The Failing Office Building is a building in downtown

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idah ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

that was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...

on October 31, 2007. The building was built during the rapid growth in Portland's business district after the

Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition The Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, commonly also known as the Lewis and Clark Exposition, and officially known as the Lewis and Clark Centennial and American Pacific Exposition and Oriental Fair, was a worldwide exposition held in Portlan ...

in 1905. It was built with six stories in 1907, with a six-story addition in 1913. It features a reinforced steel-frame structure with facades of yellow brick and glazed terra cotta. The Failing Office Building is currently known as The 620 Building.

History

The building was built for Henry Failing, the fifteenth mayor of Portland. He was the son of

Josiah Failing Josiah Failing (July 9, 1806 – August 14, 1877) was a businessman and the fourth mayor of Portland, Oregon, United States. Born in New York, he moved to Portland when it was still a small town of a few hundred. He and his son Henry, who also ...

, also a mayor of Portland. It was originally named the Gevurtz Building, for the ground-floor Gevurtz Furniture Company. In 1918, the Portland Gas and Coke Company signed a lease with the Failing estate, at which time it was named the Gasco Building. Portland Gas and Coke moved its operations to the Public Service Building in 1927, so the building was renamed the Failing Building. The architects, William M. Whidden and Ion Lewis, of the firm Whidden & Lewis, were prominent in Portland around the beginning of the 20th century. Their residential buildings were mostly in the

Colonial Revival The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the archi ...

style, while their commercial buildings were primarily in the 20th century classical style. The commercial buildings often featured brick, along with

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracot ...

ornamentation. In December 2006, Walker Place LLC purchased the Failing Office Building (620 Building) from 620 Associates LLC for $11.35 million.

Renovations

In 1913, Whidden & Lewis oversaw the addition of six stories for the Gevurtz Furniture Company. In 1951, JJ Newberry remodeled the first and second floors (Glenn Stanton Architect) of the Failing Building and constructed a new six-story building, which replaced the Richmond Building, located just to the east. A ceramic veneer was added which covered the original large window openings on the first and second floors. In 2008, the Failing Building (620 Building) underwent a major facade renovation of the first and second floors. The 1951 ceramic veneer was removed, allowing the display windows to be reinstalled. With the addition of new steel awnings, concrete pilasters, and decorative tile, the building's facade was renovated to an approximation of its original 1913 appearance.(Waterleaf Architecture)
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References

External links

* {{Portal bar, Architecture, National Register of Historic Places, Oregon Office buildings in Portland, Oregon Office buildings completed in 1907 Office buildings completed in 1913 National Register of Historic Places in Portland, Oregon 1907 establishments in Oregon Southwest Portland, Oregon

History

Renovations

See also

References

External links