Pioneer Courthouse Square

Pioneer Courthouse Square, also known as Portland's living room, is a public space occupying a full 40,000-square-foot (3,700 m²) city block in the center of downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. Opened in 1984, the square is bounded by Southwest Morrison Street on the north, Southwest 6th Avenue on the east, Southwest Yamhill Street on the south, and Southwest Broadway on the west.

The city of Portland bought land that included the site in 1856, as the location for its Central School. The district financed its construction at Sixth and Morrison streets by suspending school operations for a year.

In 1879, investor Henry Villard came to Portland, looking for business support for a railroad hotel associated with his newly acquired Northern Pacific Railway. Philip A. Marquam contributed to the project by buying the school, clearing the site, moving the school to SW 6th and Alder, re-fitting it, and giving it back to the school district. (The relocated school stood until 1910.)

Villard hired the firm of McKim, Mead & White and its employee William M. Whidden to design the Portland Hotel, rising six stories to an attic with elaborate dormers, in an H-shaped plan with its main gated courtyard facing the Pioneer Courthouse, the landmark 1875 federal building directly to the east. Construction began in 1882, but Villard's financial reverses forced him to withdraw, and work was suspended for five years. Local leaders re-organized the project in 1888 and contacted Widden, who came west and partnered with Ion Lewis to complete the job in 1890. After delays due to a recession, the overall-eight-story hotel opened on the site in 1890. The hotel was the center of the city's social activity for the first half of the 20th century.

In 1951, the hotel was torn down and a two-story parking lot was built.

An 800-car parking garage was proposed to the Portland Planning Commission in January 1969, but the commission rejected the idea, instead calling for a public plaza. In the early 1970s, a comprehensive downtown plan proposed that the site become dedicated public space. In 1975, Mayor Neil Goldschmidt began negotiating with local department store Meier & Frank to obtain the property for the city, and eventually convinced the store to sell the land to the city after its parking concerns were alleviated.

By early 1980, a design competition was announced, seeking proposals for what was to become Pioneer Courthouse Square. Out of 162 submissions, five finalists were chosen, from firms based in New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco/Los Angeles, Boston, and Portland. The Portland team, an interdisciplinary "group of rabble-raising architects, writers, and an artist" consisting of chief designer and architect Willard Martin, landscape architect Douglas Macy, sculptor Lee Kelly, sculptor, historian Terrence O’Donnell, graphic artist Robert Reynolds, and writer Spencer Gill, were chosen as the winners by the City Council in May 1980. Their design received an "Architectural Design Citation" from Progressive Architecture magazine in 1981.

Remnants of the hotel, an original archway and iron gatework, are found today on the east side of the square.