The Pearl District’s reputation as Portland’s chic, artistic neighborhood stands out in a city already bursting with cool, fashionable nabes. Its position as hipster central owes a lot to its origins as a former industrial area, with its gritty spaces and concrete cool lending a sheen of urban authenticity, while luring artists and developers alike. In the 1980s — and accelerating through the 2000s — those artists and developers, spurred on by a change in city zoning, created a neighborhood out of empty warehouses and abandoned railway yards, with converted lofts installed in old factories and brand-new condo towers rising alongside art galleries, well-curated boutiques, and cutting-edge restaurants. Powell’s Books, arguably the city’s most famous retailer, was an early arrival here, opening in 1971 and transforming a former car dealership into the world’s largest bookstore and a Portland icon.