The Portland State University Board of Trustees approved a plan to build a new student housing complex with construction slated for Fall of 2028, working with an $85 million budget. Two active residence halls—Montgomery and Blackstone—will be demolished in the years leading up to the new building project to make space for the new complex.
While demolition is slated for 2026, both residence halls will remain open for the 2025-2026 academic years.
Concerns for the displacement of the students currently living in Montgomery and Blackstone rise as the deconstruction period nears. Both are currently reserved for non-first-year students and families, while the new building will be intended for first-year students.
According to a press release from PSU University Communications released on Jan. 24 2025, Blackstone Hall was, “in its last year of housing students due to ongoing problems with the aging building.”
Jason Franklin—Associate Vice President for Planning, Construction and Real Estate at Portland State University—went into detail on some of these ongoing problems.
“Big issues that we’ve seen at Blackstone include a lot of water leaks which led to some of the current rooms not even being occupied,” Franklin said. “Leaky roofs [and] the plumbing system throughout both buildings is in worse shape [and] needs to be replaced. The power and electricity in the buildings all needs to be replaced… it kind of goes on and on.”
Franklin also addressed the accessibility issues within the buildings. According to Franklin, the elevator in Montgomery is not up to modern codes—while Blackstone has no elevator at all.
Financial viability was cited as the main reason behind the complete deconstruction of both residence halls—a decision that has been under consideration over the past year.
“We’ve been really analyzing these buildings for at least a year, and we hired a… consultant to look at Montgomery in detail, to see if there was a way to renovate it that made financial sense,” Franklin said. “And the answer came back, no.”
For Laurien Zahn—a Montgomery Resident—saying goodbye to this historic building is a tragic loss and sparks fears for the future of on-campus living.
“It’d be horrible to see the building that I’ve come to consider my home demolished,” Zahn said.
She cited a love for the vintage amenities of the building, loving the claw foot tubs and radiator heating. Zahn noted a particular love for the large tree in the courtyard and was curious about its preservation during the demolition.
According to Franklin, they will work with arborists to assess the health of the tree as well as its underground root network to determine whether or not it can be saved. If they cannot preserve it, the city requires they replant additional trees on campus to make up for the loss.
Franklin also noted the Simon Benson House will be untouched during the demolition and construction projects, whereas the future of the adjacent food cart pod—located behind Blackstone—is less certain.
“The food carts obviously will be displaced,” Franklin said. “Part of what we’re going to investigate is if there’s an opportunity to put the food cart pod back on that site in some meaningful way, [which] may or may not be possible given all the new requirements the city and county have for food carts. Or if there’s someplace else kind of adjacent there that we could carve out that makes sense.”
According to Franklin, the food carts will be open at least through June of 2026.
Both residence halls have been staples of campus-life, and hold a rich historical significance for the community. Montgomery Residence Hall completed construction in 1917—originally Martha Washington Hotel for working women—and was purchased by Portland State University in 1969. Blackstone Residence Hall—known for its Egyptian Revival design—was built in 1931.
Blackstone will be vacated by June 30 2025, whereas Montgomery will be in operation until June of 2026. Deconstruction of both buildings will begin in the Fall of 2026.
