Bank of California Building

Infobox nrhp
name = Bank of California Building
nrhp_type =

---

caption = The Bank of California Building (also known as the Bidwell & Company Building).
location = Portland, Oregon
nearest_city =
lat_degrees = 45
lat_minutes = 31
lat_seconds = 16
lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 122
long_minutes = 40
long_seconds = 37
long_direction = W
area =
built = 1924
architect = A.E. Doyle
architecture = Late 19th/early 20th century revivals
added = March 14, 1978
visitation_num =
visitation_year =
refnum=78002306cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2007-09-02|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service]
mpsub =
governing_body =PrivateThe Bank of California Building or also The Bidwell & Company Building, is a historic two-story building in downtown Portland, Oregon. Since 1978, it has been on the National Register of Historic Places. [ cite web
url = http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/OR/Multnomah/state.html
title = National Register of Historic Places: Multnomah County, Oregon, pg. 1
accessdate = 2007-08-31 ] The building is currently vacant.

This location was the site of the first Portland Central Library, which moved to its present site in the early 1920's. The Bank of California saw the lot as fit to build a Portland branch and hired local notable architect A.E. Doyle to design it. Doyle's chief designer Charles K. Green had traveled abroad to study Greco-roman architectural forms in the 1910's. [King, Bart: "An Architectural Guidebook to Portland", pgs. 61. Gibbs Smith, 2001] The result of his research resulted in three Italianate buildings, of which the Bank of California Building was the first. The others were the Chicago/Italianate Pacific Building and the Public Service Building, an early skyscraper. The exterior lights on the Public Services Building are of the same design of those on the Bank of California Building.

The Bank of California remained at this site for 50 years until moving a couple of blocks west to the Union Bank of California Tower. The building underwent an intensive renovation in 2000. [King, Bart: "An Architectural Guidebook to Portland", pgs. 16. Gibbs Smith, 2001]

References

ee also

*Architecture in Portland, Oregon
*List of Registered Historic Places in Multnomah County, Oregon

External links

* [http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=bidwellandcobuilding-portland-or-usa Bidwell and Co. Building (Emporis)]