Hangar 8005

Built: 1965

Location: 8005 NE Airport Way at Portland International Airport

Background: Georgia-Pacific Corp. constructed their first hangar at Portland International Airport, Hangar 8007, in 1959 to support their Pacific Northwest headquarters and house a corporate jet. The hangar was built on leased land east of the passenger terminal, on the north side of Airport Way, and was the first non-commercial hangar constructed at the Port. In 1965, the company added Hangar 8005 to the leased property. The construction of these hangars corresponded with a period of growth for the company in the Pacific Northwest and with the rapid increase in the use of jets at the airport. As a wood product supply company, Georgia-Pacific likely used many of their own materials in the construction of Hangar 8005.

Architectural significance: Burgeoning car culture and the post-WWII commercial boom led to the development of a commercial architecture form known as “Googie.” Named after a California coffee shop, this eye-catching style was common in roadside architecture, where swooping rooflines and dramatic signs were used to draw the attention of passing drivers. The jet age had its own impact on commercial building design, and the swept-back wings of the Boeing 707 in particular, could be seen as an influence in roof and sign design into the 1960s.

Hangar 8005 is an unusual example of Googie architecture in a building not often used by the general public. Usually reserved for those businesses that would wish to advertise themselves to passing drivers, it is not typical to see the Googie style used for an airplane hangar owned by a private corporation. Although this hangar was constructed in a high-profile location adjacent to Airport Way, there is no indication that Georgia-Pacific used this building as an advertisement of company products or services: original building plans and photographs of the airport in the 1960s show no corporate sign on the building that would be visible from Airport Way. The dramatically curved Googie roof design appears to have been chosen in part as a unique way to accommodate the frame of the new jets that were available in the early 1960s and would have been parked in this hangar. A wide wingspan and high tail called for wider hangar openings without interior support posts, as well as an increased height to accommodate the height of the vertical stabilizer. The original door design of Hangar 8005 was also taller at the center.

Hangar 8005 was designed by architect Ralph C. Bonadurer, who had designed the first Georgia-Pacific hangar at the Port (now demolished). Bonadurer operated his own architecture firm in Portland and was a 1949 graduate of the architecture program at the University of Oregon. Bonadurer designed several roadside restaurants and hotels, including Pietro’s Pizza at 10300 SE Main Street in Milwaukie, the Ashland Hills Hotel in Ashland, as well as a variety of residential buildings in the Portland area. Bonadurer’s apparent familiarity with roadside architecture may in part, explain the choice of Googie design for the hangar.

The Columbus Day Storm of 1962 damaged or destroyed 88 aircraft and 16 hangars at the airport, but Hangar 8007 survived intact while an adjacent hangar was destroyed. In Bonadurer’s design for Hangar 8005, he chose many of the same structural elements as those he used in Hangar 8007, which had stood up to the hurricane-force winds of the storm. In addition, he further strengthened these elements by tying the glued-laminated beams directly into poured concrete buttresses.

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