This is a charming, accessible guide of interest to visitors to Portland, Oregon, as well as to locals. The author, a Portland teacher with a background in history, offers informal background and description of some 250 noteworthy buildings in the city, and a few in the region, as well as some bridges, gardens, and neighborhoods. Each is described in terms of its origins, significance, and current status, and illustrated with a small b&w photo. Maps and an extensive bibliography are included.
Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

"[The book is] witty, informative, and accurate. I suspect it will be in print for a long time and a very useful addition to books on Oregon architecture...your perceptive view of Portland architecture is fresh and informative and you have my profound congratulations on a job well done." Wallace Kay Huntington

"Take a tour of my favorite city with this guide in hand and learn about Portland's architecture (the good and the bad), its history, its personalities, and its beauty. Bart King has provided a comprehensive look at Portland's architectural heritage." Vera Katz, Mayor, City of Portland

"Don't be fooled by the title An Architectural Guidebook to Portland.

While it is true that the book identifies designers...it is also true that the text is rich in Portland history, anecdotes, and just plain stories. As a bonus, teacher Bart King isn't afraid to wax downright poetic when the mood strikes him.

This wonderful book discusses more than 250 sites throughout Portland....Its contents include descriptions of buildings and other structures, but King never rests on that sort of information...

This book is a plethora of riches, an irresistible read and a fine guide to many of Portland¹s unique buildings and areas. It is full of useful maps and lots and lots and lots of black-and-white photographs by the author. The photos are a treasure in-and-of themselves." Dan Hays, The Statesman Journal

"How well do you know Portland? Here's a test: Do you know where the Rose Festival crown is stored? Or what the "Made in Oregon" sign originally advertised? Which Portland church was modeled after yogurt cups?

These are just a few of the quirkier facts found in An Architectural Guidebook to Portland. Bart King's book is Architecture 101, but a little more fun. It provides brief historical descriptions of approximately 250 Portland structures 'that have distinguished or disgraced themselves in some interesting fashion.'

...for casual observers who have found themselves admiring the wide variety of architectural styles abundant throughout the city, it offers the perfect amount of interesting and enlightening information in a very accessible format." Sarah Gianelli, The Oregonian

"As author Bart King says in his introduction, this book is not a listing of all or even most of Portland's buildings, but rather a collection of buildings that have distinguished or disgraced themselves in some interesting fashion.

And so it is that in the 310 pages that follow, we find the cracker box designs of the Standard Insurance Center, the Security Pacific Building and the Union Bank of California keeping company with the octagonal wooden cupola atop Pioneer Courthouse, the rococo facade of the Hollywood Movie Theater and the turret of the Queen Anne-style Johan Poulsen House, just as they do in the city itself.

Some of the building descriptions are even more intriguing than their accompanying black-and-white photos. Toni Stroud, Chicago Tribune

"...As King's comprehensive survey of Portland architecture reveals, ours is not a place for landmarks, but rather a fabric of smaller-scale new and historically preserved projects that achieve collective harmony. It's not flashy, but it works....take a stroll through Portland (either literally or in King's book) and you'll find an array of small treasures that might have fallen victim to the wrecking ball in other cities.

King not only examines the city's architecture, but provides the social history behind it as well, such as the famous dialogue between Pietro Belluschi and Frank Lloyd Wright that gave birth to the Art Museum....If other cities have diamonds, we have a string of pearls." Brian Libby, Willamette Week