Tag Archives: memorial coliseum

Veterans Memorial Coliseum: Portland’s Architectural Jewel

Historic Aerial of Memorial ColiseumPresently, the City of Portland awarded a contract for Spectator Facilities Construction Project Management Services for a yet unnamed Veterans Memorial Coliseum project. The city is preparing for potential renovation scenarios. The uncertain future of the Coliseum feels like déjà vu.

Portland’s Veterans Memorial Coliseum, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) and built between 1960 and 1961, is a premier jewel of International Style modernism in the city. The structure consists of glass and aluminum, a non-load-bearing curtain wall cube with a central ovular concrete seating area. It is a true engineering and architectural masterpiece that offers uninterrupted panoramic views of Portland from the seating area. The Veterans Memorial Coliseum is also a war memorial, featuring exterior sunken black granite walls inscribed with the names of veterans in gold paint.

At its completion it was the largest multipurpose facility in the Pacific Northwest. And a significant structure within the larger urban planning Rose Quarter Development project. In 2009 the city of Portland proposed to demolish the Coliseum to make way for a new sports facility. The greater community of Portland, including architectural preservationists and historians, successfully applied for National Register of Historic Places status for the building. In 2011 it was placed in the National Register.

Portland’s Veterans Memorial Coliseum is a phenomenal renovation opportunity from both historic and economic perspectives.
VMC-preservation-pmapdx

Despite being listed in the National Register, built during an era of urban and planning reform that advocated for the latest in building technologies, and designed by one of our countries leading modernist firms, many challenge its architectural value. The Coliseum shows the remarkable and collaborative approach towards design and construction by SOM. It is also the only arena world-wide with a 360-degree panoramic view from the seating area. Consider the inability to experience this modern architectural marvel and war memorial firsthand. Simply put, the demolition of the Veterans Memorial Coliseum would be a loss to the city.

Concerns regarding its deferred maintenance and historic materials are often attached to the illogical demolition conclusion because the building does not meet specific 2014 building codes. It is possible to integrate new building technologies while retaining the building’s exterior and interior character defining features. Unfortunately, significant modernist architecture designed by influential architects in the 1950s-1970s have not been regarded with proper facility maintenance. Deferred maintenance has its price. Regardless of building age, if a structure is not properly maintained it will fall into disrepair. Thankfully, Portland has a robust AEC industry dedicated to solving design challenges.

As a city, Portland boast’s its commitment to living green and investing in sustainable practices throughout the greater community. The renovation of the Veterans Memorial Coliseum is exactly the type of project that would highlight our city’s commitment to sustainability. There is no greener option than renovating and reusing existing architectural resources. This renovation would also economically benefit the city by boosting investment around the Rose Quarter area. Potentially extending and overlapping with the renewed development interest in the Lloyd District. Portland could have two premier sports facilities, doubling the city’s ability to provide world-class sports and entertainment events. It is a renovation project with long term urban renewal benefits.
VMC-construction-preservation-pmapdx
Veterans Memorial Coliseum is an internationally recognized architectural masterpiece. Its architectural legacy is deeply intertwined within Portland’s socio-economic and cultural heritages. Portland must learn from the recent demolitions of modernist architectural marvels like Prentice Women’s Hospital, several Paul Rudolph buildings, and the forthcoming Astrodome. Threats to our modern architecture is a threat to our architectural heritage. It is time to celebrate the last fifty years of Portland’s international jewel with a thoughtful renovation that looks ahead to the city’s next fifty years of architectural history.

Written by Kate Kearney, Marketing Coordinator

Mid-Century Arenas: Memorial Coliseum

Mid-Century Arenas
The emerging interdisciplinary field of Arena Studies focuses on the dwindling global supply of modernist multipurpose arenas—an overlooked subject spanning the fields of historic preservation, architecture, architectural history, engineering, preservation technology, industrial archeology, urban studies, city and regional planning, landscape planning and environmental history.
Veterans Memorial Coliseum Exterior
After World War II, arena builders began to utilize a variety of new technologies and modern building materials to enclose large-scale urban, suburban and rural arenas. Innovative technologies (such as retractable roofs, glass curtain walls and clear-span timber domes) were combined with cutting-edge craftsmanship to create a revolutionary new aesthetic of form-altering functionalism. As an emerging field of study, the topic of historic arenas currently suffers from a dearth of scholarly research, resulting in typological confusion. General and pervasive misidentification and misclassification has greatly hindered the efforts of conservationists to rehabilitate, restore and repurpose these undervalued community resources.

Case Study – Memorial Coliseum
When completed in 1960, Memorial Coliseum, a flat-roofed square “box,” measuring 360 linear feet per side, 100 feet in height, and part of a larger 30- acre area, was a technological feat of engineering and operation unrivaled by any other large civic structure and a fully-articulated example of lnternational-Style Modernism. The building is the only large-scale public arena glass-walled structure of the mid-century retaining its original design, materials, workmanship, highly urban context, and original relationship to nearby geographic features such as the Willamette River.
Veterans Memorial Coliseum Interior
The Coliseum’s weight is supported by four cruciform-shaped, 7O-foot high reinforced concrete columns, 240 feet apart in one direction and 270 feet in the other. At the column pinnacle, “steel hemispheres,” the first use in arena construction, support the steel roof trusses. These half-round bearing points enable the entire structure to move under force, such as strong winds or earth movements. A prominent feature of the building is the oval, free-standing concrete seating bowl, visible from every exterior vantage point due to the building’s transparency giving rise to the nicknames “Glass Palace” and “Tea Cup in a Box.”

VMC steel structure

Photo courtesy of the City of Portland Archives.


Inflecting the conservation and re-use of public arenas is the political desire of the community and receptiveness of the team owner and manager. Many arenas were constructed with complicated financing and management agreements providing the sports organization authority over reuse, urban planning, and demolition options. The single, sports purpose arenas require dramatic alterations to adopt the structure to reprogramming like housing, office, or entertainment. Early arenas are, however, established public structures in the heart of the urban fabric offering unique and profitable opportunities for long-term future success. A key element of successful conservation is an understanding of the adaptability of these structures in material composition, plan, and function. The architectural qualities combined with the urban settings provide mid-century arenas with enduring historic value.


Written by Peter Meijer AIA,NCARB, Principal. A special thank you to Matthew Hayes for contributing to this posting.