The Fountain: Still the Answer
July. 30, 2026
By: Fred Leeson
Portland’s City Council sits on the verge of making a terrible decision about a new large performance auditorium, with primary objections based both on urban planning and on formal financing plans.
Based on a July 28 hearing, it appears that the council on Aug. 11 is likely to endorse plans for a new auditorium to be built on the Portland State University campus to replace the aging Keller (nee Civic) Auditorium several blocks away. These are the reasons the council’s prospective decision is wrong.
1) Urban planning. The current auditorium is coupled with the famed Keller (nee Forecourt) Fountain that was heralded by the nation’s premier architecture critic of the era as one of the best public fountains built since Renaissance times. It was intended to be a showcase front entrance to the auditorium, and it always SHOULD be. Portland would be doing a disservice to one of its premier landmarks by moving the auditorium elsewhere. There is talk – and merely talk – of building a smaller auditorium adjacent to the fountain after the new performance center is built at PSU.
2) Financial debacle. There is no funding provided yet for the proposed PSU auditorium, nor for the smaller building that would replace the Keller Auditorium. What makes more sense is a plan proposed by the Halprin Land Conservancy to renovate the Keller Auditorium to meet modern earthquake protection standards and upgrade the building with improved amenities for performances and audiences. The Halprin solution makes much more financial sense, rather than subjecting the city and PSU to additional years of wandering forth with their hands outstretched.
Lost in the financial discussion seems to the subsidies that the existing auditorium provides to other smaller public performance spaces. Assuming that a new 3,000-seat venue would continue to operate at a profit, does PSU absorb all the benefit or continue to make contributions the other public spaces? As PSU currently struggles financially by cutting staff and reducing programs, surrendering the auditorium to PSU makes wonderful sense for PSU but not for the city of Portland.
PSU administrators should to be told very clearly that they need to stick to their educational mission. We have no assurance given the university’s financial position that it would not bungle auditorium operations if it succeeds in winning them.
When the subject of moving the auditorium surface two years ago, this blog issued a post stating that “the fountain is the answer” as to where the auditorium should be located. The fountain was the answer then, and the fountain is the answer now.
Fred Leeson writes the Building on History Blog and is a former president of the Bosco-Milligan Foundation and a member of the foundation's Board of Advisors.