Way back in 2019, Portland International Airport tore down its ghastly Concourse A, setting in motion a dramatic transformation that promised light-flooded spaces, room for more gates and more flights, and improved earthquake resilience. Since then, Portlanders traveling through PDX have encountered some form of construction upon every visit, particularly in the main terminal.

While this $2 billion project, called PDX Next, isn’t wrapped up quite yet—projected completion is winter 2025/2026—it’s about to hit a major milestone. After a late May reveal was delayed due to workplace safety concerns, the revamped main terminal will open to travelers on Wednesday, August 14, the Port of Portland announced today.

But what does it all…mean? Here’s what’s coming next month—and what we’re still waiting on.

Come August 14, you can expect:

1. A whole new entry experience. From the roadway, travelers will enter a spacious ticket lobby, with counters set up in rows perpendicular to the entrance and clustered like islands. Roller bags and wheelchairs will glide over floors made of terrazzo and Oregon white oak as a nine-acre timber-lattice roof curves overhead. The design team sourced the roof’s 2.5 million board feet within 300 miles of Portland, about half of it from small and tribal landowners.

2. A public hangout spot. Beer bar Loyal Legion will anchor the terminal, with a pre-security, nearly 9,000-square-foot space in the mezzanine. It should feel familiar to Loyal Legion regulars, with 96 Oregon beers on tap, big blue booths, a food menu of burgers and sausages, and a speakeasy-style lounge. New for PDX: a play area for kids and sweeping views of the airfield.

3. Thirteen more restaurants and stores, more than half fully or partially owned by women and/or people of color. Beloved Pearl pizzeria Oven and Shaker and workhorse pasta chain Grassa—which, like Loyal Legion, are part of Portland-based restaurant group Chefstable—will join the likes of Blue Star Donuts and the Country Cat, which makes its PDX revival with a pre-security location. On the retail front, we’re excited for feminist card store Paper Epiphanies, family-run Orox Leather Co., and the return of Powell’s (the bookstore will at first operate from a temporary kiosk while buildout of its shop continues).

4. Faster security lines, says the Port of Portland. In each line, improved TSA checkpoints will allow three travelers to strip to their socks and empty their pockets at the same time, and bins will be ferried back automatically after use. Shortly after opening, a screen will also show estimated wait times. For those in need of distraction, video walls above security will display digital recreations of iconic Oregon landscapes, intermixed with work from Portlander Ivan McClellan, well known for his photography of Black cowboys and rodeo riders. Expect video work from more Oregon artists down the road.

5. The first of the airport’s new gender-neutral restrooms, the return of the iconic carpet (look for both of these on the mezzanine level), and so many plants and trees that PDX Next’s website claims the new terminal “may feel like a walk through the forest.” (We’ll believe it when we see it.)

We’re still waiting on…

1. The renovation of the terminal’s north and south ends. These areas will remain behind temporary construction walls until at least the end of 2025. When they do open, expect more new shops and restaurants, including options both virtuous (smoothie-and-grain-bowl purveyor Kure as well as an outpost for Lake Oswego smoothie-and-sandwich spot Lola’s Café Bar) and boozy (women-owned distillery Freeland Spirits and canned cocktail company Straightaway—both of which, like Powell’s, will have temporary kiosks starting in August).

2. The end of detours. Travelers had been taking them to get to gates in concourses C and D. Now they’ll take them to get to concourses B and E.

3. Exit lanes. For the time being, entering and exiting travelers will use the same doors at the roadway, which Allison Ferre, media relations manager at the Port of Portland, concedes may be a little tight. Exits, she assures travelers, will eventually appear on the terminal’s north and south ends, along with more escalators down to baggage claim.