Living in the Pacific Northwest

Chosen because it’s a great place to live, work, and play, the Pacific Northwest is home to Group Mackenzie offices in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle and Vancouver, Washington.

The Pacific Northwest has a long-held identity as an independent community valuing the beauty of its forests, fields, coastlines, and rivers. Also known as Cascadia, it is defined by the temperate rainforests of the Cascades and the verdant agricultural regions known for apples, cherries, wheat, hay, and grapes; twenty of the 40 largest rivers on the continent are included in its watershed.

The metropolitan areas are dynamic cities that successfully incorporate pedestrian-friendly mixed-use developments into established, family-friendly neighborhoods. These two metropolitan areas are frequently ranked among the best places to live and lead the nation in environmental protection and sustainability.

Home to Nike, Wieden + Kennedy, Starbucks, Microsoft, Amazon.com, and multiple Intel campuses, the Pacific Northwest attracts a plethora of creative young professionals. Residents frequent restaurants ranked by the Food Network as among the best in the nation, and enjoy classical Japanese and Chinese gardens, microbreweries and wineries, and local museums, such as the Evergreen Aviation Museum, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, and the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum.

During the summer months, there are numerous fabulous outdoor events, including the Hood to Coast Relay, the Fort Vancouver Fourth of July Fireworks display (the largest fireworks show west of the Mississippi River), and festivals like Bumbershoot, the Sasquatch Music Festival, the Waterfront Blues Festival, and the Portland Rose Festival.

Few places in the world can offer the combined proximity to mountains above 10,000 feet, world-class windsurfing, award-winning wineries and microbreweries, the high desert, old growth forests, and windswept coasts — all within a few hours from vibrant metropolitan areas.

To learn more about living, working, and playing in the Pacific Northwest, click on a link below.