Visitors Information Center, Information center in Tom McCall Waterfront Park, Portland, United States
The Visitors Information Center is a building in the International Style located at Tom McCall Waterfront Park in Portland. Its structure features plywood walls and louvered ventilation panels as defining architectural elements.
Built in 1948, the Rose Building was John Yeon's only major non-residential commission, combining International Style principles with the Northwest Regional style he pioneered. It has housed a chamber of commerce office, city offices, a restaurant and the Portland Rose Festival headquarters. It was retained when Tom McCall Waterfront Park was developed around it and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The building is also called the Rose Building, and it served as headquarters of the Portland Rose Festival. Its Northwest Regional details, such as the naturally inspired colour scheme, are visible from the park path.
The building stands inside Tom McCall Waterfront Park on Naito Parkway, so it is reached on foot from the park's riverside paths rather than from a street entrance. It was kept in place when the park was laid out around it, and it sits near the Willamette River and the Hawthorne Bridge.
John Yeon's only major non-residential commission, the 1948 Rose Building was first built beside a freeway in a developed waterfront district. When Tom McCall Waterfront Park was laid out around it, the structure was kept rather than cleared, so a plywood-walled modern building now stands on parkland.
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