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In Portland, avenues have numbers and streets have names. W. Burnside Street is the street that divides downtown Portland into "Southwest" and "Northwest." The right side of the map (beige color) is the northwest and the left side is southwest.

Powell's City of Books has an excellent walking map of downtown - download it here.

This is a book you may want to consider purchasing if you're interested in Portland's architectural styles. Here is what former Portland mayor Verz Katz had to say about the book: Take a tour of my favorite city with this guide in hand and learn about Portland's architecture (the good and the bad), its history, its personalities, and its beauty. Bart King has provided a comprehensive look at Portland's architectural heritage."

You can purchase the book at Powell's Books at http://www.powells.com. ISBN: 0879059915.

Located in the heart of downtown Portland, Pioneer Courthouse Square, a thriving urban park, is affectionately known as the City's "living room." More than 21,000 people pass by the Square each day, while thousands more utilize its on-site resources. Upwards of 300 events take place in the Square each year.

The Square's features include the Waterfall Fountain, built of granite; sixteen columns with classical pillars topped with carved yellow roses on which crawl pink-and-green spotted bugs; and two brick amphitheaters which provide seats for events. Other pieces of artwork include Tom Hardy's sculpture of three racing horses and J. Seward Johnson's Allow Me, a bronze statue of a man with an umbrella and an upraised arm.

Chess players are usually present at the square weather permitting.

The Pioneer Square MAX stop on the light rail line is a popular spot for travelers.

One of the first things you will notice in downtown Portland are the unique water fountains known to locals as Benson Bubblers. Simon Benson, a Norwegian immigrant, a lumber baron and philanthropist is the person responsible for these drinking fountains.

To provide fresh drinking water downtown - and discourage his workers from drinking alcohol in the middle of the day - Benson commissioned 20 elegant freshwater drinking fountains. Beer consumption in the city reportedly decreased 25 percent after the fountains were installed, and the water fountains still bubble invitingly on Portland's downtown streets.

Located just to the southeast of Pioneer Square, Fox Tower 2000 is a 27-tory building with "clean lines." The multi-planar design and its stepped-back base were partially intended to prevent an unfriendly shadow from falling on the square. If you are downtown during the spring equinox (March 21), go to Pioneer Courthouse Square at noon to see how much of a shadow it casts. City regulations say that no more than half of the square should be covered.

The best place to view it is on the curving east side as the west boxes itself in with straight lines.

The city's deepest hole is the 462-space underground parking garage. Margaret Sanger (founder of the birth-control movement) was arrested here in 1926 for disseminating "Family Limitation" literature.

Many Portlanders consider the Central Library their favorite building. It has seventeen miles of bookshelves, high ceilings in the reading rooms, and great light. Built in 1912-13, chief librian Mark Frances Isom worked with architect A.E. Doyle to lay out the interior of the building.

The exterior of Central Library has a brick Georgian facade witht he first floor, basement, and trim done in Indiana limestone. Much of the external detail of the library has stone inscriptions - three sides have lists of influential individuals. They are fun and interesting to read such as the names of fifteen bookbinders on the south side.

The Central Library opened in September 1913 and extensively renovated in 1996-97 at approximately $25 million. Most of the interior was remodeled in a traditional yet maintained the library's heritage. Ornamental plaster ceilings were restored and revealed, and two hugh shear walls of reinforced concerete were put in to stabilize the entire buildig for seismic reinforcing.

An anonymous donor provided the money for the "Tree of Knowledge" sculpture with the request that it go toward "teaching children another way of living." It costs $100,000 and it is 14 feet tall and weighs over one ton (2,700 pounds). The artists (Barbara Eiswerth and Dana Lynn Louis) brought it into the library in at least three pieces and welded it together here.

The tree's bark combines images from Oregon's natural history with subjects found in the Dewey Decimal system. The objects are clustered at different levels so children of all heights will have something fascinating to explore. Images attractive to small children are at the base of the tree, while more sophisticated images are placed higher. In addition to botanical forms, such as vines and seaweed, that fit the garden theme of Central Library's artwork, the bark features toys, animals, musical instruments, letters and storybook characters.

The Calvary Presbyterian Church was built in 1882 and most Portlanders refer to it as the "Old Church." It is the scene of numerous concerts (because of its organ) and weddings.

The first thing you notice is the belfry, follwed by the window arches, buttresses, and the beautiful window work. This Gothic style church is not made of traditional materials such as stone, this church has been primarily done in wood. Many called it a "Carpenter Gothic" church.

The interior of the church has an variety of styles within it plaster window moldings, valted, ribbed ceilings, and cast-iron columns.

The South Park Blocks was one of Portland's first parks. It was dedicated to public use by Daniel Lownsdale in 1852. Today there are twelve South Park Blocks stretching through the heart of downtown Portland. Portland State University is located at the far south end and the Center for the Performing Arts along with the Portland Art Museum are located at the north end.

Pietro Belluschi design of the museum in 1892 won him widespread acclaim. His modernist architecture style mades use of natural materials which help focus attention on the serene formality of the building. The building's trim work features a porous limestone (Italian travertine) and it provides a contract with the brickwork. He needed the help of Frank Lloyd Wright to convince the trustees of a sparer design as some board members prefer a Georgian style.

This squat, concrete-walled building houses a shop, museum, and research library. Constructed in 1966, it had to be revised 20 years later as the city obtained the entire block surrounding it (including a hotel). The result is that a plaza was added and two murals were painted on the south and west side of the hotel. The prominent symbols are from Oregon's history.

Twenty-one resident companies call the Portland Center for the Performing Arts (PCPA) home. These include the following: Portland Opera, Portland Ballet Theatre, Oregon Symphony Orchestra, Portland Center Stage, and Oregon Children's Theatre.

PCPA consists of three separate buildings: Keller Auditorium (formerly the Civic Auditorium) located at SW Third Avenue between Market and Clay, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall at SW Broadway at Main, The New Theatre Building, containing the Dolores Winningstad Theatre and the Newmark Theatre at SW Broadway at Main.

The Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall was built in 1928 and extensively remoded in 1984. The Italian Rococo Revival architecture was said to be the national showcase of Rapp & Rapp, renowned Chicago theatre architects. Visitors are greeted by a 65 foot high "Portland" sign above the Broadway Marquee, which contains approximately 6,000 theatrical lights.

The idea of this fountain (located in Pettygrove Park) is to imitate the natural cascades of the Sierra Mountains. The building behind the fountain is the Portland Plaza Condominiums, a three-towered structure.

The fountain is located between SW Clay and SW Market streets and between SW Fourth and SW Fifth Avenues.

The Plaza Blocks, consisting of Chapman and Lownsdale Squares, are located between Third and Fourth Avenues and Salmon and Madison Streets. Chapman Square, originally designed for the exclusive use of women and children, features all female gingko trees. Lownsdale Square was the "gentlemen's gathering place." Today, men and women can safety coexist in either of them. The elk statute above is located in Chapman Square and a Soldiers' Monument, Douglas Tilden’s monument to the Oregonians killed in the Spanish-American War, is located in Lowndale Square.

Both officially and unofficially, the city uses two very different emblems to epitomize its character as a community. One is the blue heron, adopted as an official city symbol in 1986. The other is a huge hammered copper statue of "Portlandia" reaching down from a postmodern city office building towards the downtown bus mall. The figure represents civic life and commerce.

Portlandia is based on a figure in Portland's city seal of a woman, dressed in classical clothes, who welcomes traders into the port of the city. The sculpture is placed on the a landing on the third floor of the Portland Building. The sculpture is 36 feet tall but if Portlandia was magically to stand up, she would be over 50 feet tall. Portlandia is the second largest hammered copper statue in America (the largest is the Statue of Liberty). Portlandia is located at the Portland Building.

Created to nurture and inspire all who visit, this Garden is little changed from what might have greeted you during the Ming dynasty in China. Portland's is an authentic Suzhou-style garden. It grew out of a friendship between Portland and Suzhou, a city renowned for its exquisite gardens.

This walled Garden encloses a full city block. Serpentine walkways, a bridged lake, and open colonnades set off meticulously arranged landscape of plants, water, stone, poetry, and buildings. Architects and artisans from China who designed and constructed the Garden mean for each aspect of the Garden to convey artistic effect and symbolic importance.

Visit the garden's Web site at http://www.portlandchinesegarden.org.

The Italian Renaissance Union Station's 150-foot redbrick clock tower and prominent positioning at the base of the Broadway Bridge combine to make it one of the most visible buildings in the Old Town neighborhood. With its panels of stucco, pressed brick, overhanging tile roof, and gray sandstone trimmingsyou may think you're in Italy.

The "Go by Train" neon sign on the tower were installed after WWII and were almost removed when the station was remodeled in the late 80s.

The St. Johns Bridge is located north of downtown and not a downtown bridge. Due to its beauty, we included it. At the time of its construction (it opened in 1931), it was the longest suspension bridge in the western U.S. (that honor belongs to the Golden Gate Bridge).

The towers, with thier pointed arches reminiscent of Gothic church windows and flying buttresses, are uniquely different from other suspension towers of the day, most notably the Golden Gate Bridge (built 1937) which typically included ladder-like or criss-crossing structural members. The cuving arch design is repeated whereever possible, down to the concrete piers on the east end of the bridge. Looking through those supports gives one the impression of being in a cathedral, hence the inspiration for the park under and around the east end of the bridge.

Type: Two-tower steel cable suspension with steel half-through truss.

Main Span: 1,207 feet

Named for NE Fremont Street, which was originally was designated as the eastern approach to the bridge (as well as a proposed route for a NE Portland freeway that would have run from there to what is now I-205 near Portland Airport).

The Fremont is the world's longest of its type. The upper deck is "orthotropic", meaning it has strengthening properties in two directions, and provide support for the conventionally supported lower deck. The construction process drew notice from around the world. After the east and west approaches were completed the center arch was added in a unique way. Fabricated in California and assembled at Swan Island, 1.7 miles downstream, the center arch was barged in then hoisted into place by 32 massive hydraulic lifts (eight at each corner). The 6,000 ton center span was hoisted 175 vertical feet over 50 hours.

Type: Steel three-span through tied arch, with orthotropic upper deck.

Main Span: 1,255 feet.

The Broadway is the world's outstanding example of the Rall-type bascule span. The rall span makes the Broadway unique. Motorists have the impression that the Broadway seems to take longer to open and close than the other bridges, and this is correct; according to Multnomah County's website, the rall mechanism, characterised by counterweights that roll on great bull wheels (providing maximum river clearance) that are on the outside of the bridge, make for opening times that can extend to 20 minutes. The Morrison and the Burnside, on the other hand, average only five to eight minutes.

Type: Double-leaf rall bascule, steel through-truss.

Main Span: 278 feet.

The true uniqueness is in the double-deck lift span, the only known example in North America if not the world. The lower deck carries railroad traffic and the upper deck carries light rail and vehicluar traffic, and they can move together or independently. The lower deck actually retracts into the upper deck, allowing river passage for smaller craft without interrupting automobile traffic. In the photo above, the lower deck is retracted into the upper deck.

In 1986, rail traffic came to the upper deck with the establishment of the TriMet light-rail system known as MAX, and as the area sprouted the Oregon Convention Center and the Rose Quarter the bridge has become less a regional link and much more a local link.

Type: Steel Pratt through-truss, double-deck vertical lift.

Main Span: 211 feet.

The draw leaves on the Burnside are concrete surfaced. The Burnside was thought to be the first major bascule span in the U.S. with an all-concrete deck. At 5,000 tons, the drawspan is atypically heavy–nearly twice that of the Morrison.

The bridge connects the east and west halves of an important Portland street. Burnside Street runs from the hills of western Portland to Gresham–an unbroken distance of around 20 miles. Moreover, Burnside forms one of the axes to the greater Portland street address system, which extends (with some exceptions) over the entirety of the three metropolitan counties of Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington counties. Burnside provides the division between north and south, and the Willamette River, which it spans, separates east from west and is itself used as a direction division.

Type: Steel double-leaf, Strauss bascule.

Main Span: 252 feet.

The Morrison is perhaps the bridge that has the sleekest, most modern design of the downtown drawspans. Particularly notable is the bridge control booth (used to control the drawspan for river traffic), which is reminiscent of the airport control tower style architecture also popular at the time.

Type: Steel double-leaf Strauss ("Chicago-style" fixed-trunnion) basclue.

Main Span: 284 feet.

At the time of its construction all Portland drawbridges had wooden or concrete decks. The Hawthorne was the first bridge to have the wooden deck replaced with a steel deck, in 1945. With its accessable approaches and wide sidewalks, the Hawthorne is typically regarded as one of the most pedestrian and bicycle-friendly bridges.

Type: Steel Parker through-truss with vertical lift span.

main Span: 244 feet.

With the opening of the Eastbank Freeway (Marquam Bridge, I-5), Harbor Drive became less important to the traffic flow of the city. Governor Tom McCall created the Harbor Drive Task Force in 1968 in order to study proposals for creating a public open space in its place. In 1974, Harbor Drive was torn up and construction of the 36.59 waterfront park began. It was completed and dedicated in 1978, gaining instant popularity. In 1984, the park was renamed Governor Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

The park is a favorite place for downtown office workers to stroll during their lunch break. The park allows walkers and bikers to cross the river (either the Steel Bridge or the Hawthorne Bridge) and continue the walk on the east bank of the river on the Vera Katz Eastbank Esplanade. This makes for a nice loop of about three miles.

A favorite place to cool off during the summer months.

The Esplanade is 1.5 miles long, extending from the Hawthorne Bridge to the Steel Bridge with connections to eastside neighborhoods as well as across the river. It is fully accessible by bike, on foot or by wheelchair from the bridges at either end.

There are 13 'urban markers' at key locations along the Esplanade that mark the eastside city street grid. There are 22 interpretive panels that are attached to the markers. The panels provide information about the river and the rich history of the area - from the building of Portland’s bridges to the development of Portland’s eastside.

We conclude our tour of downtown Portland with this photo of downtown in the foreground and Mt. Hood in the background.

Map of Downtown Portland

W. Burnside Street is the street that divides downtown Portland into "Southwest" and "Northwest." The right side of the map (beige color) is the northwest and the left side is southwest.

Avenues have numbers and streets have names in downtown Portland as well as in most other areas of the city.