KOIN Tower

The KOIN Tower is a Postmodernist skyscraper designed by Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership, and built between 1981 and 1984, for a reported $48.0 million dollars, in Portland, OR.

KOIN Tower is not the only name you might know this building by though. The building is, or has also been known as KOIN Center.

Its precise street address is 222 SW Columbia Street, Portland, OR. You can also find it on the map here.

Levels 1 to 3 are occupied by small commercial spaces and offices. Floors 4 to 19 are dedicated to larger office spaces, while floors 20 to 31 are used for residential spaces.

The building underwent a major restoration between 2016 and 2017. The architect commissioned to undertake this restoration was Mackenzie Inc. Architecture.

Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design.

That being said, architecture is a complex discipline involving many professionals from different fields, without whom this building would have not been possible. We will surely be leaving out a lot of names here, but here is a list of the people we do know also played their part in making the KOIN Tower a reality:

• KPFF Engineers in charge of Structural Engineering
• Olympia & York as the Main Contractor
• Olympia & York Properties as the Main Developer
• Peterson Associated Engineers in charge of MEP Engineering
• Mitchell & Nelson Associates in charge of Landscape Architecture

The KOIN Tower can be categorized as a Postmodernist building.

The KOIN Tower was completed in 1984. At that time Postmodernism was the prevailing style. Fresh, bold and daring, architects were exploring the freedom of designing without having to follow the strict, sometimes arbitrary rules of a specific architectural movement (which ironically became a movement itself). The KOIN Tower was therefore every much in line with what the architecture community, and the people liked and wanted at the time.

The KOIN Tower uses a frame structure made of concrete columns and concrete, steel slabs.

A frame structure uses a combination of beams and columns to sustain the building's weight. The walls in this case are non-load bearing, which allows for more flexibility when distributing the interior spaces.

The facade uses a non-load bearing modular, or panelized system. This type of facade can function as either a window wall or a curtain wall, depending on the design. Unlike traditional glass curtain walls or window walls though, the modular facade is not primarily composed of glass. Instead, it often features more opaque panels that mimic masonry or stone-clad finishes, with smaller windows cut into the panels.

This type of facade allows the building to benefit from the modern qualities of a curtain wall while giving the design team flexibility to achieve visual aesthetics beyond the all-glass modern skyscraper.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features a stepped ziggurat design, where the upper levels gradually decrease in size, creating a pyramidal appearance toward the top. Most of the facade is clad in salmon-pink bricks that form horizontal bands interspersed with reflective glass windows with minimal framing. The base of the building is covered with white limestone, with a cubist glass atrium in the southwest corner.

The tower is crowned with a pyramidal galvanized steel roof.