3.1K 
Rising above the site of a former 1920s-era warehouse, the Porter Hotel is soon to become one in a series of hotel projects on the go in downtown Portland. Part of Hilton's Curio Collection, the Porter Hotel will be the first of the parent company's new build Curios upon its completion in late 2017.
Designed by the Atlanta-based HC Architecture Inc. for the Widewaters Group, the 16-storey, 299-room hotel will feature a rooftop restaurant and lounge, offering beautiful views of downtown Portland and the Willamette River. Renderings reveal a modern design with a multi-storey, masonry-clad podium with retail, above which the bulk of the hotel will rise. The street-facing side of the tower will be clad in blue and grey glass panels, while the other side will be completed in grey panelling, and all of which will be capped with a semi-open rooftop amenity space, including the restaurant and lounge.
With plans calling for a 16-storey tower with the addition of one basement level, the hotel will feature a ground-level lobby, restaurant and bar, market cafe and take-out window, with frontage onto SW Columbia, while the basement will be home to the fitness centre, pool, sauna, and spa. In keeping with Portland's progressive, urban-centric profile and civic character, in which public transit, walking, and cycling are heavily touted as preferable alternatives to the car, there will be no on-site parking.
Above, the future home of the Porter Hotel was once the site of a 1920s-era structure, which though it featured some nice period detailing, was demolished to make way for the new hotel. Below, the site can be seen as it appears today, the podium level having recently risen above grade. Careful eyes will note that the historic street lamps have been saved.
While there remains much work to be done, the Porter Hotel's size and scope can be made out, with an eventual 16 storeys to fit in amid the surrounding skyline, which had long outgrown the former four-storey building.
Once complete, the Porter Hotel will represent a larger shift currently underway in Portland, towards the construction of more and more hotels and residential highrises, as the city continues to grow taller and denser.
SkyriseCities will return to this project as progress continues. For more information, check out the associated Database file and Forum thread, and as always, feel free to join the conversation in the comments section below.
