Congress Center (formerly the Orbanco Building and Security Pacific Plaza) is an office building completed in 1980 in Portland, Oregon. It is currently the fifteenth tallest building in the city. The building's current name dates to January 2002.
History
Construction began in 1978 and was completed in 1980. It was named the Orbanco Building, for its largest tenant, Orbanco Inc., which at the time of groundbreaking was set to lease around 30 percent of the space. That company's two largest subsidiaries, Oregon Bank (established in 1887) and Northwest Acceptance Corporation, were set to be headquartered in the building. American Realty Advisors and Unico Properties LLC purchased the building in December 2016 for $85 million from Shorenstein Properties.
Design
The firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) designed what is now Congress Center, with reflective dark glass that contrasts with the mostly white or lighter colored architecture common in Portland's architectural history. However, the highly reflective surface of Congress Center's glass curtain walls reflect all the nearby buildings. Most notable are 1000 Broadway, the Portland Building and Multnomah County Courthouse.
Name
The current name is the fourth name the building has carried. Opened in 1980 as the Orbanco Building, it was renamed Security Pacific Plaza in April 1989, as the building housed the Oregon headquarters of Security Pacific Bank, which had acquired Oregon Bank in 1987. and in 1994 Security Pacific Plaza was renamed "1001 Fifth Avenue",