On the ground floor, Providore Fine Foods has opened Coquelico, a café serving sandwiches, salads and pizza.

Vinci Hamp leaned on Hennebery Eddy’s local expertise with Portland’s design review and historic resource processes, Hamp said.

“One of the real benefits of hooking up with Hennebery is they knew this system,” Hamp said. “We had a head start, and they were able to run interference.”

Mortenson served as general contractor, handling unusual materials and a unique project site. KPFF was the structural engineer.

“This vision started over a decade ago and continued through COVID and tariffs and everything else,” said Carolyn Sizemore, Mortenson’s director for the Portland market. “This proves hard, complex things can be completed in Portland — and should be.”

The museum will open to the public on Nov. 20 with a schedule of events and free admission.

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The Historic Landmarks Commission has approved a design for the Rothko Pavilion – an ambitious, $70 million to $75 million renovation and expansion of the Portland Art Museum.

The museum’s staff and supporters are raising money for the project, which is meant to enhance the institution’s ability to attract world-class artwork, improve accessibility and show off the museum’s art – even to passing pedestrians.

“Our goal is to be part of the fabric of the city, interwoven, and reflective of the community,” said Brian Ferriso, director of the Portland Art Museum.

Approval of the design by Chicago’s Vinci | Hamp Architects and Portland’s Hennebery Eddy Architects came via a 4-0 vote on Monday. The design centers on a four-story glass box bridging the museum’s Belluschi and Mark buildings.

The Historic Landmarks Commission spent much of Monday’s meeting discussing plans for the museum’s exterior, including a plaza with planters and textured walkways. Commissioners questioned the placement of bollards – structural barriers that will prevent vehicles access – but eventually acceded to them for security reasons.

“If it’s a safety feature, then it’s fine to keep them where they are,” Commissioner Maya Foty said.

Perhaps the Rothko Pavilion’s most remarkable feature will be a glass passageway between the two buildings. Pedestrians will be able to peer into curated spaces in both buildings. The passageway will have a clear height of 11 feet, with widths of 16 feet on the west side and 15 feet on the east side.

Historically, an easement has ensured public access between the two buildings. City staff assured commissioners that a deal previously approved by the City Council will continue to guarantee access.

The design sought to solve a decades-old problem for the museum: how to link the Belluschi building, completed in 1932, with the Mark building (a former Masonic temple), erected in 1927. Museum officials have said visitors are often confused about how to navigate the buildings.

Anthony Belluschi, a son of the original architect, Pietro Belluschi, who died in 1994, weighed in on the project.

“I am quite sure that my father would approve of this new plan,” said Anthony Belluschi, who is also an architect.

The design includes a revolving door on the east side’s ground floor, replacing two smaller revolving doors in earlier versions.

The project involves removing a small amount of brick masonry where the glass box bridges the buildings. The material dates to a 2005 remodel.

“We’re not removing virgin material,” said Philip Hamp, president of Vinci | Hamp Architects.

Public comment focused on potential traffic impacts. The city of Portland’s Central City in Motion plan calls for turning Jefferson Street into a one-lane street. Commissioners said that city initiative is not within the purview of their Rothko Pavilion review, but downtown residents still took the opportunity to question the move.

Disability advocates praised the design.

“They have been very receptive to our feedback,” said Philip Wolfe, a member of the Portland Commission on Disability.

The project, first announced in 2016, was the subject of three design advice hearings before it proceeded to design review. Opponents have 14 days to appeal the Historic Landmarks Commission’s approval, but no serious organized opposition was evident at Monday’s meeting.

“It’s a good process,” Ferriso said after the vote. “We’re very pleased.”

Ferriso declined to specify when construction would begin, saying it depends on fundraising. The Rothko Pavilion fundraising drive began with an $8 million anonymous donation and a $5 million donation from the Schnitzer family.

The project team also includes Mortenson Construction, Walker Macy, Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture and Urban Resources Inc.

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Portland Art Museum officials’ proposal to build the $50 million Rothko Pavilion has prompted some opposition from neighbors who lament the enclosure of a pedestrian walkway.

Officials are moving ahead with plans to build the pavilion, which would link the downtown institution’s two main buildings with a glass enclosure. Currently, pedestrians can walk between the buildings.

The plans have the official blessing of the Portland Downtown Neighborhood Association, but some residents are not satisfied.

“I feel downtown does not need any more superblocks,” said Mary Vogel, who serves on the association’s Land Use and Transportation Committee. “It is very inconvenient, and it is getting more so.”

Vogel spoke to the City Council last week, urging commissioners to question museum officials’ proposal. They’re seeking the amendment of an ordinance that would allow the walkway to be enclosed, but ensure that the public could walk between the buildings during museum hours. The matter is scheduled to go before the council on April 20.

The design from Vinci Hamp Architects of Chicago calls for enclosing the area between the two buildings with a glass façade. Also, the design contemplates moving a loading dock and providing significant interior upgrades.

Vogel, in an interview, said the city’s wide blocks are an asset to downtown.

“Portland downtown is known for its 200-foot blocks that are supposed to really be the leading edge for walkability,” she said.

The area is also a thoroughfare for bicycles coming to and from the Hawthorne Bridge, Vogel said.

Museum officials said they understand residents’ concerns, but argue the pavilion will be a positive change for the city.

“We are aware there is some concern and opposition, but it’s our belief that the benefit of the pavilion outweighs the slight change of pedestrian traffic,” said Laura Bartroff, director of communications for the museum.

Pedestrians would be able to walk between the buildings during museum hours, and on Mondays when the museum is closed, museum officials said.

The area was bisected by Madison Street until the city vacated the space and the museum took it over in 1968. At the time, the agreement was for the area to remain an open-air mall in perpetuity, Vogel said.

As the museum has grown, officials have long sought a way to bridge its two primary buildings. The main Belluschi Building was completed in 1932 and expanded in 1970, while the Mark Building was originally constructed as a Masonic Temple in 1927 and then renovated for the museum’s use in 2005.

A fundraising campaign was rolled out last year for the Rothko Pavilion, named for Mark Rothko – a 20th-century abstract painter who was raised in Portland.

Officials have raised $27.3 million during its $50 million capital campaign, said J.S. May, the museum’s chief advancement officer. Construction is expected to begin in 2018.

“What we’re trying to create is one of Portland’s premier public spaces,” he said.

May said he expects neighbors to be impressed by the finished project.

“My sense is once this is built and it’s a beautiful public space, people will love it,” he said. “It’s designed to connect the (Belluschi) Building to the (Mark) Building, the museum to the community, people to art.”

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When Brian Ferriso first visited the Portland Art Museum, in downtown, a volunteer told him to avoid entering the Mark building, which was built in 1970 and renovated in 2005.

“I said, ‘Why is that?’ ” Ferriso recalled. “And she said, ‘You’ll get lost and there’s no restrooms.’ ”

Ferriso’s experience was not unique. The museum has long struggled to reconcile its two primary buildings – the Mark building and the original main building, which was designed by late Portland architect Pietro Belluschi and built in 1932.

Since becoming the museum’s director, Ferriso has investigated how to unify its campus bordered by Southwest Park and 10th avenues and Jefferson Street. He’s now working to raise money for an ambitious $50 million project known as the Rothko Pavilion to unify the two buildings with a central transparent glass centerpiece and significant interior renovations.

Visitors often become confused about how to navigate between the two buildings, and how to move vertically among the museum’s four floors.

“Right now when you walk into the museum there’s no sense of how to get up and down and to move around,” Ferriso said. “So we want to be very deliberate in showing horizontal and vertical circulation routes.”

After years of delays while the museum paid off $8 million in debt and endured the recession, the plan was kick-started by an $8 million anonymous gift and a $5 million donation from the Schnitzer family. The total raised now is $22.7 million, or nearly half of the museum’s goal. (In addition to the $50 million capital campaign, the museum is seeking $25 million for the institution’s endowment).

The project comes against a backdrop of significant projects by Portland’s other nonprofit pillars, including the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, which is in the midst of a master plan orchestrated by Snohetta. The Oregon Zoo, operated by Metro, is at work on bond-funded projects including a new polar bear habitat and an education center.

Construction of the Rothko Pavilion is projected to begin in 2018 if fundraising is successful. Completion would occur in late 2020 or 2021.

The museum has retained Vinci Hamp Architects of Chicago to design the Rothko Pavilion. VHA previously worked on temporary exhibit spaces at the Portland Art Museum. The firm also designed the Arts Club of Chicago and temporary exhibits at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Ferriso sought out an architecture firm with museum experience. He previously worked with VHA in Portland and in Milwaukee.

“As an art museum, we have so many requirements for art objects – space, climate control, movement,” Ferriso said. “It’s a very specific building needed for museums, and having someone who is extremely conversant in that is important.”

VHA has extensive experience handling historic preservation, which is an important aspect of the Rothko Pavilion design given its interaction with two existing buildings. Among other projects, VHA restored the W.A. Glasner residence, a Frank Lloyd Wright design in suburban Chicago.

The Portland Art Museum also will hire a local architect to consult on code, landscape, historic preservation and seismic work. The local architect has not been hired yet, although Ferriso said he’s had initial conversations with a local firm.

Hoffman Construction has consulted on project planning.

“That doesn’t mean Hoffman will get the job, but we had some preliminary discussions with them,” Ferriso said.

A competitive bidding process will take place with input from a museum committee, he added. A call made to Hoffman Construction for comment was not returned immediately.

Ferriso said that in response to a fundraising pitch, one potential donor told him that $50 million is a lot for a “glass box.” But Ferriso is adamant that the project is much more. Project plans call for a staircase tower that will allow visitors to more easily move about the museum, new galleries, a library and restrooms, an outdoor deck, a new underground education space excavated from below the Belluschi building and a new loading dock. The current library will become a contemporary center for new art.

As part of the project, the floor of the original Belluschi building will be raised.

“The complexity of this project is basically that the floor plates don’t line up perfectly,” Ferriso said.

In all, the expansions and renovations cover 30,000 square feet.

The Rothko Pavilion will also act as a more inviting entrance to the west and Southwest 10th Avenue. Substantial growth has taken place since the museum’s previous expansion, perhaps most notably the construction of Eliot Tower – an 18-story high-rise designed by Ankrom Moisan Architects that was completed in 2006 and relies heavily on glass.

“I really wanted to create an entry into that part of the city,” Ferriso said. “The city is developing to the west. So this would be another entry and a more overt invitation to our community.”

The Rothko Pavilion’s glass design is intended to play off of Eliot Tower and give passersby a glimpse into the museum and to provide a lighter counterpoint to the museum masonry’s darker appearance.

“The ability to see art and people will make it, I think, more inviting,” Ferriso said.

The pavilion will be named for Mark Rothko, a noted 20th-century abstract painter who was known as Marcus Rothkowitz while growing up in Portland. Born in Latvia in 1903, Rothko moved to Portland in 1913. He took classes at the museum’s art school (then in a different location) in 1915. He graduated from Lincoln High School in 1921 before finding fame in New York City.

As part of an agreement with Rothko’s children, Christopher and Kate Rothko Prizel, who reside in New York, the museum will exhibit one work at a time from the family’s collection on a rotating basis for the next 20 years. The Portland Art Museum at present has only one Rothko piece – a minor work on paper.

Rothko is “Oregon’s most famous artist of the 20th century,” Ferriso said. “We’re recognizing and honoring him.”

Project box:

Rothko Pavilion at the Portland Art Museum

Anticipated construction start date: 2018

Anticipated finish date: 2020-2021

Architect: Vinci Hamp Architects

Construction consultant: Hoffman Construction

Cost: $50 million

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