Soho House Opens Its First Location In The Pacific Northwest

The historic Troy Laundry Building — a Colonial Revival-style brick warehouse sitting at 1025 S.E. Pine Street in Portland, Oregon — has begun a new iteration. Constructed in 1913, the Buckman neighborhood building was an industrial laundry facility until 1983, served as an artist co-op for a few decades, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

This week, the building fully opened as the Soho House Portland, the newest property in the Soho House collection, the social club network that was started in London and now has dozens of locations throughout the U.K., Europe, and North America (with new locations popping up in Mexico City, and opening soon in São Paulo).

The private club in Portland’s Central Eastside is the Soho House group’s first foray into the Pacific Northwest. Opened to roughly 500 “founding members” earlier this month, the club fully opened to those with a global “Every House” membership this week. In addition to its stylish work spaces and amenities (of which there are many), the club is first and foremost billed as a social club, meant for creatives to connect regularly in the shared spaces — as well as by mixing during curated live performances, fitness and wellness classes, lectures, film screenings, and other member events.

Amenities

Portlanders who’ve already joined (as well as those who are on the reported wait list) were likely attracted by the social atmosphere Soho Houses are known for in London, New York, L.A., Miami, Bangkok, Rome, and beyond. First and foremost, it is a social club for creatives. But there are other considerable perks to membership: coworking spaces are open all day…until a mandatory shutdown at 6PM. The club also offers chic restaurant and bar spaces, a music and events room, a sleek gym that lets in lots of natural light, and steam rooms and saunas.

But the most notable club amenity for Portlanders is sure to be the forthcoming rooftop pool. In a city where rain is frequent and rooftop spaces and outdoor pools are few and far between, the rooftop terrace, 62-foot infinity-edge pool surrounded by vintage-style daybeds, and panoramic views stretching from the Central Eastside to downtown and the West Hills will be a huge draw.

The club’s culinary program is helmed by Renata alum Chef Matt Sigler, who has created an Italy-meets-the-Pacific Northwest menu featuring handmade pastas and wood-fired pizzas, meats, and vegetables. The menus showcase locally grown and crafted culinary goods like produce from Flying Coyote Farm, cured meats from Olympia Provisions, baked goods from Dos Hermanos Bakery, teas from True Tea, and a custom Soho House coffee blend from Upper Left Roasters.

Décor and Art

Throughout the work, lounge, and dining spaces, members and their guests will find plush, low-slung seating, high-end surfaces like veiny marbles and jewel-toned ceramic tiles from local tile maker Pratt + Larson, and vintage lampshades restored by Naomi’s Lampshades & Lamps.

The 140-piece art collection comes from 62 artists — all of whom were born, lived, or were trained in the city. 25 of those artists paid homage to Portland’s “Rose City” nickname with original artworks in mediums spanning ceramics, photography, sculpture, digital collage, painting, graffiti, and graphite themed to the city’s signature flower.

The Portland Community

Although the social club aims to help Portland creatives build and expand their communities, it has not been without its controversies. Some locals feel and private, high-end club with membership fees of nearly $2,000 a year feels culturally out-of-step with a famously casual, crunchy, and community-minded city, where the motto is still to “keep it weird.” Others point to Soho House group’s reported financial woes, or simply say the once-cool clubs are now “over.”

Detractors don’t like that the building that once offered cheap workspace for local artists is now an exclusive club with hefty membership dues. Proponents counter that those artists were displaced long before the building was purchased by Soho House, who supported 62 local Portland artists for the works that are now displayed on the building’s walls. (The company also offers mentorship and fellowship programs supporting creatives from lower socioeconomic and underrepresented backgrounds who may be facing barriers in their industries.)

So while everyone from Portland Eater and Willamette Week to the New York Times have asked “Why Portland,” others have asked “Why not?” Why shouldn’t the Rose City — the world headquarters of Nike and Wieden+Kennedy, which recently became home to a top-tier Ritz-Carlton hotel — have an option to join a high-end social club for creatives, just like people do in cities like L.A. and Nashville? (Heck, there’s even a Soho House location in Portland’s “keep it weird” sister city of Austin, Texas.)

For now, Soho House Portland has opened with a lot of buzz, a full group of founding members, a lengthy waitlist, and hoards of Portlanders eagerly awaiting a rooftop pool with panoramic views of the Rose City.