$5.8 Million Federal
$5 Million
$31.5 Million
Gerding Edlen
Education Access
The building that now houses the Pacific Northwest College of Art was constructed between 1916 and 1918 and opened in 1919 after being commissioned by the Secretary of the Treasury. The building was one of the last post offices built under the 1893 Tarsney Act and was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 18, 1979.
In 2013, the building housed the Department of Homeland Security offices for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. During this time, the agency “modernized” the building, lowering the ground floor ceilings to accommodate central heating and obscuring many of its original elaborate features.
The Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) completely renovated the space to support the growth and expansion of the school’s overall student enrollment and to consolidate their spaces. The $31.5 million LEED silver rehabilitation included instructional spaces, classrooms, studios, laboratories, and supporting administrative and faculty spaces. It also includes a black box theater for lecture, performance, and installation purposes.
Some of the more unusual features of the building include marble walls, an elaborate original ceiling in the lobby and carvings featuring mythical beasts such as griffins. The building also has several vaults from its time as a post office that have been converted to function as dark rooms for developing photographs and to contain student installations.
Prior to the move to the new location, PNCA had enrolled over 600 students in 15 undergraduate and graduate programs and supported another 1,500 students through its continuing education programs. The new expanded facilities allowed the college to increase their admission potential.
At the start of the 2015 academic year, over 50 direct permanent jobs were created. It also has become a development bridge at Broadway between the Pearl District and Old Town/Chinatown and has activated
what would otherwise have become a vacant and deteriorating historic landmark.
The college has participated in a number of service projects to benefit the community, including the development of a library at a juvenile detention center and the ongoing project with Portland’s innovative Bud Clark Commons, a large center that serves people experiencing homelessness.
The creation of the Pythian was made possible, in part, by NTCIC through an investment in the $5.8 Million federal Historic Tax Credits generated by the project and a $5 Million New Markets Tax Credit Allocation.
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