Memorial Coliseum ( Portland ) The Memorial Coliseum is an indoor arena located in the oldest part of what is now known as the Rose Quarter area within Portland , Oregon , United States . Known locally as the Coliseum , the arena is the home of the Portland Winterhawks , a major junior ice hockey team , and was the first home of the Portland Trail Blazers of the NBA . The " International Style " glass and concrete building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in September 2009 . Construction . Financed by an $ 8 million bond approved by voters in 1954 , construction was completed by Hoffman Construction in 1960 and it was dedicated on January 8 , 1961 , to the " advancement of cultural opportunities for the community and to the memory of our veterans of all wars who made the supreme sacrifice . " The facility is 100 ft ( 30 m ) tall and has a footprint of about 3 . 1 acres ( 13 , 000 m² ) . It is sometimes referred to as " The Glass Palace " in Portland . Original plans called for a building made of wood , plentiful in the region ; but cost and safety factors mitigated against this . The structure instead consists of a modernistic gray glass aluminum non load - bearing curtain wall cube around a vast central ovular concrete seating bowl . Four seventy foot concrete piers support the steel roof , with no interior columns required . The exterior appearance , with 80 , 000 square feet of glass , is of a skyscraper laid on its side . The curtain wall windows inside offers views of the city in all directions . The 1 , 060 foot long jet - black curtain can be closed to sunlight in 90 seconds . Seating included 9 , 000 permanent seats which could be expanded to 14 , 000 with portable chairs and bleachers . At its opening it was called the largest multipurpose facility of its kind in the Pacific Northwest . The war memorial consists of two black granite walls below ground level and near the main gate . The names of the dead are inscribed in gold paint , now faded with age . There are no dates given , only the names and an inscription : " To the memory of a supreme sacrifice we honor those who gave their lives for God , principle and love of country ” . Occupants and activities . The Memorial Coliseum was designed with large doors at both ends to accommodate the floats of the Portland Rose Festival ’ s Grand Floral Parade . The 4 . 2 mile long parade begins at the Memorial Coliseum , and paying guests watch the parade cross the coliseum ’ s floor from reserved seats inside and from bleachers outside . The Rose Festival Queen ’ s Coronation has also been held in the facility since 1961 . The Memorial Coliseum was the home of the Portland Buckaroos of the Western Hockey League and was the venue for the 1965 NCAA Men ' s Division I Basketball Championship , the site of the second of ten such championships won by UCLA in the 1960s and 1970s . Portland Winter Hawks . In August 2007 , The City of Portland and the Portland Winter Hawks reached an agreement to have replay screens installed in the main center ice scoreboard in time for the 2007 – 08 hockey season . The City will rent the screens , which are owned by the Winter Hawks , for the first year , and either buy them outright or replace them with different screens in 2008 – 09 . Other improvements are also in progress , such as adding a ' beer garden ' area , replacing graphic displays , and general painting and repairs . Future . It was proposed that Memorial Coliseum be demolished to make room for a 9 , 000 seat new ballpark for Merritt Paulson ’ s Portland Beavers baseball team , since the team would move from PGE Park to make room for the new Portland Timbers MLS franchise , also a Paulson owned team . This proposal was taken off the table early in May 2009 with Lents Park being re - considered as a ballpark site . Opposition to razing Memorial Coliseum included some veterans and architectural historians who successfully applied for National Register of Historic Places status for the building . Former governor Vic Atiyeh also opposed demolition if this leaves the memorial to war dead being forgotten . The Memorial Coliseum was given a rank of the highest importance ( I ) in the city ’ s Historic Resource Inventory of 1984 . The building is currently valued at over $ 44 million . Other proposed uses of the facility include turning the site into an entertainment district , or a recreation center , or a retail center , or a multilevel center for arts athletics and education . Another possibility is to update and repair the facility to improve marketability .