The Portland Plaza stands out as a twenty-five story tower of dark, cast-in-place concrete and ribbons of bronze-tinted glass. Designed by the architect Frank Blachly and completed in nineteen seventy-three, it was the first high-rise residential project in the city to occupy a full square block. Local residents initially protested its construction, fearing the massive concrete structure would block sunlight and ruin the scale of the neighborhood. Today, it remains a distinct, vertical example of the era’s brutalist influence on urban housing.
The Portland Plaza
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