Art is not just a feature of the Pearl District, in Northwest Portland, Oregon—it’s vital to the essence of the neighborhood. The artist community were among the first residents to migrate into the area in the 1990s; the neighborhood was named for Pearl Marie Amhara, who hosted warehouse parties in the area.
“Art inspired and truly drove this neighborhood’s reinvention from its industrial roots to the cultured neighborhood we now know,” Matthew Scaramastra told me recently. Scaramastra is Lead Sales Enthusiast at Canopy by Hilton, a Pearl District hotel that has taken considerable inspiration from the arty inclinations of the neighborhood.