Portland could get new music venue

A $12 million, 40,000- square-foot concert hall called 300b has been proposed to be built at the Burnside Bridgehead.

By contrast, [developer Randy] Rapaport predicts 300b will end up being “the crown jewel of the alternative community” in Portland. Its design, crafted by local firm Works Partnership Architecture, has already won kudos, including a 2008 Unbuilt Merit Award from the Portland branch of the American Institute of Architects. In January 2010, Architect Magazine described the project as a combination of “the program of an old-school music hall with an innovative approach to public space. Circulation paths leading from the lobby to the hall itself are articulated along the façade and are studded with four large projecting windows” which “put the spectators on display.”

“I see the whole building itself as an art piece,” Rapaport said. But, he added, “that doesn’t mean it’s going to be ritzy.”