By Mark Kirchmeier
Ten years after the Portland Parks and Recreation Bureau effectively stopped maintaining Columbia Pool, and four years after Parks Commissioner Carmen Rubio ordered it closed, the Parks Bureau is going to demolish the building.
“Public officials have an opportunity to learn from this fiasco and not cause further unnecessary harm to community assets,” said Chris Manno, chair of the Friends of Columbia Park (FOCP). “Within Columbia Park, historic Columbia Cottage built in 1940 and the Lawrence Ellis-designed Comfort Station built in 1911 are also at risk of failure,” he added.
PP&R announced Sept. 22 that the pool, a community gathering space in North Portland since 1930, is scheduled for demolition later this year.
Then-Mayor Ted Wheeler, in late 2024 as he was leaving office, authorized plans for demolishing the pool the following spring. However, new Mayor Keith Wilson, in response to requests from a North Portland coalition of pool supporters, ordered a one-year pause of demolition in March 2025, three days before demolition. Longtime PP&R Director Adena Long resigned shortly after that and received a severance settlement from the city. The postponement enabled pool supporters and District 2 City Councilor Elana Pirtle-Guiney to explore alternatives, including private funding partnerships.
During this pause, a coalition of North Portland pool advocates and the three N/NE Portland city councilors persuaded Wilson to direct PP&R to commission an independent audit of pool restoration costs. The Parks Bureau hired Convergence Architecture to create a report that the firm completed May 15. The Convergence report contradicted the city’s estimates, and showed the pool could be converted to summer use for one-half the cost that PP&R had predicted. The Parks Bureau declined to release Convergence document until July 13, and then released its own report rejecting all of Convergence’s lower-cost findings.
Manno said the FOCP and allies will now work with Pirtle-Guiney and the Parks Bureau in planning what other use might be made of the soon-to-be razed building. PP&R is also continuing planning for the future North Portland Aquatic Center on North Fessenden Street, scheduled to open in three years.
