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Throughout the site’s transformation, the one constant has been the Claussen and Claussen-designed transmitter building, constructed in 1931.
Characteristic of the Moderinistic style, popular in Oregon from the mid-1930s to the early 1950s, the 32-foot-tall structure was constructed of reinforced concrete or tile blocks and covered with a smooth stucco wall finish. The upper floor projected out a few feet over the lower two stories. The lower portion of the building was originally constructed as an open-air, two-story, skeletal framework.
Because the KGW towers site occupied a portion of the Columbia River floodplain, the transmitter building was built on 22-foot piers, which were intended to provide ample clearance should significant flooding occur. This theory proved incorrect when, during the 1948 flood, a nearby dike broke sending water rushing over the floodplain, engulfing the town of Vanport and rising three-and-a-half feet above the transmitter building’s third floor.
Perhaps in an effort to minimize water damage to costly transmitter equipment from possible future floods, KGW enclosed the space beneath the lower floor in 1949, thus creating two additional floors.
Several windows on the ground and second floors of the building were later filled in with cement blocks and surfaced with stucco. In addition, alteration of some windows on the top floor has occurred since the 1950s. However, the window alterations have not substantially altered the original window fenestration or narrow vertical decorative striated bands between window openings. Significantly, the concrete infill on the lower floors did not cover over and obscure the structural support members, the vertical pilings and cross braces, but was recessed slightly from them. Thus, the building retained an important design feature—its clean lines and streamlined appearance below the original upper floor.
A variety of transmitter equipment was housed in the building, beginning with a 1,000-watt Western Electric 1-B transmitter. In 1935, the station increased its capacity to 5,000 watts of daytime power, and in 1941 increased its output to a continuous 5,000 watt.
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