511 Building Blog

Elected officials, Portland’s cultural leaders, all were on hand for this important occasion: Arlene Schnitzer for whom the building is named, former board chairs Ann Edlen and Al Solheim, U.S Senator Ron Wyden, U.S Representative Earl Blumenauer, U.S Representative Suzanne Bonamici, Commissioner Nick Fish, and Governor Kate Brown. Alum Lucinda Parker '66 gave a talk, and Demian DinéYazhi' '14 read a poem.

The mezzanines in the Solheim Library and the Lemelson Innovation Center are nearly done, and stairways to the mezzanine in the central Atrium have gone in in the last few days. Everywhere you look there is glass and light and views from here to there, a network of luminous spaces.

PNCA's Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design opens February, 2015.

Mario Gallucci (MFA '14) has been shooting the inside of our new home during construction, finding incidental magic along the way. 

"The Research Library has just received this rare image of the construction of the old US Post Office on NW Glisan and Broadway in downtown Portland. It was taken in October of 1917 by C. C. Whitten, a local contractor and land developer. We are grateful to Cinda Connely of Vancouver Washington, for the gift of this and other images by the same photographer (Library accession 28403)."

Suspension systems are going in for the new mezzanine level of the building. 

Glass walls being installed in our new conference/meeting rooms.

Dramatic pre-existing sawtooth skylights in the New Commons (top) and the new skylight in the Atrium bring abundant light into two of the public spaces of our new home.

The view north from 511 NW Broadway.

Framing for the new Mediatheque black box theater in the heart of PNCA's Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design.

Cable system suspending the new mezzanine in the central atrium of our new home. 

Building Design + Construction gets the backstory on our new home in the 511 Building as construction continues.

The flag has been raised above PNCA's new home, the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design,--the flagship of PNCA's new North Park Blocks campus--in the renovated historic federal building at 511 NW Broadway.

Recent photos from the under-construction Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design at 511 NW Broadway, PNCA's future home.

More photos from the Skybreaking celebration at PNCA's new Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design. 

Last week, the glass skylights in the central atrium were uncovered at an event we called a Skybreaking. Arlene Schnitzer, after whom the building will be named, was on hand along with Representative Earl Blumenauer, Mayor Charlie Hales, Grace Neal of the office of US Senator Ron Wyden, Commissioner Nick Fish, Patrick Quinton, Executive Director of the PDC, and George Northcroft of the General Services Administration.