32. Portlandia, 2/19/11

Did you know...one of Portland's best known landmarks is the Portlandia sculpture, which lies on the third story landing of the Portland Building and is the second largest hammered copper statue ever built; only the Statue of Liberty is larger.

The statue was built in sections in one of the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., and the parts shipped to Portland by rail. It was assembled at a barge building facility, Gunderson, Inc., and was installed on October 6, 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 dressed in classical clothes, holding a trident in the left hand and reaching down with the right hand to greet visitors to the building.

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.

It has also been claimed that Portlandia's relatively low profile results from sculptors close guarding of his intellectual property. Unlike the Statue of Liberty, Portlandia may not be reproduced for any commercial purpose without permission from the artist. The rights to the image of Portlandia remain the artist's property.

The statue itself is 34 feet, 10 inches high. If standing, the woman would be about 50 feet tall. An accompanying plaque contains a poem by Portland resident Ronald Talney.

She kneels down
and from the quietness
of copper
reaches out.

We take that stillness
into ourselves
and somewhere
deep in the earth
our breath
becomes her city.

If she could speak
this is what
she would say:

Follow that breath.
Home is the journey we make.
This is how the world
knows where we are.