KGW Broadcast Center

Name: KGW Broadcast Center
Address: 1501 SW Jefferson St
City: Portland
Year of Construction: 1965
Architect: Fred Bassetti & Co
Original Use: Office
Status: In Use
National Register of Historic Places: Not Listed
Description: The KGW Broadcast Center was completed in 1965, to designs by Fred Bassetti & Co. The two story building is set back from SW Jefferson St, with a sweeping brick-paved porte-cochere, designed for easy drop-offs and pick-ups of those visiting the studios. The building makes extensive use of poured-in-place concrete, with prominently expressed structural columns and concrete canopies over the second floor windows. In an Oregonian article published the year before it was completed Bassetti spoke about his design approach for the building:

Seattle architect Fred Bassetti said that he sought a new “humanism” in architecture, and that he believed the general state of American architecture was “low”.

Bassetti urged greater variety in design and more use of regional materials – and regional characteristics. He said too many architects were “hypnotized” by the “big names” and have forgotten to be themselves; forgotten to attempt original designs.

Bassetti said he and his colleagues sought more sensitiveness, richness and human warmth. He attacked what he called the sterile, glassy “slick stuff.” Paintings and sculptures, he said, ideally should be an integral part of a building’s design when appropriate.