Oregon Convention Center Director Craig Stroud, who has been leading a recent renovation project for the building, recently revealed some of the renovations. The Center is Oregon’s premiere venue for events, and meetings.
The project reportedly cost $40 million. Stroud, and the other Center leaders commissioned a “connector” connecting the older building with the newer one, an expanded plaza that can now be used as an amphitheatre with enough room for about 1,000 people, and newer audio and lighting equipment hidden throughout the campus. Stroud and other center leaders believe it will help boost the cities reputation:
As Stroud explained, the Center was no longer “modern and crisp,” and needed a change:
“[My associates and I] spent a lot of time in convention center. Usually, when you’re in them, you feel like you could be in any convention centers across the United States. We wanted to change that. We wanted people in the Oregon Convention Center to know they’re in Oregon…Portland as a destination has really grown nationally in the last decade or so. We’re a known destination, people are curious about coming here, and we really need the infrastructure to support and make that happen.”
But that’s not all, as the Convention Center Hotel, the Hyatt Regency, is currently under construction and has been for a while. All of this is part of Stroud and the other center officials’ plan to expand not only the center, but Portland as a city. Once completed, they believe it will bring in more visitors, and business. The Center itself is also not likely to stop adding and changing things about the center, though that’s hardly unconventional.
