Transparent Pavilion Transforms PAM’s Public Face
Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR - New spaces opening Nov 20
Portland Art Museum bounces back to its best, starting Nov 20, with a major art rehang and building remodel. The glass-fronted Rothko Pavilion replaces the old courtyard with an inviting entrance, giving the museum a more stately appearance on the famous South Park Blocks. The pavilion also links the two halves of the museum, which have fl oors at di erent levels. They were connected by a tunnel, which many visitors didn’t know about, thus missing the modern art collection.
The three-storey building’s 24-foot-tall windows are made of the same kind of glass used at Apple stores. If that sets your electronic wallet afl utter, a new, gourmet café has replaced the old food hatch. It sits beside the expanded gift shop, which, as all museum sta know, is where the money is.
The great Abstract Expressionist painter Mark Rothko (1903–1970) spent his childhood in Portland after his family emigrated from Latvia. He took classes at the Museum Art School before hightailing it to New York City. His children, Christopher Rothko and Kate Rothko Prizel, are loaning the museum major paintings by Mark Rothko from their private collection, individually in rotation over the course of the next two decades. A new show also features Rothkos on loan from the National Gallery of Art and private collectors (to Feb 28, 2026).
The new building will add nearly 100,000 square feet of new or upgraded public and gallery space. The total museum rehang will include nearly 300 major new acquisitions and on the ground floor, there is a gallery for Black art and experiences.
“As one of the oldest art museums in the country, and the only major art museum between Seattle and San Francisco, PAM is an essential cultural lifeline for our region,” said Brian Ferriso, the Arlene & Harold Schnitzer Director of the Portland Art Museum.
Have a lie-down at 4th Floor to Mildness, a year-long ceiling projection by Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist, which debuts a new contemporary art space where the Crumpacker Library used to be.
