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  1. Portside

The Port’s new brand: A mission to move with purpose

September 20, 2023
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At first glance, the Port of Portland’s new logo may look familiar, even if you’re not sure why. Just hold it up to a map of the Portland Metro Area. You’ll notice that the swoops inside the circle capture a bird's-eye view of the point where the Willamette and Columbia Rivers meet.

The theme behind this new icon is “confluence,” or coming together. It represents the confluence of our two major rivers, but also the tens of thousands of people who come together every day to fulfill the Port’s shared vision. 

Changing the Port’s logo this September isn’t just about updating our website, signs, or access badges. It’s the symbol of a much bigger change. Over the past three years, we’ve been building a new mission and new ways of partnering with communities across our region to create opportunity, access, and progress.

 

The power behind the Port? Our people, who help us move with purpose every day.

Shifting our focus from things to people

Curtis Robinhold, Port of Portland CEO, says that the pandemic shutdowns and racial justice movements of 2020 spurred the Port’s executive team to rethink its mission. "For 130 years, the Port has been about things," the team asked themselves. "We run marine terminals, airports, and industrial parks. But what are these things for?"  

So we asked communities around the region, from East Multnomah County to our local chapter of the National Association of Minority Contractors, the same question. The answer came back, loud and clear: Helping people improve their lives.     

Exhibits by artists like painter Renee Zangara ensure that PDX reflects a diversity of voices, experiences, and stories
Nancy Bebek, owner of Prestige Tile and Stone, is a Mentor Protege Program graduate and one of the many local partners bringing PDX's new design to life. 
We partner with the PDX Access Committee to find ways to make travel at the airport more accessible for everyone.

Creating new opportunities for all

One of our touchstones in this mission is shared prosperity: Giving people who have been shut out of the Port’s economic opportunities access to contracts, partnerships, and jobs. One of the hundreds of local businesspeople who’s been helping us build shared prosperity is James Faison, owner of Portland-based Faison Construction.

For years now, James has been a mentor with the Port’s Mentor-Protégé Program, which helps small businesses find work with the Port, particularly businesses owned by women and people of color.

Indoor navigation app GoodMaps is for anyone who could use help finding their gate safely, efficiently, and independently.

"There's nothing in the country like it," he says. "They help with creating company swag, as well as with tax consulting and long-term planning. The Port will set you up for success." - James Faison, owner Faison Construction

PDX’s Access Committee, made up of leaders from disability-related organizations, is also making sure the airport welcomes and serves everyone.

"The Port is looking at the broad band of disabilities, asking our opinion on things that people don't necessarily think about," says Tobi Rates, executive director of the Autism Society of Oregon and a member of the Access Committee. Access doesn’t just mean ramps and signs, but sensory rooms and the sunflower lanyard program for people with invisible disabilities. 

"In making the airport and the travel experience more accessible for people with disabilities, the airport becomes easier for everybody to navigate." - Tobi Rates, executive director of the Autism Society

Pursuing innovation

We’re also partnering with local businesses, nonprofits, and public agencies to transform Marine Terminal 2 into a site for innovation. There, we’re working together to build an industry that will create thousands of new jobs in mass timber and housing construction. One of the anchor tenants: Hacienda CDC, whose new Mass Casitas program designs and builds affordable, modular housing using mass timber made from Oregon wood. Mass Casitas is currently installing six prototype houses on sites around the state. 

"Hacienda and the Port of Portland have been working as great partners. The fact that the Port is very well recognized in the state helps us with credibility as we're bringing to the table new alternatives and new products. Having the opportunity to tap into the Port's logistical and operations expertise has added real value." - Leticia Cervantes, innovation director with Hacienda CDC

Our new Port story is growing our role as a confluence, bringing people together to improve the lives of everyone in our region. For 130 years, the Port of Portland has been a channel for transporting goods all over the world. More and more, we are a channel for economic growth. 

When we move with purpose, we can make big things happen. 

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Timeline

A new purpose for Terminal 2

2017-2019 aerial of terminal 2

With an abundance of breakbulk cargo terminals along the lower Columbia River between the ocean and Portland, the Port began to consider whether Terminal 2, located on the Willamette River, should continue serving as a marine terminal. Multiple studies confirmed it: T2 was no longer needed for breakbulk cargo.

Instead, the terminal would provide the greatest economic benefit – meaning it creates quality jobs for the people who live and work in our region, and opportunities for rural and urban businesses – if redeveloped as an industrial park or manufacturing hub, especially given the short supply of industrial land in the Portland area.

Finding possibility in mass timber

2020

Wildfires devastated rural Oregon, wiping out thousands of homes and increasing the region’s urgent need for more affordable housing – and sparked new collaboration between state and Port employees, who create an informal network to provide housing for fire victims.

Meanwhile, at PDX, we were bringing together partners from across the region to construct a new airport roof made of mass timber. Designed and built in the Pacific Northwest, with materials supplied by 40 Oregon and Washington landowners, mills and fabricators, the new 9-acre airport roof changed the region’s idea of what’s possible. Some of the wood was even harvested to reduce the impact of wildfires.

The PDX roof was just the beginning.

Create a coalition to do something big

2021 Oregon Mass Timber Coalition logo

The next step was to formalize partnerships that had started taking root, leading to the formation of the Oregon Mass Timber Coalition. Our goal was – and is – to create a regional hub for innovation and mass timber industry growth through sustainable design, manufacturing and housing construction.

Coalition members include the Port of Portland, Oregon Department of Forestry, Business Oregon, Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development, University of Oregon, Oregon State University, and TallWood Design Institute.

EDA funding kick-starts plans for a mass timber modular factory

2021 Still rendering of T2 Mass Timber site concept

Another EDA grant enabled the Oregon Mass Timber Coalition to launch a comprehensive strategy for expanding the mass timber housing market.

Funding targeted coalition projects across the state, from fire and acoustical testing of mass timber products for use in multifamily housing, to wildfire reduction and sustainable, traceable wood harvesting in regional forests, to developing the workforce training needed for new jobs in an emerging industry. It also provided funding for the Port to begin site preparation at Terminal 2.

Transforming a longtime marine terminal this way requires a lot of planning, investment and infrastructure work before construction of new buildings can begin. We started identifying partners to help build and operate a new mass timber and housing manufacturing factory, and working with Mackenzie, a local firm, on high-level master plans to guide ongoing development.

Demonstrating mass timber’s promise for housing

2023 interior example of fully furnished mass timber home

One of our early partners was Hacienda Community Development Corporation, a local nonprofit that built six prototype homes from mass timber at T2. The Mass Casitas pilot project, funded in part by $5 million from the 2023 Oregon Legislature, not only provided homes for families in Madras, Talent, Otis and Portland. It demonstrated that mass timber modular construction can provide a quicker, more efficient and cost-effective way to build housing.

Around the same time, the Port also began leasing space to modomi, a Portland-based company specializing in sustainable modular housing, and modomi began renovating an old warehouse into a modular housing manufacturing facility.

Campus plans take shape

2024 Rendering of UO acoustics lab: modern timber building

Two years of plans started to become reality with multiple anchor tenants announced for the campus.

The Port approved leases with the University of Oregon for a new mass timber acoustics laboratory, along with Zaugg Timber Solutions, which took over the warehouse renovated by modomi to create a temporary mass timber manufacturing facility. With plans for a permanent mass timber modular factory at T2 as well, Zaugg began efforts to build an interim modular manufacturing facility and recruit for its training program in Switzerland.

Throughout all this excitement, we continued working out costs and plans for making sure soil is stable for future construction at the campus, and securing additional federal funding for developing critical infrastructure.

What’s next

2025-2028 man in hardhat and harness working on timber building

When complete, the 39-acre Mass Timber and Housing Innovation Campus at T2 will include manufacturing, research and development, skills training, and incubator space for small and emerging businesses.

In 2025-26, we’ll work on soil stabilization and critical campus-wide infrastructure improvements. We’ll also work with University of Oregon as they undergo design and permitting for their new acoustics lab – expected to begin construction in 2026 and open in 2027 – and finalize plans with Zaugg for a new, permanent mass timber modular factory to open in early 2028. Zaugg will begin producing mass timber modular housing units, industrial and commercial buildings, and prefabricated mass timber building components even sooner, as early as 2026, in their interim facility.

And we’ll continue collaborating with partners to make sure workers are prepared for the new, high-quality jobs in the emerging mass timber industry.

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