The Portland Art Museum (PAM) is opening a new 24,000-square-foot glass structure called the Mark Rothko Pavilion on November 20, 2025. The $111 million expansion, funded almost entirely by private donations, connects the museum's two existing buildings—the original travertine building designed by Pietro Belluschi and a former Masonic temple—above ground for the first time. The pavilion is named after the artist Mark Rothko, who had his first museum exhibition at PAM in 1932 under his birth name Marcus Rothkowitz. The project was designed by Chicago firm Vinci Hamp Architects and Portland's Hennebery Eddy.
This expansion matters because it elevates PAM from a regional institution to one of the top 25 percent of U.S. art museums by square footage, adding or updating over 100,000 square feet of exhibition space. The museum has long been the only major art museum between San Francisco and Seattle. More significantly, the pavilion opens at a time when Portland is rebuilding after the COVID-19 pandemic, and art museums have historically catalyzed urban recovery—as seen with the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Unlike that flashy starchitect model, however, PAM's expansion is purpose-driven and community-supported, with over 850 donors contributing amounts from one dollar to $13 million.