Vanport Building Opening

Watch the virtual official grand opening of the Vanport Building on the Portland State University campus.

Honoring the legacy of Vanport

The Vanport Building is an important new community asset. This exciting addition to downtown Portland celebrates the heritage of Vanport along with the lessons that community can teach us today.

The Vanport building houses PSU’s College of Education, the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health, Portland Community College’s dental hygiene and dental assisting programs, and the City of Portland's Bureau of Planning & Sustainability.

In addition to its academic, research, and civic facilities, it features a dental clinic and low-cost mental health services for the general public.

The birthplace of Portland State

The Vanport Building is named after the City of Vanport, which was destroyed during the 1948 Memorial Day Flood. Constructed as part of the Kaiser Company's shipbuilding efforts in 1942, Vanport was the nation's largest wartime housing development. At its height was the second-largest city in Oregon after Portland. Beginning in 1946, Vanport became the home of the Vanport Extension Center, the predecessor of Portland State University.

A collaborative project

The Vanport Building is a condominium partnership among Portland State University, the City of Portland, Portland Community College, and Oregon Health & Science University. The ground floor is occupied by retail tenants. Along with funding provided by the project partners, the project was secured via $51 million in state bonds approved in 2017.

Partners

Thank You

The Vanport Building team wishes to thank the Oregon Legislature, Governor Kate Brown, Prosper Portland, and Christine and David Vernier for their support of this project.