The auditorium building occupies an entire city block in downtown Portland, bounded by Third and Second Avenues and Clay and Market Streets.

[6] Originally known as the Public Auditorium, or alternatively Municipal Auditorium, the facility's formal opening and dedication took place on July 4, 1917,[7] and the first full concert took place the following day, with what was dubbed the first annual Portland "Music Festival", featuring the Portland Symphony Orchestra (now the Oregon Symphony).

In November 1964, the city's voters approved a ballot measure that sought funding for a $3.9 million rebuilding of the auditorium.

[14] In 1967–68 the building underwent an extensive remodeling, which included complete refacing with a new modern-style exterior, at a cost of $4 million.

[20] In June 1970, Ada Louise Huxtable called the redesigned auditorium "a building of unrelieved blandness".