''Portlandia'' is a sculpture by

Raymond Kaskey Raymond Kaskey (born 1943) is an American sculptor and architect, best known for '' Portlandia'' and his contributions to the World War II Memorial. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he received a bachelor's degree in architecture from Carnegie ...

located above the entrance of the

Portland Building The Portland Building, alternatively referenced as the Portland Municipal Services Building, is a 15-story municipal office building located at 1120 SW 5th Avenue in downtown Portland, Oregon. Built at a cost of US$29 million, it opened in 1982 ...

in downtown

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

. It is the second largest copper repoussé statue in the United States, after the

Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; ) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, within New York City. The copper-clad statue, a gift to the United States from the people of French Thir ...

History

Portlandia was commissioned by the City of Portland in 1985. Sculptor Raymond Kaskey was paid $228,000 in public funds and reportedly an additional $100,000 in private donations. Kaskey and his assistant Michael Lasell built sections of the statue in a Maryland suburb of

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, and sent the parts to Portland by ship. It was assembled at a barge-building facility owned by Gunderson, Inc, and was installed on the

on October 6, 1985,Crick, Rolla J. (October 7, 1985). "Thousands bid ‘Portlandia’ warm welcome: Statue lifted successfully to final spot". ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the West Coast of the United States, U.S. West Coast, founded as a weekly by Tho ...

'', p. A1. after being floated up the

Willamette River The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward ...

on a

barge A barge is typically a flat-bottomed boat, flat-bottomed vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. Original use was on inland waterways, while modern use is on both inland and ocean, marine water environments. The firs ...

Description

The statue is based on the design of the Portland city seal. The statue depicts a female figure, Lady Commerce, dressed in classical clothes, holding a

trident A trident (), () is a three- pronged spear. It is used for spear fishing and historically as a polearm. As compared to an ordinary spear, the three tines increase the chance that a fish will be struck and decrease the chance that a fish will b ...

in her left hand and reaching down with her right. The statue is above street level and faces a relatively narrow, tree-lined street. The statue is high and weighs . An accompanying plaque includes the official dedication poem, also titled "Portlandia", written by Portland lawyer and poet Ronald Talney:

Copyright

Despite being funded largely by the City’s Public Art Program, Kaskey retained the copyright to the sculpture and has threatened lawsuits against unlicensed depictions of Portlandia. The statue appears in the title sequence of the TV series '' Portlandia'', the result of "lengthy" negotiations with Kaskey that required the statue not be used "in a disparaging way". In 2012, Laurelwood Brewing used an illustration of the statue on the label of Portlandia

Pils Pils may refer to * Pilsner Pilsner (also pilsener or simply pils) is a type of pale lager. It takes its name from the Bohemian city of Plzeň (), where the world's first pale lager (now known as Pilsner Urquell) was produced in 1842 by Pilsn ...

, a beer it introduced; the brewery later found out about Kaskey's copyright and reached a cash settlement with Kaskey.

References

External links

History of ''Portlandia''
from the

Regional Arts & Culture Council The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) is an organization that administers arts grants in Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas Counties that also do advocacy in the Portland metropolitan area in Oregon, United States. It evolved from the city� ...

Poem
by Ronald Talney on plaque

by Ronald Talney
Video of ''Portlandia'' arriving in Portland
at

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

{{Public art in Portland, Oregon 1985 establishments in Oregon 1985 sculptures Copper sculptures in Oregon Culture of Portland, Oregon Outdoor sculptures in Southwest Portland, Oregon Statues in Portland, Oregon Sculptures of women in Oregon Civic personifications Architectural sculpture Colossal statues in the United States Statues of women in the United States

History

Description

Copyright

See also

References

External links