Michael Graves: The Portland Building at 25

Presented as part of Revisiting Postmodernism, a digital archive of talks held at The Architectural League by leading theorists and practitioners of 1980s postmodernism.

In November 1982, the Architectural League presented a lecture by Michael Graves about his just-completed Portland Building, in Portland, Oregon. Graves’ first built public project—and the first major public building designed in a postmodernist idiom—the Portland Building elicited praise and criticism, immediately becoming an icon of ’80s postmodernism.

The following videos document a September 2008 program, co-sponsored by the Architectural League and the Princeton University School of Architecture, organized to mark the building’s 25th anniversary.

Part 1: Presentation by Michael Graves

Part 2: Discussion with Stan Allen and Sarah Whiting