Pure Space

I recently had my wedding reception here. It was very appealing to me because it was beautiful, great lighting, and big enough to fit my large wedding party. I will start by saying the reception itself was beautiful, so much fun, and to the guests it went off without a hitch! We had such a great time the night of the wedding.
However– if I had to do it over again, I would never have had my reception here. Working with West Coast Events was terrible. The customer service was awful, and prices outrageous.
We were given a range of which most people can expect to pay to have what we were told was «a very nice reception.» Not adding much over the tables, chairs, lights, and drapes, serve ware, and linens (all things you have to have), it was THOUSANDS of dollars over the TOP dollar amount. Keep in mind we brought in everything we could ourselves (candles, centerpieces etc.) to help reduce the cost and it was still over budget. Before you book this, I would make sure you are not on a tight budget.
We did not appreciate the attitude, and slow service we received from the West Coast Events staff member helping us. My husband, Mom, and I consistently felt like we were being talked down to, and treated like idiots. When we tried to talk to the person above her, it only got worse.
If you do book this space and they start throwing in «free things», beware– if you have a complaint later they throw this right back in your face. As if they threw in the free things as leverage in case anything went wrong.
It was HOT. Everyone was drenched in sweat 1 hour into the reception. We were told by other vendors we used (who were at the reception) that they asked staff many times to turn the AC on and they refused.
I had NO issues with any other vendors I used (DJ, photographer, photo booth, videographer, florist, hair/​make up, cake, caterer). Everyone else was SO great to work with and customer service was incredible. I was a laid back bride as was my husband and Mom, and this was a terrible experience. It’s really too bad because the space is amazing. I also voiced my frustration with the West Coast Events person months before the wedding, and nothing changed. What a HEADACHE that could have totally been avoided.
I give the building and physical aspects of the space a 5, and the customer service a 0. So, I settled for 2 stars!

I was at Pure Space last night for a Valentines Day event. It was my first time there and I have to say I was surprised. I purchased the dinner as part of the program featuring music by Patrick Lamb. Having been to many rubber chicken dinners at locations similar to this, I wasn’t expecting much. The dinner was very good! I ordered the steak and I actually got a steak, not some cut down tiny piece of beef that leaves you hungry. The staff were all quite friendly and the music sounded really good inside such a large open space.
The only improvement I noticed was the atmosphere was so fun, there was not enough room on the added dance surface to accommodate all the people dancing and having fun. Not a bad problem to have.

I’m a big fan of this space because on the outside it looks decadent but inside its a raw space that is very configurable. I saw a live concert of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis here and the space was spacious and despite our large crowd it didn’t have the cramped feeling that many event spaces have.

I was a bridesmaid at this venue, it was beautiful and open and I think this place would work great for lots of events… but I also felt like there was not much space to change for our wedding party, they brought in two mirrors, but there’s like 6 bridesmaids, a bride and a groom and 6 groomsmen so we were all kind waiting to use the mirrors. Not only that, I thought it wasnt that private or convenient for the bridal party to get ready there. So I would recommend any future bridesmaids to get their face and hair finished before they arrive to the venue and let the bride and the makeup and hair artist do their thing in that upstairs area. One big downfall was the lack of lighting in the room and area they let us use to get ready, it was so dark we had to open the curtains to get some light in and even that didn’t help and as you know, it takes a lot of lighting to do makeup the right way. And because of that it made it uncomfortable to change into our dresses because the curtain were wide open. And also the ping pong tables they stored in that room along with other tables took up a lot of space too. I thought it was gonna be cleared up. Anyway that was the downfalls. The positives would be how convenient it was to have two separate spaces to do a ceremony and reception. Upstairs for the ceremony and downstairs for the reception. But wish they had an elevator to accommodate the older folks like my grandma who struggled to walk up the stairs for the ceremony and back down shortly after. They also had lockers which i made use of because of family heirlooms we brought and wore for the evening, so that was a HUGE plus! The team they had here did a great job with keeping the restrooms stocked and the catering company my cousin used through the venues preferred list was really efficient as well as delicious, they cleared tables great and everything was clean and beautiful. The bartenders were awesome and the staff were really friendly. The sound system was also great too as well as the lighting. The dance floor was a bit small though, but everyone seemed to have fun! Overall it was a great night, just a little uncomfortable for the bridal party to prepare themselves. Lots of space for the guests but not much for the bridal party.
Overall if you are looking for a professional for the most part venue to work with, this is a great location and great entertainment company to work with. It’s a bit pricey, they spent $ 11g for this night just for the rental but I got to say they did their part and they did it without any issues. our wedding party was set up to fit 500 guests btw.

I attended a Nike event at Pure Space recently, and the minute I walked in I thought, «Man, what a great place to get married or have a sweet party.» It’s really open and the acoustics were great, and the bars both upstairs and down were really accessible. The space is modern, but warm and inviting.
I’m not sure who catered the food (whether it was Pure Space catering???) but it wasn’t all that great. The service was excellent (I swear my glass of wine never got a chance to be empty).
If ever some day I need to throw a roaring party, this would be on my list.

I’m a fan of raw spaces. There’s so much you can do when you have just a large open room. I guess a convention center could pass for what you would call a raw space, but Pure Space at least has some character. The large windows let in a lot of light and make the space seem bigger, and you don’t have to deal with as many fluorescent lights. The event I went to was during the day (Lamb Jam), so I’m not sure what kind of lighting the space uses at night.
Pure Space is probably only going to used for large events, i.e. festivals with lots of booths and such. But if you have a decent wedding or party budget, you could make something cool happen at Pure Space. But purely from the standpoint of a festival consumer, this space was perfect for the event I went to. I’d love to see other Portland events come here.

Wine and food, what could be better is a little more room… great event for Taste of Washington, but needs a lil more room! Thanks Portland!

This was a great space for a recent benefit event that I attended. High ceilings, open and urban feel without being too cold. The upstairs has pretty poor lighting but fun wood floors. The downstairs is well lit and a space suited for a variety of events. It is open enough to do anything your imagination could dream of.