Pdxguide

The city’s boosters like to refer to this as the “living room of Portland”. Originally the site of the Portland Hotel, grandest of all hotels in the city, the hostelry was torn down in 1951 to make way for a… parking lot. Eventually, someone had the idea that the space would be better utilized for a more public use, so Pioneer Square was created in the ‘80s. It’s the central meeting place of town, done in a European manner. This is probably the best place for people watching in town! Both the bus transit mall and Max lines intersect here.