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The pine tree on the 25th floor terrace of PacWest Center downtown has died. It was 42 years old.
The quirky fixture of the Portland skyline was removed for safety reasons, according to Wyatt Cerny, vice president of real estate at Fountainhead Development, the Fairbanks, Alaska–based company that has owned PacWest Center since October 2025. An exact cause of death was not given, but an arborist evaluated the pine and determined it was “in declining health and no longer viable,” Cerny said.
“A new cherry tree has since been planted, and we look forward to it maturing into a new curiosity of the Portland skyline,” Cerny said in an email.
A dead tree was spotted on the terrace of 1211 SW 5th Avenue as recently as July 9.
The pine tree was planted in 1984, when PacWest was built, and eventually stood about 40 feet tall. Environmental historian Dave Hedberg, author of From Stumptown to Tree Town, had been scoping out the evergreen for the Oregon Heritage Tree Program, but those hopes died with the tree.
Hedberg did not examine the tree himself but says disease, root rot or not enough water could have been the causes of death.
The PacWest pine is not the only struggling tree making headlines this summer. The Oregonian reported July 3 that several of the new indoor trees at Portland International Airport are sickly due to travelers dumping coffee into the planters and letting pets pee on them.
The pine tree was featured on the cover of WW’s April 2025 urban nature issue as an example of a “celebrity tree,” along with other famous Portland trees such as the spruce in Mill Ends Park and the copper beech at Portland State University’s Millar Library.
“It’s one of the most iconic trees,” Hedberg said in 2025. “It’s going for some kind of height record.”
