Listen to this episode of Beat Check with The Oregonian podcast where reporter Lizzy Acker interviews Laura Hill who helped design the iconic PDX carpet. Listen below or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Among the vast array of strange and surprising mascots for the city of Portland, perhaps the most unlikely is an old carpet.
That carpet is the “iconic” Portland International Airport carpet, originally installed in 1988. It is a heady ‘80s design, teal with blue, purple and red lines and dots, meant to represent what air traffic controllers see on the screen. The carpet has been mostly gone for nearly a decade, but now it’s back. And when the airport’s new terminal opens later this year, visitors will finally be able to take real airport carpet selfies again.
In 2015, the ‘80s carpet was replaced with a decidedly less teal design. Though reminiscent of the original, the replacement’s background is a darker green and its design is almost universally less loved.
After the aging teal carpet was replaced, the PDX carpet became a city-wide obsession. The carpet’s trademark lines and dots appeared on all types of clothing items, and pieces of the actual carpet were sold at various stores in various forms.
The carpet was even chosen as the Grand Marshal of the Rose Festival’s Starlight Parade in 2015.
“It’s a love that runs deep,” said Allison Ferré, a spokesperson for the Port of Portland.
Over the past 10 years, airport visitors have had to make do with the new, less rad carpet when taking selfies, unless they found the piece of the old carpet at Tender Loving Empire on Concourse E, or other small sections that used to be found on Concourses E and A. But, as part of the new main terminal project, about 6,000 square feet of the real teal deal is coming back.
This “old” carpet is brand new, created based on a sample from the beloved carpet so the manufacturer could get the color and even the height of the carpet exactly right.
According to Adam Garske, project engineer for Hoffman Skanska Joint Venture, because of the way it is created, the teal carpet takes 24 weeks to manufacture, about three times as long as the green carpet.
“On a standard carpet, like the green carpet, it’s a loop,” Garske said. “So you can stitch it back and forth like you would stitch clothing or stitch a seam. But this is stitched from the bottom. And it’s like blades of grass.”
The flooring in the new terminal will mostly not be carpet at all, but terrazzo and Oregon white oak, which will be easier for strollers, roller bags and wheelchairs to navigate than carpet, according to Ferré.
There will be two large areas of teal carpet, framed in wood, in seating areas before security in the terminal when the first phase opens, which is scheduled to happen in August.
Construction on the new terminal has faced delays after construction was halted by dropped tools and falling debris, prompting the port’s contractor to extend the project timeline.
There were no injuries, according to Vince Granato, the port’s chief projects officer, but “a couple of close calls” led to a pause in the project in February.
“The pause gave the construction team time to rest, recuperate and refocus and us time to perform a bottoms-up look at the work, adjust the schedule where necessary and continue to put people first,” Granato said in a statement at the time.
Even more teal carpet is set to be part of the second phase of the new terminal, which is expected to be complete next year.
– Lizzy Acker covers life and culture and writes the advice column Why Tho? Reach her at 503-221-8052, lacker@oregonian.com or @lizzzyacker
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