John C. Portman, Jr.
|John C. Portman, Jr.|
December 4, 1924 |
Walhalla, South Carolina, USA
|Awards||AIA Medal for Innovations in Hotel Design
AIA Silver Medal Award for Innovative Design
Urban Land Institute Award for Excellence
|Practice||John Portman & Associates|
John Calvin Portman, Jr. (born December 4, 1924; Walhalla, South Carolina) is an American architect and real estate developer widely known for popularizing hotels and office buildings with multi-storied interior atria. Portman also had a particularly large impact on the cityscape of his hometown of Atlanta, with the Peachtree Center complex serving as downtown's business and tourism anchor from the 1970s onward. The Peachtree Center area includes Portman-designed Hyatt, Westin, and Marriott hotels.
Life and career 
A graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1950, Portman's firm completed the Merchandise Mart in Downtown Atlanta in 1961. The multi-block Peachtree Center was begun in 1965 and would expand to become the main center of hotel and office space in Downtown Atlanta, taking over from the Five Points area just to the south. Portman would develop a similar multiblock complex at San Francisco's Embarcadero Center (1970s), which unlike its Atlanta counterpart, heavily emphasized pedestrian activity at street level.
The Hyatt Regency Atlanta, Portman's first atrium hotel, would lead to many more iconic hotels and multi-use complexes with atria, including the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles (1974–1976), the New York Marriott Marquis (1982–1985), and the Renaissance Center in Detroit (first phase 1973-1977), whose central tower has remained the tallest hotel in the Western Hemisphere.
The Shanghai Centre (1990) was the first of many major projects in China and elsewhere in Asia.
Portman's work was featured in a major exhibition at Atlanta's High Museum of Art in 2009.
Portman is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.
Portman is praised for his "cinematic" interiors artfully relating interior space and elements to the individual. In the 1960s and 1970s the placement of such buildings in America's decaying downtowns was considered salvation of the city centers, but contemporary city planning is highly critical of such insular environments that "turn their back" on the city streets. For example, the New York Marriott Marquis with its 8th-floor lobby once praised as a "town square", is now criticized for turning its back to Times Square — but at the time the hotel was built, due to the still-seedy character of Times Square, Portman's style of inwardly-oriented spaces made logical sense.
in chronological order by first listed completion date — for complexes, by completion date of first building in complex
An asterisk (*) following a listing indicates a work done in partnership with H. Griffith Edwards.
- AmericasMart (formerly the Atlanta Market Center), Atlanta
- AmericasMart 1 (also known as the Merchandise Mart), 1961*
- AmericasMart 2 (also known as the Gift Mart), 1992
- AmericasMart 2 West, 2008
- AmericasMart 3 (also known as the Apparel Mart), 1979
- Atlanta Decorative Arts Center (ADAC), Peachtree Hills, Atlanta, 1961
- 230 Peachtree Building (formerly the Peachtree Center Tower), Atlanta, 1965*
- Antoine Graves, Atlanta, 1965*
- Antoine Graves Annex, Atlanta, 1966*
- Peachtree Center, Atlanta
- Peachtree Center North (formerly the Atlanta Gas Light Tower), 1967*
- Peachtree Center South, 1969
- Peachtree Center International Tower (formerly the Peachtree Cain Building), 1972*
- Harris Tower, 1975*
- Marquis One, 1985
- Marquis Two, 1989
- Hyatt Regency Atlanta, 1967*
- Hyatt Regency O'Hare, Rosemont, 1969
- BlueCross BlueShield Building, Chattanooga, 1971
- Embarcadero Center, San Francisco
- One Embarcadero Center (formerly the Security Pacific Tower), 1971
- Two Embarcadero Center, 1974
- Three Embarcadero Center (formerly the Levi Strauss Building), 1977
- Four Embarcadero Center, 1982
- Hyatt Regency San Francisco (also known as Five Embarcadero Center), 1973
- Embarcadero West, 1989
- Le Méridien San Francisco (formerly the Park Hyatt San Francisco), 1988
- Hyatt Regency Houston, 1972
- The Mall at Peachtree Center, Atlanta, 1973
- The Tower (formerly the Block 82 Tower, Bank One Tower, Team Bank, Texas American Bank, and Fort Worth National Bank Building), Fort Worth, 1969–1974
- Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel, Atlanta, 1976
- Westin Bonaventure Hotel, Los Angeles, 1974–1976
- Renaissance Center, Detroit
- The Regent Singapore (formerly the Pavilion InterContinental Hotel), Singapore, 1982
- George W. Woodruff Physical Education Center, Emory University, 1983
- Peachtree Center Athletic Club, Atlanta, 1985
- Atlanta Marriott Marquis, 1985
- Hyatt Regency Jeju, Jungmun, Jeju-do, South Korea, 1985
- Marina Square, Singapore
- Cottage 428, Sea Island, 1985
- New York Marriott Marquis, New York City, 1982–1985
- R. Howard Dobbs University Center, Emory University, 1986
- Northpark Town Center, Sandy Springs
- JW Marriott San Francisco Union Square (formerly the Pan Pacific San Francisco and Portman Hotel), 1987
- American Cancer Society Center (formerly the Inforum Technology Center), Atlanta, 1989
- Riverwood 100 (formerly the Barnett Bank Building), Vinings, 1989
- Shanghai Centre, Shanghai, China, 1990
- SunTrust Plaza (formerly One Peachtree Center), Atlanta, 1992
- Cap Square (short for Capital Square), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- Bank of Communications, Shanghai, China, 2000
- Shi Liu Pu Building (also known as the Bank of Telecommunications), Shanghai, China, 2000
- Bund Center, Shanghai, China, 2002
- Westin Warsaw Hotel, Warsaw, Poland, 2001–2003
- Beijing Yintai Centre (also known as the Silvertie Center), Beijing, China, 2002–2007
- The Westin Charlotte, Charlotte, 2003
- Tomorrow Square (contains the JW Marriott Hotel Shanghai at Tomorrow Square), Shanghai, China, 1997–2003
- Taj Wellington Mews Luxury Residences, Mumbai, India, 2004
- Schaumburg Hotel & Convention Center, Schaumburg, 2006
- ICON, San Diego, 2004–2007
- Hilton San Diego Bayfront (also known as the Hilton San Diego Convention Center Hotel and Campbell Shipyard Hilton), San Diego, 2006–2008
Awards and honors 
- 1978 Medal for Innovations in Hotel Design – National American Institute of Architects
- 1980 Silver Medal Award for Innovative Design – Atlanta Chapter, American Institute of Architects
- 1984 Urban Land Institute Award for Excellence – for Embarcadero Center
- 2009 The Lynn S. Beedle Lifetime Achievement Award – Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
- AMA Management Digest, 1979, vol. 2, pp.25-26
- "John Portman", New Georgia Encyclopedia
- James Traub, The Devil's Playground: A Century Of Pleasure And Profit In Times Square
- "2009 Lynn S. Beedle Award Winner". Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
- Jeremiah McWilliams , "Harris Street renamed for John Portman, capping controversy", Atlanta Journal-Constitution, November 2, 2011
- Portman, John and Jonathan Barnett (1976). The Architect as Developer. McGraw Hill. ISBN 0-07-050536-5.