A Completed Portland Airport Loses Its Grand Entrance

The massive renovation of Portland International Airport was completed in stages over 11 years. With the project now complete, one popular feature that debuted during the overhaul has disappeared: a central exit flanked by stadium seating where your loved ones could await your arrival.

Beginning in August 2024, arriving passengers at PDX streamed out from a common exit in the center of a newly revamped terminal, below the Loyal Legion taphouse. The feature offered a grand entrance to the city—a take-it-all-in moment showcasing the airport’s innovative mass-timber roof and other unique design features.

Now, panels of opaque glass stand where passengers used to spill forth. The bleachers are still there, but they greet no one. Signs reading “Exits have moved” direct greeting parties to the wings of the main terminal. Three months ago, PDX relocated its main arrivals exit, a unique feature many assumed would stick around permanently.

Some airport users are miffed.

“It was nice how it was before,” says Brandon Scherschel, a Vancouverite at PDX to pick up a friend. He’d instinctively come to the former exit site. “It was easy to have one generalized location. It was easy on the passengers. It was easy for the recipients. I don’t understand why they moved it.”

Turns out, the central exit under Loyal Legion was always meant to be temporary, according to Molly Prescott, spokeswoman for the Port of Portland, which operates the airport.

“What folks are experiencing now is a new PDX, just as it was designed,” Prescott writes to WW.

Questions to ZGF Architects, lead designer, were directed to the port. Calls to Loyal Legion weren’t returned.

Three months ago, the Port of Portland celebrated the permanent new route with a welcome event. And last Tuesday, the port touted the conclusion of the final phase of the $2.1 billion modernization project.

“It was never our plan to reopen the temporary exit once it closed on April 15,” Prescott tells WW. “What travelers started experiencing on that day was the permanent footprint of PDX.”

Prescott says the new exit lanes on the north and south ends of the terminal are intended to reduce congestion and detours and offer shorter walks to baggage claim and more direct routes for travelers headed from their gates to new meeter-greeter areas.

“Our permanent exits were always part of the plan, creating the space needed for everything in the new main terminal to flow the way it should: easy, intuitive, and with less congestion. This design was also needed to safely and comfortably accommodate the growing number of travelers passing through PDX—we saw around 19 million passengers last year, and this redesign doubles our capacity to welcome a projected 35 million annual passengers by 2045.”

Prescott says by now, travelers should be familiar with the new layout.

“As the permanent exits officially opened/temporary exit closed nearly three months ago, we feel PDX travelers are already quite used to the change and are happier with their shorter walks now.”

But by 8 pm and for an hour Wednesday evening, a steady stream of people clearly hadn’t gotten the memo. They stood before the locked glass doors with looks of confusion. They expressed disapproval at the loss of a unique feature where people waited for arriving passengers in wooden stadium-style seating.

Kellan Quick stood near the former—temporary—exit, waiting for a friend’s arrival, for around 10 minutes until a reporter tipped him off that he was in the wrong place. Beneath his feet, were the terrazzo floors featuring gentle wave patterns to subconsciously guide travelers through the terminal. They flowed in a direction where arriving travelers no longer walk.

“It was such a cool feeling when you’re walking in,” Quick said. “It was like walking out from the locker room into a stadium, with all the people waiting here.”

On this evening, hardly anyone was using the stadium seating. A few families had returned to the seats after inspecting the new exits.

Some said the new exits are less welcoming and more confusing.

“Womp womp,” said Taryn Lang, of the new meeter-greeter areas.

Lang’s husband, Jimmy, says he’s a Million Miler with Alaska Airlines and he liked the airport better before the switch. “It was significantly better. There was a natural flow. Exiting is confusing now and before, it was very obvious.”

Said Doug Kaiser, who was waiting for his kids to arrive from a Scout trip: “That’s too bad. Can we sign a petition?”