| Flag |  |
| Proportions | 3:5 |
| Adopted | January 1970 (variant including the city seal); 4 September 2002 (revised according to designer’s original plan) |
| Design | On a field of green is a white cross, offset towards the hoist, with a white hypocycloid (a four-pointed star) at its center. Four orthogonal blue stripes radiate, pinwheel-like, from the center, with L-shaped gold elements border each of the four quadrants thus created. Narrow borders of white (“fimbriations”) separate these gold elements from the blue stripes and the green background. |
| Symbolism | Green represents the forests of Oregon and gold commerce, in particular, the grain harvest that passes through the city as it is exported far and wide. The blue stripes represent the Columbia and Willamette rivers, and the central hypocycloid their confluence at Portland. |
| How Selected | Mayor Terry Schrunk in 1969 asked the Portland Art Commission for a new city flag. The commission chose graphic artist Douglas Lynch, its former chair, to design a new flag, in consulatation with the Commission and the City Council. The Council then modified Lynch’s design by, among other changes, adding a blue canton containing the City Seal, and adopted this version in January 1970.In 2002, the Portland Flag Association, including Douglas Lynch, successfully lobbied the City Council to undo the changes it made in 1970 and adopt Lynch’s original design. |
| Designer | Douglas Lynch (1913-2009) |
| Notes |
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| Links |
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The OFR is a project of the Portland Flag Association.
Oregon Flag Registry 