Hike up to the lookout point at Council Crest Park or Powell Butte, and you’ll spot a map pointing out all the mountain peaks on display.
When you stand up on the mezzanine in PDX’s main terminal, looking out at the Doug fir ceiling and the wood floors, you’ll now see a similar visual guide: a map displaying the 16 nonprofit, community, tribal-owned, and family-run forests that supplied wood for the roof, concession stands, and flooring.
Down on the ground level, you’ll find trail markers as well! This winter, we’ve placed 14 round wooden markers around the terminal. Each one shows you which forest a specific patch of wood comes from.
Portland artist Carson Ellis (illustrator of Du Iz Tak? and Colin Meloy’s Wildwood Chronicles) designed both map and markers.
Find a forest near you on the map
On the map, you’ll spy forests all over Washington and Oregon. Whether the lumber came from the Olympic Peninsula, the Wallowa Mountains, or the Willamette Valley, it traveled less than 300 miles to get to PDX.
Each of the forests has its own story to tell. For example, three generations of the Jaussaud-Winn family have owned JOSO Ranch, in Eastern Oregon, since 1956. And three generations of the Zacharias family have managed the ranch’s 4,400 forested acres since 1972. To supply PDX with Doug fir for the terminal shops, the Winns and Zachariases selectively harvested trees from JOSO’s forests, says Bob Winn, the current owner. "We've tried to maintain the land the way it was 60 years ago and not disturb it," he says. "We plan on keeping it in the family.”
Spotlighting PDX’s tribal partners
On the map, you’ll also spot four Northwest tribes—the Yakama Nation, the Coquille Indian Tribe, the Skokomish Indian Tribe, and the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians—who partnered with PDX to supply wood from their forests for portions of the roof and shops.
We also asked each tribe to share meaningful imagery and phrases, which Ellis integrated into the design of the wood markers.
Wood markers and where to see them
As you wander through the main terminal, you’ll now spy wood markers on columns, walls, and stairs.
For example, if you spot a marker near either security checkpoint, look up: The Doug fir beams in the oval skylights above you came from the Coquille Indian Tribe in southwest Oregon. For their markers, the tribe chose an iconic design that Coquille people have woven into baskets and caps for untold generations. They added the word for “fir” in Miluk and Nuu-wee-ya’, sleeping languages that the Coquille are reviving for future generations.
“To be able to go to Portland, and have my kids see the impact of our ancestral homelands in that space, and to connect with them, it just means a lot,” says Bridgett Wheeler, executive director of programs and services for the Coquille Indian Tribe. “It also means a lot to be recognized as a partner in these kinds of projects in the same way that private industries have been for a long time.”
A few of the other forests the markers honor:
- The “glulam” (glue-laminated) beams in all the local shops, as well as the beam above the round skylights, contains Douglas fir harvested from the Yakama Reservation in central Washington.
- The Douglas fir lattice walls near the trees at the heart of the terminal came from forests belonging to the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians in south-central Oregon.
- The hardwood flooring and the stadium seats came from Salem’s Zena Forest Products, who used white oak harvested from nearby forests, including their family-owned Zena Forest.
- The 35,000 pieces of Douglas fir in the ceiling lattice include 3-by-6-foot timbers from the Skokomish Tribe in Washington.
Tom Strong - Chief Executive Officer, Skokomish Indian Tribe, Skokomish Washington
"We're foresters in that we're stewards," says Tom Strong, Chief Executive Officer of the Skokomish Indian Tribe, which manages 2,000 acres of Washington forests for its 800 tribal members. "We're not cutting and planting, seeking to develop our lands into a commodity. Instead, we're doing it to restore the forest."
Over the past 100 years, the two dams on the North Fork Skokomish River have had a major impact on the entire ecosystem of Skokomish land. "We want to restore the entire Hood Canal watershed," Tom says. The forests are just one part.
Selling wood from Douglas fir trees the tribe selectively thinned will help fund this restoration. "We don't have an endless amount of money," Tom says. "But we would like to think we've got an endless amount of time."
Ben Hayes - Co-owner, Hyla Woods, Cherry Grove, Oregon
Ben Hayes is a sixth-generation forester who manages Hyla Woods, outside Cherry Grove, Oregon, with his father, Peter. He is also a sustainable-forestry consultant. At Hyla Woods, the Hayes experiment with selective thinning and patch cutting, instead of clear-cutting, to foster diversity of tree species, ages, and sizes.
"When you look 100 years out, having greater complexity in terms of species and the structure of the forest, you can increase the forest's resilience in the face of extreme weather and drought," he says.
"We're working toward a model of forestry that you could practice for the perpetual future,” Ben says. “It's a model that lifts up both rural and urban communities and the ecosystems we rely on."
Richard and Ann Hanschu - Owners, Doneen, Forest Grove, Oregon
Ann Hanschu's father first bought land outside Forest Grove, Oregon, in 1956. Ann grew up trailing her father around the forest, learning from him. The Hanschus now have three children, four grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
Richard says, "We're planting trees that our grandchildren will see the profits from — not even our children. It's long-range thinking."
"A lot of the timber is older,” Ann adds. “We're laddering it with trees of different age groups — some 30-40 years old, some 10-20 years old — so the land can continue to produce a sustainable amount of wood."
Herman Flamenco - Central Cascades Conservation Forester, The Nature Conservancy, Cle Elum, Washington
"We know historically that the stands we're working on were overstocked," says Herman Flamenco, Central Cascades conservation forester for the Nature Conservancy, of the 50,000 acres outside Cle Elum, Washington, the organization manages. Thinning the trees welcomes in light and biodiversity.
Some loggers in the region worry that this low-impact approach to forestry yields less lumber, and less profit, than clear-cutting. One local outfit took on this labor-intensive challenge, selectively harvesting Doug fir trees from steep slopes.
"Western Washington is wetter. In our dry climate, there's less moisture and increased fire risk," Herman says. "As we look at climate change, it's just going to get dryer. We want to make sure we can keep our forests around."
In the 1950s, back when people wore fancy hats to the airport, PDX’s main terminal had brown terrazzo floors.
By the 1970s, blue carpet sporting the old Port of Portland logo replaced the terrazzo. The airport was so concerned about keeping the carpet clean that we banned gum-chewing indoors.
In the 1980s, PDX replaced the ski-chalet paneling in the Clocktower Plaza with high ceilings and skylights, but kept the blue carpet.
SRG Partnership, a Portland-based architecture firm, designed the pattern for the now-iconic carpet on the layout of the airport runways.
The Clocktower Plaza, post-1988, with the iconic carpet.
The Clocktower Plaza (before its demolition in 2021-22) with the new carpet.
The flexible interior spaces were designed with the future of travel in mind — and to give you plenty of comfortable spots to recharge before your next flight.
Two permanent installations from acclaimed contemporary artist Jacob Hashimoto hang like clouds above the concourse’s common areas.
Shops and restaurants are clustered together like city blocks, with a pedestrian-friendly scale and lots of room to spread out.
PDX’s swanky new bar, Juliett, honors women in aviation with mid-20th-century style, top-class cocktails, and local wines and beers.
Sky-high windows fill the interior with daylight while maximizing the concourse extension’s energy efficiency.
At the east end of the concourse, a wall of windows opens up this epic view of Mt. Hood, where you’ll definitely want to pose for a photo before takeoff.
The Concourse E extension project is the dedicated home for Southwest Airlines at PDX, with six new gates.
Remember the view of Mt. Hood on Concourse E? It’s coming back, brighter than ever.
Tillamook’s menu includes the best of the classics with fried cheese curds and a signature grilled cheese.
Calliope takes its name from one of Oregon’s native hummingbirds and showcases creative and playful keepsakes.
Grab your favorite book, magazine or newspaper at Your Northwest Travel Mart.
Concourse B's 38-foot-high ceilings and 6,900 square feet of windows don't just let light in. They let you watch the airport in action. "I think this airport gave us a chance to celebrate the romance of flight," says Gene Sandoval of ZGF, the architecture firm that designed the new concourse.
ZGF Architects was inspired to bring the Pacific Northwest’s natural world indoors. You can contemplate the plants hanging from the ceiling and the Oregon white-oak walls as you relax in B’s comfy new seats. (Bonus: More power adapters!)
RYAN! Feddersen’s art installation, which fills the concourse, is made up of three interconnected pieces. The “Sentinel” landscapes and abstract “Habitat Tiles” are pictured here.
RYAN! is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. She draws inspiration from the region’s traditions and landscape for these pieces, which include the gently rolling “Cloud Walk” overhead.
Nicole and David Mouton, in partnership with HMSHost, opened an outpost of Portland’s beloved Screen Door Restaurant on Concourse B. Find Screen Door’s legendary fried chicken and waffles here from breakfast until dinnertime.
Sam and Nick Purvis, the brothers behind Good Coffee, source fresh coffee beans and teas from all over the world. Pick up a pastry or a bag of beans, too!
Our new rental car center opened in November 2021.
All rental car brands are now on-site at PDX – no more shuttles to pick up your car.
Perez Westbrooks' colorful digital mural celebrates Northwest flora.
Ben Butler's swirling wood sculpture is made from reclaimed Douglas fir.
The new facility also adds 30 ADA parking spots, more than 30 electric vehicle charging stations, and 2,200 long-term parking spaces to the airport.
Adding more lanes to our new, relocated exit toll plaza helps you leave PDX more quickly.
Every design decision we make is about keeping the heart and soul of PDX intact. You’ll see homages to all the things you love about our city and region in the new airport designs.
You’ll notice subtle nods to the Pacific Northwest landscape throughout the space. Natural light, living trees, and native Oregon foliage may give you the feeling of walking through a park.
The new terminal’s wooden ceiling, made from sustainably grown, local Doug fir, might remind you of daylight filtering through forest canopies.
This will be your new view when entering the spacious ticket lobby at PDX. The nine-acre wood roof is so distinctive you’ll be able to spot it from the air.
The ripples and currents of pristine Northwest rivers inspired the new terminal’s curvy profile.
Expanding the heart of PDX creates more space for our beloved local shops and restaurants — not to mention local humans (and visitors, too).