Failing Office Building
The Failing Office Building is a building in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 31, 2007. The building was built during the rapid growth in Portland's business district after the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in 1905. It was built with six stories in 1907, with a six-story addition in 1913. It features a reinforced steel-frame structure with facades of yellow brick and glazed terra cotta. The Failing Office Building is currently known as The 620 Building. History The building was built for Henry Failing, the fifteenth mayor of Portland. He was the son of Josiah Failing, also a mayor of Portland. It was originally named the Gevurtz Building, for the ground-floor Gevurtz Furniture Company. In 1918, the Portland Gas and Coke Company signed a lease with the Failing estate, at which time it was named the Gasco Building. Portland Gas and Coke moved its operations to the Public Service Building in 1927, so the building was renamed the Failing Building. The architects, William M. Whidden and Ion Lewis, of the firm Whidden & Lewis, were prominent in Portland around the beginning of the 20th century. Their residential buildings