Our Past Was Writ in Water

Heartline Building, Portland, Oregon
2018
Steel, aluminum, sand-etched cast glass, LED
16' x 14' x 6"
Commissioned by Security Properties and the Regional Arts & Culture Council

Our Past Was Writ in Water is a welcoming beacon set into the facade of the Heartline building on a busy corner in Portland's northwest quadrant. Its minimal black steel panels recall the board-formed concrete walls of the warehouse that once housed the Pacific Northwest College of Art on this site, while their sleek profile nods to the future of a fast-changing neighborhood.

Embedded panels of sand-etched cast glass throw colored light and historic imagery of cobblestone, asphalt, and trolley track onto the wall behind, a quiet reminder of the people who lived and worked here before. As viewers approach, the colored patterns on the concrete draw them in. At night the piece glows, and the etched imagery is lit another way, still casting light, shadow, and image onto the wall.

Our goal was to let a vanished history return to a new building without narrating it, and to make a calm, thoughtful place on a bustling street corner.