UPDATE and I miss being out and about, looking for fall foliage to photograph. The next best thing, searching my Flickr account for photos taken in October. 2007.

UPDATE: Saturday's been much like Friday, and I'm thankful for no increase in the fatigue. Leland, my younger son, came over today and did two loads of laundry, figured out what I'd touched on my camera to cause a couple of distracting actions and tried patiently to get stuck in my chemo-addled-mind what to do if/when either one happens again.



Downtown, the elk stands tall on SW Main between two lovely, square block city parks. I really like this statue, The Thompson Elk Fountain. Notice that line of TriMet buses in the background? Since this is October, 2007, the downtown Transit Mall is rerouted to SW Third--the street you see--and SW 4th which is behind me to the west, so that the actual mall on SW 5th and SW 6th could be totally redone which took a couple of years. The building with the teal-colored glass is the Justice Center, home to various courts and one of the Multnomah County jails. I've seen vintage photos of horses hitched into delivery wagons drinking from this fountain, and I've witnessed Portland Police Bureau horses taking a drink from it.



The teal-colored lower floors of the Portland Building look neat against the golden leaves of the gingko trees. Here's a bit about the fountain, from the city's Web site, fountain page: David P. Thompson drove sheep to Portland over the Oregon Trail. From 1879-82 he served as Portland's Mayor. In 1900, Thompson's gift of this bronze elk sculpture was intended to commemorate elk that once grazed nearby. Roland Hinton Perry sculpted the elk.



Here's a 4 bus making its way by the elk without difficulty. Lots of days after work, I'm on that bus, lately only if I miss the Portland Streetcar outside my work building.



Other vehicles successfully pass the fountain, too.

UPDATE and I was in downtown this morning!

UPDATE: I slept just fine last night and made it to work without difficulty. When I got home today, I cooked some ground turkey, tossed it with an envelope of taco spices, stirred in a can of low-fat refried beans and a little bit of mild salsa. I ate it with some tortilla strips. Every single bite tasted awful, way too salty, wrong tasting mess, period. I believe this is a side effect of the chemo because I've made this several times in the last few months, once even after Chemo Round One, when it tasted exactly the it always had when made with ground beef. Whew. It was awful! So, I'm throwing it away because I don't want to ruin the thought of it for myself. Anyway, I'm not hungry right now because I ate enough of it before I stopped and drank some water, then had some Nilla Wafers. The awful taste is erased, thank goodness.



When I rode the first bus today, a 12, I decided to go across the Burnside Bridge and change to the next bus next to City Hall downtown. I longed to see downtown. It worked out very well. I took this photo of Portlandia in her perch at the Portland Building which is between SW 5th and SW 4th, right across the street to the north of City Hall. I really like this giant statue!



Here's a closeup that I took of Portlandia back in 2009, so that you can get an idea of just how wonderful she is. She's based on a figure in Portland's city seal--a woman, dressed in classical clothes, who welcomes traders into the port of the city. The sculpture is on the third floor landing of the Portland Building.

The sculpture is 36 feet tall but if Portlandia was magically to stand up, she would be over 50 feet tall; she weighs 6.5 tons. Portlandia is the second largest hammered copper statue in America (the largest is the Statue of Liberty). The statue was designed and sculpted by Washington, D.C., artist Raymond Kaskey and installed over the west entrance of the Portland Building in downtown Portland in 1985.

Kaskey retains the copyright on the statue’s image and so has avoided that work’s mass reproduction--no key chains, y'all.

Before being installed at the Portland Building, Portlandia was floated down the river on a barge and then transported through the city on a large truck. People lined up on the streets to see it. When it reached the building, the people crowded around the sculpture for a chance to touch it before it was installed out of reach.



This is me this morning, waiting for the first bus of the to-work commute. The Blue Diamond is in the background--you can see it through the bus shelter's wall. I've had this hat for years; in fact, I believe that I bought it in Jackson, Mississippi, before Mama and I moved here in June, 2006. I added those fabric roses with the plastic dew drops. Love them!

A short break for a stop at the Installation Space at the Portland Building, a city government building in downtown Portland

This is my third year to participate in the city/county art show known as All The Art That Fits, sponsored by the Regional Arts & Culture Council. And my first time to make it onto what I think of as the back wall of the space. Yea! There is a wall to the left of this one, and a bit of space beneath the stair railing on the right. I think that if there had been more submitted art, then they would have hung some along there, too. When I dropped off my acrylic and tissue paper on canvas board artwork, I asked if it could be placed not too high so that folks might be able to read the word I had spelled out on it with wooden beads. Well, there it is, at the bottom so that folks can indeed read the word, if they're willing to bend a bit at the waist.


The word: GENERATIONS.



Here is the rest of the back wall's art.
 

And here's the art hanging on the wall to the left.

From the RACC Web site: On Wednesday, November 20th RACC will be opening the 17th annual City of Portland and Multnomah County employee art exhibit, all the art that fits. The “salon style” exhibit takes place in the Portland Building Installation Space and is a yearly favorite for both the artists and regular visitors. All types of 2-dimensional artworks are represented in the unique show, from quirky to thoughtful, from beautiful to amusingly odd.

RACC invites visitors to vote for their favorite artwork as part of the People’s Choice Award. This year’s winner will receive two Main Stage ticket vouchers for the Portland Center Stage, generously donated for this event. The exhibition will run through Friday, January 3rd, and the People’s Choice Award winner will be announced on January 6th.

Only original artwork created by current employees of the City or County is eligible. All the artwork submitted will be installed wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling. For those eligible and interested in participating, submissions must be dropped off Wednesday, November 20th, between 8:00 and 10:00 am, to the Portland Building lobby located at 1120 SW 5th Ave. between SW Main and SW Madison.

Viewing Hours & Location: The exhibition is free and open to the public 8 am to 5 pm, Monday – Friday. The Portland Building is located at 1120 SW 5th Avenue in downtown Portland.

Benson Bubbler

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After work on December 5, no rain fell, so I took advantage of my walk from one homeward bound bus to the other. I stopped in at the Portland Building and took the photos in yesterday's post. Plus, I took this photo of a Benson Bubbler outside the Portland Building, near the southwest corner of SW 5th Avenue and SW Main Street. And, yes, I've had a drink from various Benson Bubblers around the city, without consequence other than quenching my thirst.

I'm especially proud of how this photo turned out--the soft light on the edges of the four bowls, the spigots, and the water; the traffic on SW 5th Avenue; the brick sidewalk. Note the wet look on the sidewalk, near that concrete planter. That's what happens when gusts of wind come in contact with bubbling water. Read on to discover the decision the city makes sometimes, all because of that contact.

About Benson Bubblers from the City of Portland's Web site:

Benson Bubblers are Portland's iconic drinking fountains. The city currently boasts 52 of the fountains and 74 one-bowl variations. Though the single-bowl variations look like Benson Bubblers, they are not. In fact, in the 1970's, the Benson family asked that the installation of the four-bowl fountains be limited to certain downtown boundaries so as not to diminish the uniqueness of them.

And while most Benson Bubblers are, indeed, downtown, there are a couple of notable exceptions.

• In 1965, the City of Portland presented a bubbler to Yosaku Harada, mayor of Portland's sister city, Sapporo, Japan. 
• Sam Hill, a friend to Simon Benson, asked to have a bubbler installed at his Maryhill Museum of Art. 

Benson Bubblers are made of bronze, but years of weathering give them that eye-catching patina finish that makes them so beautiful and green. Patina is a thin layer of brown and greenish oxides that takes years to build up. Well meaning citizens have "cleaned" off the patina more than once over the years, but the Water Bureau has always restored the patina finish, preferring it to the shiny copper.

Bubbler Facts
Drinking water is fresh and NOT recycled, fountains are cleaned routinely.

• The Bubblers flow freely from 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., daily.
• The fountains run 365 days per year unless a cold snap or excessively windy weather forces the Water Bureau to temporarily shut them down.
• The fountains serve up Bull Run drinking water! 

Benson Bubbler Legacy
In 1912, Simon Benson, a local businessman and philanthropist, donated $10,000 to the City of Portland to purchase and install 20 bronze drinking fountains, now known as Benson Bubblers.

Local folklore tells us that Simon Benson donated the 20 bronze drinking fountains as an effort to keep loggers out of the saloons at lunchtime. Others say that Benson was inspired after seeing a little girl crying at a 4th of July parade because she couldn't find a drink of water. Either way, the Benson Bubblers have become a historical and enduring legacy here in Portland.

Portland's first Benson Bubbler was installed at SW 5th & Washington. Another one of the original Bubblers was installed in front of Benson's home, where it remains today, to commemorate his generous gift to the city. The remaining 18 original bubblers were installed by 1917. Currently, the Water Bureau proudly maintains 52 of the four-bowl Benson Bubbler fountains throughout the city. 

Construction & Design

A.E. Doyle designed the four-bowl Benson Bubbler. Doyle is the noted architect of the Multnomah County Library, Multnomah Falls Lodge and Portland's PGE Park.

Although most bubblers were made by local foundries, two bubblers were made by students at Benson High School. In 1975, the cost to make a bubbler had skyrocketed and, in an effort to save money, the city asked the principal of Benson High whether his foundry students might want to take on the task. They were excited to try their hand at bubbler construction and eagerly agreed.

The first Benson High bubbler was installed in front of downtown Portland's Oregon Historical Society and the work is of the highest quality. Visitors can check this out for themselves at 1200 SW Park Avenue.

Conservation Efforts

The Portland Water Bureau is committed to using water wisely, and has made significant changes in the design and operation of the bubblers over the years to improve their water efficiency. For example, in 1995, the bureau narrowed the feed lines to the bubblers. This cut water use almost in half.

In 2000, the bureau installed timers which shut the fountains off during low-usage periods, generally in the late night and early morning hours.

In 2005, the Water Bureau installed small, flow-restricting devices in the bubblers to reduce the amount of water that each fountain uses. The devices do not affect the physical appearance of the fountains, but they do reduce the amount of water the fountains use by 40 percent. The bubblers now use less than 1/10th of 1 percent of Portland's daily water demand, yet they still stand proud, as a defining, iconic element of our city's history.

all the art that fits

Last year, I took my submission a day late, so, naturally, no dice on having it in the exhibition. This year I paid attention.

Here's the 411:Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) Press Release from November 28, 2012: all the art that fits returns to the Portland Building Installation Space, December 4, 2012 - January 8, 2013  

It is that time of year again; the annual City and County employee exhibition in the lobby of the Portland Building opens on Tuesday, December 4th and runs through the holiday season. This "salon style" exhibition, open to all current City or County employees, is a yearly favorite and is anxiously awaited by regular visitors to the Portland Building. All types of creative work are represented in the unique show, from quirky to thoughtful, from elegant and beautiful to amusingly odd. Only original artwork created by current employees of the City or County is eligible. The exhibition is non-juried--all the artwork submitted will be installed, hung wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling. For those eligible and interested in participating, submissions must be dropped off Tuesday, December 4th, between 8:00 and 10:00 am, to the Portland Building lobby located at 1120 SW 5th Ave. between SW Main and SW Madison.
 

As seen among the others, my artwork is on the left, framed, with a wide white matte and right beneath the largest artwork.



Here's a close-up. I kept it, just as you see it, for a whole year, ready and waiting for the announcement of this year's event. I named it "Paternal Twins."

Tour Guide Perk: Downtown Walking Tour with Peter Chausse, Part 3

I'm so excited! I've found out the real name and sculptor of the onion ring! Here's the photo again.

Here's what I found out at Emporis Dot Com: One of Portland's most admired sculptures, Hilda Morris's bronze Ring of Time, graces the entryway on the west side of the building.

What building, you're wondering? The Standard Insurance Plaza, directly across the street from the Portland Building, where Portlandia kneels, occupies the block bordered on the north by SW Main St., the south by SW Madison St., the east by SW 5th Ave., and on the west by SW 6th Ave. From SW 6th, we walked over a wide, elevated sort of sidewalk, stretching from the regular sidewalk along the street to the building entrance--the Ring of Time stands against the building's wall at the end of the walkway. Whatever it's officially called--that walkway--I'm pretty sure that I remember correctly that Peter told us it was the first one of its kind in Portland. The building itself was finished in 1963. Below the sidewalk there's a sort of landscaped plaza and this fountain on the south side of the walkway--there's a matching fountain on the north side of it.

Peter said it's always coolly comfortable there, below street level. I imagine it will be busy later this week when we get into the 80s around here--folks can walk right into it from the sidewalk because there's an opening in a short wall that parallels the sidewalk, on the corner of SW 6th and Main--I can see it on Google Maps. I can't tell if there's another sidewalk level--can't move that little Google Man just right--makes me want to holler sometimes!

We entered the building and stopped just inside the door to look at what you see in this next photo, taken with available light. It's a weather indicator, as you can plainly read.

You can also read beneath the green circle-shaped light, "Green, no change." "White, colder." "Red, warmer." "Flashing, precipitation." "Steady, no precipitation." It's connected to what you see in this next photo, atop the 16-story, 222 foot building.

From Emporis: The building features a 50-foot weather beacon on top of the roof; white indicates falling temperatures, red indicates warming temperatures, green indicates steady temperatures, and blinking means it is raining or it is going to rain. The weather beacon is updated 3 times each day.

I only had time for the one photo, so I missed the light. Yep, it was blinking. The six-sided columnar-shaped beacon was blinking green, the light coming out of the nine-by-four grid of holes on each side. About the light's meaning rain, it wasn't raining then, and I don't think it rained on us during the walk. Since my brain has become a sieve as I've grown older, I cannot remember, doggone it!

Here's the rest about the Standard Plaza, from Emporis:
City's first building to place its parking garage below street level.
The original plans did not include sidewalks on Main and Madison.
Each level is column-free, as the building floors are held up by the elevator core and an outer frame.

Tour Guide Perk--Downtown Walking Tour with Peter Chausse

I totally appreciate the idea espoused by the Portland Center for the Performing Arts that learning more about Portland makes better tour guides for the PCPA. So when the chance to go on a walking tour of downtown Portland at 5 p.m. on a Thursday came up, I took an hour of vacation and signed right up! Y'all can just imagine how much I looked forward to the two-hour walk, right? My camera around my neck, I joined about 20 PCPA tour guides as we met our Walking Tours of Portland guide Peter Chausse on June 11 in the Antoinette Hatfield Hall rotunda.

Over the next few days, I'll share photos that I took and bits of information about the that Peter shared with us--it was right up my alley!

Remember the Pioneer Courthouse Square Mile Sign Post? One of the destination it points toward is Portlandia. (Click on the link to find out all about her.)

I took this photo from the second floor of a building across the street from the Portland Building.


I took this photo from the sidewalk right beneath Portlandia.


I took this photo looking back at Portlandia.


Here's one more photo that I took from the sidewalk beneath Portlandia. Peter had told us that he'd been taking 3rd graders on tours lately--he always tells them that Portlandia's dropped an onion ring out of her hand.


Here's the onion ring, a sculpture at a building one block west of Portlandia's home. I wish I could remember the name of the building and the sculpture, but I can't. One of these days I will go there and see if there's a plaque that I can photograph.