Downtown Arts + Culture Destination

Creating a destination Arts and Culture center to help revitalize downtown

Portland State’s future-focused proposal for a world class downtown arts venue will do much more than replace the aging and seismically compromised Keller Auditorium. PSU’s plan brings a 3,000-seat auditorium, a second smaller venue with about 1,200 seats, an outdoor plaza, an on-site hotel, restaurants and bars, conference center, educational facilities, and space for co-located arts organizations and practice spaces. It's the only plan that maintains Portland's premiere arts venue downtown, retains the continuity of the auditorium district, fully meets the future-oriented needs of the arts community — both local and national — and catalyzes further development in the central city.

PSU is one of three proposals under consideration by the City of Portland. Stay involved as we continue our ongoing engagement with the city and refine the design to create a performing arts center and visitor destination that meets the needs of Oregonians for generations to come.

A Premier Arts Venue for Portland's Next 100 Years

Benefits of building a new World-Class Performing Arts Center versus rebuilding an auditorium in place include:

• Renovating the existing Keller would require it to close for 2-3 years leaving no replacement, causing painful losses for arts organizations and risking the permanent loss of Broadway shows such as Wicked, Book of Mormon, The Lion King and more.
• PSU will build a new performing arts center designed with input from the arts community, allowing for bigger performances year-round with a naturally acoustic design so that guests can hear performers without electronic amplification
• A second, smaller performing arts venue will add flexibility and a far wider range of performers, audiences and opportunities to better serve our city. 
• Visitors to the brand-new building will enjoy more amenities and reasons to go to a show, including space to gather, relax, eat and drink. The site’s large public plaza will also be designed to attract and delight visitors. 
• The large PSU site will offer a dream space for co-locating the offices of performing arts organizations, with access to rehearsal studios, classrooms, conference and gathering spaces, and other benefits.
  The new performance arts center has a MAX and Streetcar stop already in place, with plenty of additional surface and garage parking available.
  PSU’s larger vision will bring additional investment to the table in the form of city, state, private and philanthropic dollars while also elevating a new area of downtown Portland that is ripe for redevelopment.