Portlandia

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Portlandia is a sculpture by Raymond Kaskey located above the entrance of Michael Graves' Portland Building in downtown Portland, Oregon at 1120 SW 5th Avenue. It is notable for being the second largest copper repoussé statue in the United States after the Statue of Liberty.

Installed in September 1985 after being floated up the Willamette River on a barge, the statue is based on the design of the city seal. It depicts a woman in classical clothes with a trident reaching down with right hand to greet visitors to the building.

The statue itself is 36 feet (11 meters) high. If standing, the woman would be approximately 50 feet (15 m) high. An accompanying plaque contains a poem by Portland resident Ronald Talney.

The statue is above street level, and faces a narrow, tree-lined street with limited automobile access. Occasionally, there are suggestions to move the statue to a more visible location, but these have come to nothing and the sculptor states that he designed the statue for its location and would not approve of moving it.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] External links

• History of Portlandia from the Regional Arts and Culture Council
• Poem by Ronald Talney on plaque.
• Photo of Portlandia