Seen while out and about in the Pearl District, with Sarah on Thursday afternoon.

Lilies in the afternoon sunshine, so bright that I couldn't see where I pointed my iPhone 6 Plus to take this photo. Tanner Springs Park, one of three Portland city parks in the Pearl District, Northwest Portland, is Sarah's favorite park in this part of Portland. Sarah took me there on our Thursday afternoon out--we'd been way west of Portland to the Helvetia Tavern for lunch, drove back into town on Skyline Drive, a winding road high atop the Tualatin Mountains, then onto West Burnside and down into mine and Mama's old neighborhood, then through the Pearl District to park for a few minutes so that we could walk through the not-quite-an-acre park.



Sarah pointed out that this is where Tanner Springs enters the park's design. You can't tell from my photo, but it runs in a stream-like-way on stone lined paths through the north end of the park where we walked. I don't know if the stream is at the south end because we didn't walk that direction. She explained that the stepping stones used to be on the streets of Portland and before that served as ballast in wooden sailing ships that came into the port of Portland many years ago. So cool!



More bright sunshine, plus my doofus self led to an upside down video that I made of Sarah stepping barefoot into the center of the circle that marks where Tanner Springs comes up out of the ground at the park. You can hear a little girl there with her mom, Sarah, and me talking about the rocks being slippery, the center not being slippery, and that Sarah will be careful.



This video is of the Art Wall on the park's east side. I guess I could blame it on the bright sunshine, too, the fact that I incorrectly called these railroad tracks railroad ties. Doofus me. I really like that it is made of railroad tracks because the Pearl District is where the rail yards around Union Station used to exist, along with warehouses and light industry. Portland Terminal Railroad onated the rails, recovered from the region. Some rails date back to 1898.

Found online at the city of Portland's Web site: Historical Information

What is now known as the Pearl District was once a wetland and lake fed by streams that flowed down from the nearby hills in southwest Portland. These wooded hillsides provided a natural filter for the streams, cleansing the water as it made its way to the Willamette River. The springs from Tanner Creek, named for the tannery built by pioneer Daniel Lownsdale in 1845, flowed into the shallow basin of Couch Lake, now the area surrounding Tanner Springs Park. As the population of Portland grew in the late 19th century, Tanner Creek was rerouted through an underground system of pipes to the Willamette River. The lake and the surrounding wetland were eventually filled to make way for warehouses and rail yards which in turn were replaced by residences, shops, and public spaces. Today, the park sits about 20 feet above the former lake surface.

From the beginning of the planning efforts for the Pearl District in the early 1990s, the creation of a network of open spaces was an important goal of both the neighborhood and the City. In 1998, a conceptual plan for the new parks and open spaces was proposed by the Tanner Creek and Water Feature Steering Committee and approved by City Council. Those recommendations served as a point of departure for planning the district's parks.

In June 1999, Peter Walker & Partners, a landscape architecture firm, was retained to provide concepts for three new parks between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in the River District. They developed and refined plans for the parks with input from a Project Steering Committee and two public workshops. The final plan is characterized by a series of recurring elements which strengthen the connection between each of the three parks. Jamison Square was the first to be developed.

North Park Square was the working name given the second block to be developed. Planning for this park began in early 2003. Atelier Dreiseitl, a renowned German design firm, and GreenWorks, P.C., an award-winning, local landscape architecture firm, were selected to design the park. A series of community workshops were held between January and June 2003, allowing the public to participate in the design process. After committee review, the name Tanner Springs was adopted in April 2005. The springs connect the park to Tanner Creek that at one time flowed openly through this area; today it flows through large pipes beneath the city streets. Since the design of the park attempts to recapture the area's past with its native wetlands and flowing runnels, the name is fitting.

The Artwall runs along the east edge of the park. It is composed of 368 railroad tracks set on end and integrates 99 pieces of fused glass inset with images of dragonflies, spiders, amphibians, and insects. The images were hand-painted by Herbert Dreiseitl directly onto Portland glass, which was then fused and melted to achieve the final effect.