Connections (Multnomah Building, Portland, OR)
Bronze, 14' x 5.5' x 3", 2005
The Multnomah Building houses the business offices of Multnomah County, the most populous county in Oregon. These two panels frame the main entry to the building, and represent the urban and rural aspects of the county. Images of bridges and roads and water are metaphors for the County’s many governmental functions. The County’s work spans the rural and urban, industrial and business communities. Portland’s many bridges are the central design element on the urban panel, because they allow a city divided by a major river to function as a cohesive whole, as the County “bridges” many diverse communities, facilitating cooperative action and successful societal functioning. The water in the panels forms a circulatory system—the flow of commerce and arts in the community; the over-arching bridges may be seen as the multifarious support services and responsibilities of the County.
In the rural panel, the arterial (County) roads converge from the periphery as capillaries in the circulatory system, supporting urban life by the work of the agricultural base and the dramatic beauty of the Columbia Gorge scenic preserve. Salmon are represented as the best known wild species in the network of environmental stewardship in which the County plays an important ongoing role. These panels also allowed me to suggest Portland’s connection to the Pacific Rim. The oblique reference to the Asian scroll is highlighted especially in the rural composition, with its mountain, falls and Vista House at Crown Point.
