In Search of Portland In Search of Portland

For this second of our two-episode look at Portland's one-of-a-kind midcentury modern arena, we double down on the Coliseum's history as the original home of the Portland Trail Blazers, and explore the Coliseum's artistry. The first interview is with the MVP of Portland's 1977 NBA championship: Hall of Fame basketball player and veteran ESPN commentator Bill Walton. The second interview is with artist Avantika Bawa, whose 2019 solo show at the Portland Art Museum was devoted exclusively to paintings and drawings of the Coliseum.

It is one of America's only urban volcanoes, but Mt. Tabor park is all about greenery, water and respite. Opened in 1909, it's one of Portland's earliest examples of the City Beautiful movement and Olmsted-style park design, which in the early 20th century saw the sons of famed Central Park designer Frederick Law Olmsted take his vision across the nation. Mt. Tabor's open-air reservoirs are the lake-like vistas attracting hikers and picnickers, while at its top is not just a panoramic view of downtown and Mt. Hood but the site of a contemporary reckoning over just which statue should stand there. Historian and film producer Laurence Cotton joins us in the first interview to discuss the Olmsteds who helped birth Tabor's design. In the second, historian and speaker Sig Unander discusses Claire Phillips, a World War II hero from Portland who, before earning a Medal of Freedom for spying on the Japanese from her Manilla nightclub, as a teen used to climb Mt. Tabor, smoke cigarettes and dream.

It is known as the city's living room. Pioneer Courthouse Square is where Portlander's come to celebrate, to protest, to commemorate, and most of all to be together. The site's long history includes the city's first public building and, later, its first grand hotel. This episode features interviews with architect Mark Lakeman of Communitecture, musician Thomas Lauderdale of Pink Martini and University of California at Berkely historian Alex Craghead talking about the square's past, present, and what makes it the center of the city.

It is arguably the most architecturally unique arena in the United States, offering 360-degree views from its seats: a pioneeringly pristine midcentury-modern glass box born from the optimistic days of JFK and the NASA space program. It has hosted some of the city's most memorable cultural moments, including the Portland Trail Blazers' 1977 NBA championship and concerts by nearly every iconic 20th century rock and pop act, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, Elvis Pressley, Bob Dylan, Queen, Fleetwood Mac and David Bowie, not to mention inspiring speeches by transcendent leaders like The Dalai Lama and Barack Obama. The arena has a dark side: many Black-owned homes were demolished to make way for it. But in the future, a restored Coliseum is poised to become the cultural centerpiece of a reborn Albina neighborhood.

For 120 years it stood downtown between two park blocks. In 1991 it made a cameo in one of the most acclaimed films by Portland's favorite-son movie director, Gus Van Sant. In 2020, it was removed from its base and stored in a warehouse. Though it's just a tiny little statue on a traffic median, the "Elk" statue may be the city's most beloved public artwork. And whenever it returns, this circa-1900 statue by the internationally renowned sculptor Roland Hinton Perry, a French-trained classicist called upon to evoke Native American symbolism, shows us a way to move beyond the divisive hero-worship of human statuary.

This long-deserted flour mill complex along the Willamette River was once Portland's biggest economic engine, producing enough wheat to make Oregon one of America's biggest producers. For the past 20 years, it has stood empty, even as the Pearl District exploded around it. Can it be preserved, should it be torn down for affordable housing, or could Centennial Mills continue as an industrial ruin and park? This episode features interviews with historian Chet Orloff, who worked at the mills as a young man, and Prosper Portland development director Lisa Abuaf, who is leading the city's effort to transform Centennial Mills equitably.