Oregon Convention Center has completed a momentous $40 million renovation project—OCC’s first large-scale renovation since the venue was built 30 years ago.
The ambitious remodel, which was completed in late November during OCC’s busiest year-to-date, includes updates to numerous public spaces throughout the venue in order to improve accessibility for event attendees, provide more flexible and transformable space options and elevate design aspects.
The renovation project scope included creating a plaza area to provide a flexible outdoor space option for events, which will also serve as a community space for locals, staff and event attendees alike. In order to integrate creative design aspects throughout the venue, OCC drew inspiration from the beauty of Oregon’s natural landscape, with unique design touches such as lichen-inspired carpets and forest canopy ceilings.
Coinciding with January’s opening of the Hyatt Regency Portland at the Oregon Convention Center, which was built directly adjacent to OCC and offers 600 guest rooms, OCC’s newly-renovated space serves to invigorate Portland’s national competitiveness as a top destination for meetings and conventions. The combination of OCC’s renovation with the convention hotel opening provides a new, gleaming meetings and conventions product for Portland that can accommodate groups of all shapes and sizes. OCC’s renovation project also serves to enhance the surrounding Lloyd neighborhood.
“When we began planning this comprehensive renovation project, all the way back in 2013, we saw a need for Portland to level up its meetings and convention offerings,” says Scott Cruickshank, general manager of visitor venues for Metro and former OCC Executive Director. “This renovation has done that and more. Portland now has a top-tier conventions venue, paired with a sizable convention hotel, that has national and international appeal.”
He adds, “Many community organizations, firms and stakeholders have been involved in this project over the years, and so its completion is also exciting to the local residents and partners that were instrumental to this large-scale project.”
OCC worked with multiple local Pacific Northwest firms for the renovation, which was completed on-time and on-budget. The convention center partnered with Colas Construction as the general contractor for the project. Colas Construction’s relationships were instrumental in bringing skilled Certification Office for Business Inclusion and Diversity (COBID)-certified subcontractors to the remodel, resulting in 51 percent of the project contractors being COBID-certified firms and 35 percent of the total hours worked conducted by minorities.
The renovations were designed by Seattle-based LMN Architects, Merryman Barnes Architects were tapped as the associate architect firm and Mayer/Reed acted as the landscape architectural firm and environmental graphics designer. Glumac was brought on as the MEP engineer, Seattle-based Magnusson Klemencic Associates was the structural engineer, and KPFF was the civil engineering firm.
Oregon Convention Center is the largest convention center in the Pacific Northwest with 255,000 square feet of contiguous exhibit space, two grand ballrooms, 52 individual meeting rooms, superior catering and concession offerings, and a full-time staff of over 120 professionals, making it the perfect venue to service events from 10 to 10,000 attendees. For more info, visit www.oregoncc.org.
