The DeMuro Award promotes historic preservation and reuse in Oregon by celebrating outstanding rehabilitation projects, and sharing the lessons learned from those case studies. It also honors the legacy of our community member, Art DeMuro, whose career embodied vision, persistence, creativity, excellence, and sound economics. GBD’s U.S. Custom House renovation was honored to be a recipient of this award and was publicly honored at the Restoration Celebration ceremony.

The U.S. Custom House was originally constructed to in 1901 to house offices of the United States Customs Service. The building was vacated in 2004, and purchased by Eastern Real Estate at auction in 2012. The 66,935 square foot building is listed U.S. National Register of Historic Places, and is now home to one of Portland’s most creative communities—WeWork. Sitting on three floors of a stately building, this shared co-working space is home to a large number of nonprofit groups, freelancers, graphic designers, and other businesses. The thoughtful renovation transformed the Custom House into a truly one-of-a-kind asset, featuring stunning historic architecture as the landscape for small businesses and creative professionals to collaborate.