Memorial Coliseum (Portland)

For other uses, see Memorial Coliseum (disambiguation).

Memorial Coliseum
Location	300 North Winning Street (or 1401 North Wheeler Avenue) Portland, OR 97227
Coordinates	45°31′56″N 122°40′10″W / 45.53222°N 122.66944°W / 45.53222; -122.66944Coordinates: 45°31′56″N 122°40′10″W / 45.53222°N 122.66944°W / 45.53222; -122.66944
Broke ground	February 4, 1959
Opened	November 3, 1960[1]
Owner	City of Portland
Operator	Anschutz Entertainment Group
Construction cost	$8 million ($59.3 million in 2011 dollars[2])
Architect	Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Capacity	Basketball: 12,888 Concerts: 13,000 Ice hockey: 10,407
Tenants
Portland Trail Blazers (NBA) (1970–1995) Portland Winterhawks (WHL) (1976–present) Portland Buckaroos (WHL) (1960–1975) Portland Power (ABL) (1996–1998) Portland Pride (CISL) (1993–1997) 1965 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament

Memorial Coliseum is an indoor arena located in the oldest part of, what is now known as the Rose Quarter area, within Portland, Oregon, United States.

The arena is the home of the Portland Winterhawks, a major junior ice hockey team, and was the first home of the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association.

It has been included on the National Register of Historic Places in recognition of its architectural significance.

Tenants

The Memorial Coliseum was the home of the Portland Buckaroos of the Western Hockey League and was the venue for the 1965 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship, where UCLA won its second of ten such championships in the 1960s and 1970s.

Portland Trail Blazers

When the Portland Trail Blazers franchise was awarded for 1970, the Memorial Coliseum became the team's home court, capable of seating nearly 13,000 when configured for basketball. Three NBA Finals have been (partially) played in the Coliseum; in 1977 (when the Trail Blazers won) and in 1990 and 1992.

On November 1, 1974, Gerald Ford became the first president to attend an NBA game. At the Memorial Coliseum, he watched the Trail Blazers defeat the Buffalo Braves 113–106.

Construction began on the nearby Rose Garden soon after the 1992 NBA finals, and it became the team's home arena when it opened in 1995.

As part of the team's 40th anniversary celebration, the Blazers played a pre-season game at Memorial Coliseum on October 14, 2009, against the Phoenix Suns. Team founder Harry Glickman, former players Jerome Kersey, Terry Porter, and Bob Gross, as well as broadcaster Bill Schonely attended the game. The Suns defeated the Blazers, 110–104 with 11,740 tickets sold.^[3]

Portland Winterhawks

The building is currently the home arena of the Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League. In August 2007, the City of Portland and the Portland Winterhawks reached an agreement to have replay screens installed in the main center ice scoreboard in time for the 2007–2008 hockey season. The city agreed to rent the screens, which are owned by the Winterhawks, for the first year, and then either buy them outright or replace them with different screens in 2008–09. Other improvements included adding a 'beer garden' area, replacing graphic displays, and general painting and repairs.

Other occupants

The Portland Power of the American Basketball League played in the Coliseum from 1996–1998. It hosted the OSAA 4A Men's State Basketball Tournament in March 1966–2003 and the March 2005 Big Sky Conference Basketball Tournament. The Memorial Coliseum hosts the Oregon High School Hockey League; local high school hockey teams play a few games each season and it also hosts some other events such as conventions, touring shows, and high school graduations.

Major events

The interior during the Davis Cup in 2007

The Memorial Coliseum was designed with large doors at both ends to accommodate the floats of the Portland Rose Festival’s Grand Floral Parade.^[4] The 4.2-mile (6.8 km) long parade begins at the Memorial Coliseum, where paying guests watch the parade cross the coliseum’s floor from reserved seats inside and from bleachers outside. The Rose Festival Queen’s Coronation has also been held in the facility since 1961.

On August 22, 1965, The Beatles played two shows at Memorial Coliseum to 20,000 screaming fans as part of their 1965 American Tour. Allen Ginsburg, who was in the audience, wrote a poem about the event called “Portland Coliseum”.^[5]

A political rally for 2000 presidential candidate Ralph Nader sold 10,500 seven dollar tickets at the venue on August 26, 2000, with every seat sold except those behind the stage.^{[citation needed]}

President Barack Obama spoke at the Memorial Coliseum on March 21, 2008 before winning the Democratic Nomination.^[6][7]

Dew Tour

In 2004, Portland was selected as one of five cities in the U.S. to host the Dew Tour, a new extreme sports franchise started in 2005. Titled the Vans Invitational, the event was held at the Rose Quarter August 17–21, 2004. The Memorial Coliseum hosted BMX: Park, BMX: Vert, Skateboard: Park, and Skateboard: Vert. The Dew Tour will return to the Rose Quarter again with the Wendy's Invitational on August 12–15, 2010, marking the tour's sixth year in Portland, which is the only city that has qualified to host the tour in every year since its inception.^[8]

Davis Cup Tennis final

From November 30 through December 2, 2007, the Memorial Coliseum hosted the 2007 Davis Cup Tennis final between the USA and Russia.

History

Memorial Coliseum
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Area:	approx. 7.24 acres (2.93 ha)[10]
Built:	1959[9]
Architect:	Skidmore, Owings and Merrill[10]
Architectural style:	International style[10]
NRHP Reference#:	09000707[9]
Added to NRHP:	September 10, 2009[9]

Financed by an $8 million bond approved by voters in 1954, construction was completed by Hoffman Construction in 1960 and dedicated on January 8, 1961, to the "advancement of cultural opportunities for the community and to the memory of our veterans of all wars who made the supreme sacrifice." The facility is 100-foot (30 m) tall and has a footprint of about 3.1 acres (1.3 ha). It is sometimes referred to as "The Glass Palace" in Portland.^[11] The building was designed by architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.^[12]

Original plans called for a building made of wood, which is plentiful in the region, but cost and safety factors precluded this. The structure instead consists of a modernistic gray glass and aluminum, non load-bearing curtain-wall cube around a central ovular concrete seating bowl. Four 70-foot (21 m) concrete piers support the steel roof, with no interior columns required. The exterior appearance, with 80,000 square feet (7,400 m²) of glass, is of a skyscraper laid on its side. The curtain-wall windows inside offer views of the city in all directions. The 1,060-foot (320 m) long black curtains can be closed to block sunlight in 90 seconds. Seating includes 9,000 permanent seats expandable to 14,000 with portable chairs and bleachers. At its opening it was called the largest multipurpose facility of its kind in the Pacific Northwest.

The war memorial consists of two black granite walls below ground level and near the main gate. The names of the dead are inscribed in gold paint, now faded with age. There are no dates given, only the names and an inscription: "To the memory of a supreme sacrifice we honor those who gave their lives for God, principle and love of country”.

The International Style glass and concrete building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in September 2009.^[12]

Future

It was proposed that Memorial Coliseum be demolished to make room for a 9,000 seat new ballpark for Merritt Paulson’s Portland Beavers baseball team, since the team would move from PGE Park to make room for the new Portland Timbers Major League Soccer franchise, also a Paulson owned team. This proposal was dropped early in May 2009 with Lents Park being re-considered as a ballpark site.

Opposition to razing Memorial Coliseum included some veterans and architectural historians who successfully applied for National Register of Historic Places status for the building. Former governor Vic Atiyeh also opposed demolition if it led to the veteran memorial being forgotten. The Memorial Coliseum was given a rank of the highest importance in the city’s historic resource inventory of 1984.^[13]

Other proposed uses of the grounds include turning the site into an entertainment district, a recreation center, a retail center, or a multilevel center for arts, athletics, and education. Another possibility is to update and repair the facility to improve its marketability.

However, there has been talk about using two of the outer glass walls as part of the exterior for a new ballpark.

References

1. ^ http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=kZZaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=X0sDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5389,4846535&dq=portland+memorial+coliseum&hl=en
2. ^ Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–2008. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Retrieved December 7, 2010.
3. ^ Anne M. Peterson (2009-10-15). "Blazers go retro but lose 110-104 to Suns". Yahoo! Sports. http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/recap;_ylt=AqF0UHsUUigetSrzkYQyLbC8vLYF?gid=2009101422. 
4. ^ "A Heritage of Roses: 100 Years of the Portland Rose Festival". Portland Rose Festival. http://www.rosefestival.org/kids/guide.pdf. Retrieved March 25, 2010. 
5. ^ Miles, Barry. The Beatles: An Intimate Day-by-day History. Omnibus Press, 1998, page 189.
6. ^ "Barack Obama visits Portland". OregonLive.com. http://blog.oregonlive.com/photos/2008/03/barack_obama_visits_portland.html. Retrieved October 23, 2011. 
7. ^ "Richardson endorses Obama". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/us/politics/21cnd-endorse.html. Retrieved October 23, 2011. 
8. ^ "Dew Tour Announces Schedule For 2010". ALLI: Alliance of Action Sports. http://www.allisports.com/news/dew-tour-announces-schedule-2010. Retrieved March 28, 2010. 
9. ^ ^{a b c} Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (October 19, 2009), Oregon National Register List, http://www.oregonheritage.org/OPRD/HCD/NATREG/docs/oregon_nr_list.pdf, retrieved March 2, 2010 
10. ^ ^{a b c} Minor, Kristen (July 2009) (PDF), National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Memorial Coliseum, http://www.oregonheritage.org/OPRD/HCD/NATREG/docs/national_register_recent/Multnomah_MemorialColiseum_nrnom.pdf 
11. ^ Hughley, Marty (October 17, 2009). "A bittersweet return to the Glass Palace". OregonLive.com. Advance Internet. http://www.oregonlive.com/O/index.ssf/2009/10/a_bittersweet_return_to_the_gl.html. Retrieved March 25, 2010. 
12. ^ ^{a b} Larabee, Mark (September 15, 2009). "Memorial Coliseum gets historic designation, new lease on life". The Oregonian. http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2009/09/memorial_coliseum_gets_histori.html. Retrieved 2009-09-16. 
13. ^ Foster, Margaret. "Portland Debates Fate of Modernist Memorial Coliseum". Preservation. National Trust for Historic Preservation. http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2009/todays-news/portland-debates-fate-of.html. Retrieved March 25, 2010. 

• Bosker, Gideon and Lena Lencek. Frozen Music: A History of Portland Architecture. Western Imprints, 1985.
• Griffin, Anna. “Memorial Coliseum 's champion” Oregonian, April 15, 2009.
• Jung, Helen. "Memorial Coliseum may be demolished for baseball park" Oregonian, April 7, 2009.
• Jung, Helen. "Save Portland's Memorial Coliseum, but for what?" Oregonian, May 10, 2009.
• King, Bart. An Architectural Guidebook to Portland. Oregon State University Press, 2007.
• Larabee, Mark “City urged to move slowly on stadium, save coliseum” Oregonian, April 16, 2009 page B1.
• Memorial Coliseum & Exhibit Hall, Portland, Oregon; Operated under Authority of the Exposition-Recreation Commission of the City of Portland. (Dedicaton program). 1960.
• "1,200,000 Throng to 'Glass Palace' In Banner First Year", Oregonian, September 3, 1961 page 12. (an early reference to "glass palace" nickname)

External links and sources

Media related to Memorial Coliseum (Portland) at Wikimedia Commons

• Memorial Coliseum Reuse Study, a City of Portland website
• Memorial Coliseum in a Fight for its Life, from the website of Historic Preservation Northwest (February 16, 2003)
• Portland's crown jewel or a clunker?, a March 2004 article from the Portland Tribune
• Alternatives abound for coliseum's future, a July 2003 article from the Portland Tribune
• Urban Home Center recommended for Memorial Coliseum redevelopment, a May 2003 article from the Portland edition of the Daily Journal of Commerce
• Save Memorial Coliseum
• National Register of Historic Places nomination
• Photo Gallery of Blazers-Suns Game at MC on October 14, 2009

Events and tenants
Preceded by None	Home of the Portland Trail Blazers 1970–1995	Succeeded by Rose Garden
Preceded by Olympic Stadium Moscow	Davis Cup Final Venue 2007	Succeeded by Polideportivo Islas Malvinas Mar del Plata
Preceded by Municipal Auditorium	NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament Finals Venue 1965	Succeeded by Cole Field House