Stephanie Yao Long, The Oregonian/OregonLive

Portland's skyline is constantly changing. When you look over the city from primo vantage points like Pittock Mansion or Council Crest Park, you see a small forest of construction cranes erecting new hotels, apartments and condominium towers.

But the City of Roses hasn't always seemed so lofty. When the term "skyscraper" was invented in the 1890s, Portland only had one building that qualified: the old Oregonian building, a long-since demolished nine-story building at Southwest Sixth Avenue and Alder Street that featured a clock tower that rose 194 feet from the street. From its opening in 1892 until 1911, it ranked as Portland's tallest building.

Don't Edit

David Falconer, The Oregonian

Since then, the city has seen waves of new construction over the decades, and many once-new buildings played a significant role in shaping the city. Some forever altered the skyline, in some cases eclipsing pristine views of the Cascades and Mount Hood. Other high-rise buildings kicked off development trends, pushing height limits to the extreme in some cases, prompting debates about whether the city was growing too quickly.

Here's a look at a dozen tall building that changed Portland -- for good (and in a few cases, for bad).

Don't Edit

King Tower Apartments (now Celio Apartments)

Don't Edit

Oregonian/OregonLive file photo

When the King Tower Apartments went up on King's Hill in 1950, it ushered in a new wave of high-rise living. Before King Tower went up, most Portland apartment projects were courtyard or garden-style buildings, clustered in areas like Northwest and the close-in Eastside. King Tower rose 12 stories, and featured 210 units, including four penthouse apartments with large terraces, which rented for $250-$350 a month, depending on the number of bedrooms and square-footage. It's rooftop deck offered dramatic views of the city and mountains that remain impressive to this day.

Don't Edit

Oregonian/OregonLive file photo

King Tower was part of a post-war building boom. The next year brought two more high-rise apartment to King's Hill: the Portland Tower, with 211 units and a press-box view over Multnomah Stadium (now known as Providence Park); and the Vista St. Clair, with 299 units packed into 13 stories.

Over the decades, these westside high-rises went from being among the city's most-prestigious places to live to various states of disrepair and renovation.

King Tower, now known as Celio Apartments, has undergone significant renovations in recent years, though it remains relatively affordable in the city's competitive apartment market. You can rent a one-bedroom unit for about $1,000 a month, and those penthouses, which have fireplaces and large picture windows, run around $2,000 a month.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Grant Butler, The Oregonian/OregonLive

Full disclosure: From 2015 to 2017, I lived in one of those two-bedroom penthouse apartments, which featured a large terrace overlooking the city, and wonky kitchen appliances that possibly dated back to the Eisenhower administration. The view from the apartment's kitchen window was one of the best in the city, and photos of sunrises made my Instagram feed happy on a regular basis.

Don't Edit

The Hilton Portland

Don't Edit

Chuck Von Wald, The Oregonian

When Portland's $10 million Hilton Portland hotel went up in the early 1960s, it was one of the biggest construction projects the city had ever seen. To build the 22-story hotel on Southwest Broadway, two 5,000-pound capacity cranes were anchored in the foundation, inside what would become the hotel's elevator shafts, to hoist building materials as the floors went up.

Don't Edit

Oregonian/OregonLive file photo

As the new Hilton began to take shape, its mammoth size began to overwhelm nearby buildings, like the Broadway theater building and the Heathman Hotel, which were just to the south along Southwest Broadway. The sidewalk directly across from the construction site became a popular "stop and gawk" spot with pedestrians, and traffic on Broadway slowed as drivers craned their necks to see the construction.

Don't Edit

Doug Beghtel, The Oregonian/OregonLive

Upon completion in 1963, the Hilton featured 500 rooms and five restaurants. The Hilton would reign as Portland's tallest building for three years, though it has since been eclipsed by a number of high-rise towers. The hotel has undergone numerous renovations over the years, including a remodel that wrapped up last year.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Oregon Historical Society

One of the Hilton's main attractions when it first opened was its lavish 23rd-floor restaurant, Canlis' Atop the Hilton. The dining room featured heavy wooden beams, massive boulders, modern art, and slanted windows, which were a design signature. This photo shows the dining room's view to the northwest. The Canlis menu featured steaks and seafood, and there was controversy about high prices -- dinner for two, including drinks and tip, could cost more than $20! In 1979 the space became Panorama Charcoal Broiler, and later Alexander's at the Hilton, which was a popular jazz venue. The space is no longer used as a restaurant, but can be rented for private events.

Don't Edit

Georgia-Pacific Building (now Standard Insurance Center)

Don't Edit

Oregonian/OregonLive file photo

When this 27-story building opened in 1970, it was Portland's tallest building, though it would only hold that distinction for only a few years. At the time, it was the tallest reinforced concrete building in the world, and cost $16 million to construct.

Don't Edit

Oregonian/OregonLive file photo

When it opened after two years of construction, the building threw a massive open house, during which members of Portland Opera performed in the top-floor offices that would house Georgia-Pacific executives. It was also a first-and-only chance for women to see the amenities of The 400 Health Club, an exclusive athletic facility open only to men. The building was also home to an upscale Irish restaurant called Dublin House.

In 1978, Georgia-Pacific pulled out of Portland, and the building was rechristened The Standard Center.

Don't Edit

Wes Guderian, The Oregonian

The sculpture in front of the building has titillated generations of school children. "The Quest," created by artist Count Alexander Von Svoboda, features five nude figures cavorting in a fountain, and is the largest single piece of white sculpted marble in the city. The sculpture is sometimes jokingly referred to as "Three Groins in the Fountain," since only three of the figures are easily visible from street level.

The sculpture was unveiled in 1970 just prior to the building's opening by 13 Rose Festival princesses. Chances are good that giggling was involved.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

First National Bank Tower (now Wells Fargo Center)

Don't Edit

Oregonian/OregonLive file photo

This 40-story giant became the tallest building in all of Oregon when it opened in 1972, and raised the blood pressure of many Portlanders. The building's 546-feet height dwarfed other buildings in the south end of downtown, and blocked views of Mount Hood for many wealthy West Hills homeowners.

Don't Edit

Grant Butler, The Oregonian/OregonLive

Critics didn't like the new building either. New York Times architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable wondered if First National Bank had a vice president in charge of spoiling, because the building committed violence to the city's skyline. Huxtable called the tower a "monument that tacitly advertises values of insensitivity, unsuitability and flashy vulgarity." Harsh!

The controversy led the city to put height limitations on new high-rise construction.

Don't Edit

Mike Zacchino, The Oregonian/OregonLive

At the time it opened, First National Bank occupied the lower 21 floors of the building, as well as an attached five-story building occupying a block directly to the east, connected by a sky bridge extending over Southwest Fourth Avenue. Other floors were occupied by tenants. The building also featured a posh restaurant space on the 21st floor that featured a string on mediocre eateries that couldn't manage to make it despite the view. The last restaurant to occupy the space was a lunch-only spot called Rene's Fifth Avenue.

Don't Edit

Elliot Njus, The Oregonian/OregonLive

Bank acquisitions led to several name changes over the decades -- it was the First Interstate Tower in the 1980s, and became the Wells Fargo Center when that bank purchased First Interstate in 1996.

Since taking over, Wells Fargo installed a mini museum in the building's main floor, and a subfloor features a Rose's Delicatessen, among other small businesses.

The Wells Fargo Center's image hasn't improved much over the years.

"The Wells Fargo building is mediocre at best from an architectural standpoint," said Rudy Barton, an architecture professor at Portland State University, in 1999. "It just doesn't present itself nicely to the rest of the city."

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

U.S. Bancorp Tower

Don't Edit

Steve Nehl, The Oregonian

This 42-story building, which opened in 1983, is officially known as the U.S. Bancorp Tower, even though that bank moved its corporate headquarters to Minnesota in the late '90s. But Portlanders usually refer to it by its nickname: "Big Pink." That's because of the pink granite and reflective glass that were used to create the high-rise's distinctive look.

Don't Edit

Bill Murphy, The Oregonian

Rising 536 feet in height, it falls short of the Wells Fargo tower for tallest bragging rights, even though it contains two-more stories and has significantly larger square footage of office space.

The tower's construction took two years and cost $60 million.

Don't Edit

Paul Kitagaki, The Oregonian/OregonLive

The Oregonian's Alan R. Hayakawa praised the tower's design, calling it an "optical sculpture."

"The parallelogram shape of the floor plan combines with the pink granite and reflective pink glass to create surfaces that seem lighter than they are, and surfaces that seem less-massive than the building actually is," Hayakawa wrote.

Don't Edit

Oregonian/OregonLive file photo

In its early years, the popular bar and restaurant Café Vivo occupied a large space on the ground floor. The food was unremarkable, but live music (including regular gigs by Portland jazz artist Tom Grant) kept people coming in. Eventually, though, it shuttered, and the space for a while became a health club.

In 2013, the building underwent extensive renovations. In 2015, "Big Pink" was sold to TPF Equity REIT for $372.5 million, a record price for Portland.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Stephanie Yao Long, The Oregonian/OregonLive

One of the most-loved features of the Bancorp building is its 30th floor restaurant space. For the building's first two decades, it was home to Atwater's, which was one of the city's top dining destinations. The big draw for tourists and locals alike was the stunning view of downtown Portland, the city's east side and (on clear days) Mount Hood.

At its peak in the mid-'90s, under then-wunderkind chef Mark Gould, the kitchen served towering constructions of food -- this was the era of architectural cuisine -- with hints of Asia running throughout. Meals became less reliable after several chef changes, but the bar remained a vital part of the city's jazz scene, with live music most nights, including a standing gig by the late Leroy Vinnegar, the grandfather of the walking bass.

In 2001, the restaurant lost its lease and closed, making way for Portland City Grill, a steakhouse in the sky that has those same great views, but little of the magic of Atwater's.

Don't Edit

PacWest Center

Don't Edit

Kraig Scattarella, The Oregonian

A year after "Big Pink" arrived, Portland got another sleek skyscraper with the 1984 opening of the PacWest Center. The 30-story building cost $75 million to build, and sports a large terrace three-quarters of the way up its south side that features a large evergreen tree, adding a touch of the forest to Portland's skyline.

Don't Edit

Bill Murphy, The Oregonian

When ground was broken in 1982, bulldozers excavated the entire block to make way for the PacWest's foundation. As the building went up, it would eventually dwarf the Standard Plaza building directly to the north.

Don't Edit

Brent Wojahn, The Oregonian

During its early years, the building featured an array of businesses on its first two floors, including Elephants Delicatessen, Benjamin's Restaurant, as well as ticket offices for Delta, United and Eastern Airlines. The mix of tenants changed over the years, with a series of restaurants struggling to make it in the first-floor café space, though the arrival of Starbucks in the 1990s provided a steady stream of customers.

For years, the lobby featured a baby grand piano and live music during lunchtime. At Christmastime, the lobby and second floor were extensively decorated with a small forest of trees decorated with themes like nutcrackers, teddy bears and shiny gifts.

In 2016, the building was sold to LPC Realty Advisors for $170 million, and is currently undergoing a major remodel to the building's lobby and common spaces that will include an elaborate bicycle facility with secured storage for 200 bikes, showers and lockers, and even a repair station to fix flat tires.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

KOIN Center Tower

Don't Edit

Mike Zacchino, The Oregonian/OregonLive

1984 also saw the arrival of the KOIN Center Tower, a 35-story high-rise with a stepped-back design designed to accommodate the building's namesake television station, a multi-screen movie theater, 15 floors of office space, and 11 floors of high-end condominiums.

Don't Edit

Steve Nehl, The Oregonian

The $48 million tower originally was meant to be the focal point of a 2-1/2 block development that was supposed to be known as Fountain Place, an homage to the Forecourt Fountain (now Keller Fountain) across the intersection at Southwest Third Avenue and Clay Street. But plans for an adjacent hotel and office building never materialized.

Don't Edit

Tim Jewett, The Oregonian

KOIN Center's design was meant to evoke the shape of art deco skyscrapers of the 1920 (think New York's Chrysler Building), but with modernist red brick and white limestone. The cubist glass atrium on the building's southwest corner was an homage to artist Piet Mondrian, though critics of the design described the atrium as looking like stacked-up phone booths.

As the tower went up, Portlanders discovered that it would block the view of Mount Hood that had greeted drivers coming out of the Vista Ridge Tunnel on Highway 26, and the building became the focus of many angry letters to the editor that ran in The Oregonian.

Don't Edit

Oregonian/OregonLive file photo

The condominiums in the KOIN tower were an innovation at the time. Downtown Portland in the 1980s didn't have many apartment-style condos, and these spacious units, which began at around 2,000-square-feet, offered unparalleled views of the city and mountains from spacious balconies.

Those condos continue to be a prestigious place to live, and prices for units recently ranged from around $850,000 to $1.15 million.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Steve Nehl, The Oregonian

While early reviews of the KOIN tower design weren't friendly, the building's unique shape has clearly grown on Portlanders. When Sak's Fifth Avenue created a Portland snow globe in the 1990s, the KOIN tower was featured along with landmarks like Mount Hood and the Fremont Bridge. is instantly recognizable, particularly its upper floors, which have been represented on everything from T-shirts to snow globes. And last year, NIKE featured a silhouette of the building in a Portland-themed t-shirt.

Don't Edit

Oregonian/OregonLive file photo

Today's KOIN tower features a mix of restaurants on its ground floor, including Morton's steakhouse and an outpost of Ristretto Roasters. Lamentably gone from the retail mix is the six-screen KOIN Cinemas, which specialized in quirky art films and was a favorite with moviegoers in the 1980s and '90s. Regal Cinemas closed the theater in 2004 after opening multiplexes in downtown's Pioneer Place shopping center and Fox Tower.

Don't Edit

Fox Tower

Don't Edit

Steve Nehl, The Oregonian

When it opened in 2000, downtown's 27-story Fox Tower offered high-class amenities: A 10-screen movie theater with stadium seating, 460 underground parking spaces, 100,000 square feet of retail space for upscale stores like Mario's, Banana Republic and Flying Elephants Delicatessen, and more than 400,000 square feet of top-grade office space.

Don't Edit

Steve Nehl, The Oregonian

The building took two years to construct, at a cost of $64 million. First, the historic Music Box and Fox Theater buildings had to be demolished. Then the block between Southwest Broadway and Park Avenue had to be excavated, digging deep for an eventual underground parking garage.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Bob Ellis, The Oregonian

As the tower went up -- first with a central concrete elevator shaft, followed by steel girders -- it became clear that the building would cast a long shadow over Pioneer Courthouse Square, just to the Northeast of the construction site. But the 372-foot building's design featured a pedestal base, a result of city zoning mandating that the tower's shadow cover no more than half the square at 3 p.m. on the spring equinox.

Don't Edit

Roger Jensen, The Oregonian

Since its completion, the building's second-floor restaurant space has undergone several changes, and is currently home to RingSide Fish House, a sister restaurant to Portland's venerable steakhouse.

Don't Edit

John Ross Tower and the South Waterfront

Don't Edit

John M. Vincent, The Oregonian/OregonLive

In the fast-paced real estate market of the mid-2000s, Portland went crazy over condominiums. And there was no better symbol of the hot trend than the 31-story John Ross tower and other boom-and-bust high-rise buildings of the South Waterfront development.

When construction began on the John Ross in 2005, 222 would-be buyers jumped at the chance to live there, plunking down $5,000 each to reserve a unit. Within six days, 80 percent of the building was spoken for. When the building opened two years later, the financial world had changed dramatically, and dozens of sales were canceled.

Don't Edit

Beth Nakamura, The Oregonian/OregonLive

The economic downturn eventually forced the lender that controls the John Ross to unload 50 condos at auction, with some bidders getting units at 50 percent of their original price at the height of the boom. One of the building's 3,400-square-foot penthouse units was swept up for $850,000, 66 percent off its original $2.5 million asking price.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Steven Gibbons, The Oregonian/OregonLive

Other South Waterfront buildings didn't fare well, either. With an extension of the streetcar line and the expansion of OHSU to the waterfront, the South Waterfront had been looked on as the city's next great neighborhood, and the biggest economic development in Portland's history. But when the economy collapsed, the boom started to look like a boondoggle.

Owners of units at other nearby condo buildings had to sell them at a loss. Other buildings were converted to apartments before they even opened. And the restaurants and shops that many had hoped for were slow to materialize.

Don't Edit

Stephanie Yao Long, The Oregonian/OregonLive

The stalled projects and dashed dreams fueled public debate about tax breaks the city gave to developers, though South Waterfront supporters still contend that the neighborhood will prevent sprawl and will eventually become a destination similar to the Pearl District.

Don't Edit

Park Avenue West

Don't Edit

Doug Beghtel, The Oregonian/OregonLive

Here's another high-rise building project that almost fell apart as a result of the economic downturn of the late 2000s. Developers originally had hoped to open a 33-story tower in 2010 that would have a mix of condominiums, office space and ground-floor retailers. At one point, Portland's largest law firm Stoel Rives was in talks to lease 11 floors in the building, and NIKE was looking at a large space facing Director Park for a new flagship store.

After the economy collapsed, construction was stopped in 2009, with only the foundation and the beginnings of its elevator shaft completed. For more than four years, the project was no more than an ugly hole in the ground.

Don't Edit

Mark Graves, The Oregonian/OregonLive

While Park Avenue West was on hold, aspects of the project began to fall apart. Stoel Rives opted against moving its offices there. NIKE ended up opening its flagship store across from Pioneer Place shopping center. And the developer got approval for changes to the design that would eliminate the residential units and reduce the building's size to 26 floors.

Construction finally resumed in late 2013 after Stoel Rives got back on board, agreeing to lease 131,000 square feet in the building's top nine floors, including a rooftop terrace. That helped developers secure funding to complete construction.

The tower's designs were changed once again, with two floors of retail space, 13 floors of offices, at 15 floors of apartments, featuring more than 200 units.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Kristyna Wentz-Graff, The Oregonian/OregonLive

By early 2015, the tower's frame had been completed, and work began on the building's interior.

Don't Edit

Photo courtesy of Park Avenue West

Upon completion in early 2016, the building was slow to attract retailers, though Pendleton Woolen Mills eventually moved its flagship store into the space that NIKE once eyed, and a brokerage firm moved into a large space on the building's north side.

At 502 feet, it currently ranks as the city's fourth-tallest building.

Don't Edit

Yard

Don't Edit

Photo courtesy of Modern Architecture + Design Society

This $63 million, 21-story apartment building on the east end of the Burnside Bridge is one of the most-controversial development projects in recent memory. For starters, the Portland architecture firm Skylab changed the building's design after it had been approved by the Portland Design Commission, and the changes weren't caught before building permits were issued. That resulted in fewer windows than had been originally OK'd creating a darker façade that's been derided by many as monolith-like.

Don't Edit

Photo courtesy of Modern Architecture + Design Society

Not everyone objects to Yard's stark appearance. Architecture critic Brian Libby sees the building as infinitely better than cookie-cutter buildings that have marred streets like Southeast Division and North Williams. He also appreciates details like its eco-roof, communal lounge area and Knot Springs day-spa, and thinks

"I don't necessarily love Yard, but I respect that it's aspirational and not just another cheap banal box," Libby says.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Cosmopolitan on the Park

Don't Edit

Courtesy of Hoyt Street Properties

This 28-story condominium tower became the tallest building in the Pearl District when it was completed in 2016. The $108 million building features 150 units, and all but four of them were pre-sold before the building opened, a sign that condo fever may be making a comeback.

The condos feature luxury detail, like marble, walnut and oak finishes throughout the building, along with premium appliances and fixtures.

That luxury comes with a cost: Units ranged from $400,000 to $3.8 million for the 28th-floor penthouse. That's quite a contrast from the once-gritty Pearl District that was just beginning to be redeveloped 20 years ago.

Don't Edit

More Portland history

Don't Edit

Collage by Grant Butler, The Oregonian/OregonLive

Looking for more stories about how Portland has changed over the years? We've got you covered.

Don't Edit

-- Grant Butler

gbutler@oregonian.com

503-221-8566; @grantbutler

Don't Edit