Description: The flag of the City of
Portland is an offset cross of light
blue, edged by white-yellow-white stripes, with a white four-pointed star in the
left center, all on a background of Kelly green. The official size,
proportions, and color elements in the City Flag are specified in the Portland
City Code 1.06.010 (
http://www.portlandonline.com/auditor/index.cfm?&c=28155).
History: In 1969, at the suggestion of Mayor Terry Schrunk, the
Portland Art Commission established a special committee to select a designer for
an official city flag. It chose Douglas Lynch, former president of the Art
Commission and a prominent local graphic design professional and teacher.
After extensive research and consultation with art commission members and city
commissioners, he proposed a design in a process he called “as much diplomatic
as it was artistic”. The Portland City Council adopted the flag in January
1970. In 2002, with the encouragement of the Portland Flag Association,
Mr. Lynch simplified and improved the design, and the revised version was
adopted by Ordinance 176874 on September
4, 2002.
Symbolism: Green symbolizes
Oregon’s forests, which surround
Portland. The intersecting
vertical and horizontal blue stripes represent the
Columbia and
WillametteRivers,
with the central white star (technically, a “hypocycloid”) signifying
Portland at their confluence.
The yellow stripes symbolize the harvest of golden yellow grain
(Portland is a major exporter of
wheat) and the gold of commerce. The white stripes are merely
decorative. The offset cross is not intended to resemble a Scandinavian
cross. The design inspired the logo of the
Port of
Portland.
Locations: The City Flag flies in front of the
PortlandBuilding
(5th Avenue) and City Hall
(4th Avenue), in
Pioneer Courthouse Square,
and on many other commercial buildings around the city. It also hangs in
the City Council Chamber and the
PortlandBuilding’s
2nd-Floor Auditorium.
Previous flags:
Portland has used three previous
flags, with the first proposed in a flag contest sponsored by Mayor H. R. Albee
in 1917 but never officially adopted.
[Source:
AmericanCity
Flags, North American Vexillological Association, ©2004:
“Portland,
Oregon” by Mason Kaye.]
