Any visit to Portland should start at the corner of Southwest Broadway and Yamhill Street on Pioneer Courthouse Square, which is Portland's outdoor living room. The brick-paved square is an outdoor stage for everything from flower displays to concerts to protest rallies, but not too many years ago this beautiful square was nothing but a parking lot. The parking lot had been created by the controversial razing in 1951 of the Portland Hotel, an architectural gem of a Queen Anne-style château.
Today the square, with its tumbling waterfall fountain, and free-standing columns, is Portland's favorite gathering spot, especially at noon, when the * Weather Machine, a mechanical sculpture, forecasts the weather for the 24 hours to come. Amid a fanfare of music and flashing lights, the Weather Machine sends up clouds of mist and then raises either a sun (clear weather), a dragon (stormy weather), or a blue heron (clouds and drizzle).
Keep your eyes on the square's brick pavement, too. Every brick contains a name (or names) or statement, and some are rather curious. Also on the square, you'll find the Portland Oregon Visitor Association Information Center, a Starbucks espresso bar, and Powell's Travel Store. Unfortunately, you'll also find plenty of street kids hanging out here all hours of the day and night, so don't be surprised if kids ask you for spare change.
Also not to be missed in this neighborhood are * Portlandia and the Portland Building, 1120 SW Fifth Ave. Symbol of the city, Portlandia is the second-largest hammered bronze statue in the country, second only to the Statue of Liberty. The massive kneeling figure holds a trident in one hand and reaches toward the street with the other. This classically designed figure perches incongruously above the entrance to the controversial Portland Building, considered to be the first postmodern structure in the country. Today anyone familiar with the bizarre constructions of Los Angeles architect Frank Gehry would find it difficult to understand how such an innocuous and attractive building could have ever raised such a fuss, but it did just that in the early '80s.
