Boothby Square

In 2003, Portland Downtown invited me to create an installation for Boothby Square. The site was unlike any I had worked with before: a largely hardscaped public space divided by two small, sculpted grass islands, with a roundabout at its center and cobblestone streets passing through it.

I was fascinated by the movement of the square—the constant coming and going of traffic, the way the space opens at its center, and how the grass islands taper toward either end. The surrounding buildings, nearly uniform in height, form a kind of architectural wall enclosing the square. As I studied the site, I began asking myself: How high should the sculpture rise? And how could it be anchored so that it belonged to this place?

I settled on a height of twenty feet. Each Light Form is supported by a ten-foot steel pole, with three sculptural forms that diminish in size as they rise. Resting at the top of the pole, the forms extend another ten feet into the sky. Whether viewed from a passing car or by someone walking along the sidewalks, the sculpture invites the eye upward.

I placed three units on the smaller grass island to the west and five on the larger island to the east. More than individual sculptures, I wanted them to behave as a group. Between each Light Form is a jointed section, and every joint bends at a different angle. Together the eight forms seem to lean, gesture, and converse with one another, animating the space between them as much as the space they occupy.

Designing Boothby Square was a joyful challenge.

The project also became a family collaboration. My daughter, Bree, was home from France while I was developing the design, and I welcomed her help in the studio. She brought along her friend Chris Moore, now her husband, whose mathematical skills proved invaluable. Using my models, Chris calculated the formulas needed to enlarge each sculptural form to its full scale. In my old studio the finished pieces were so large that getting them through the door became a project of its own.

Bree, Chris, and their son, Oliver, have helped install the Boothby Square Light Forms every season since. As a small child, Oliver watched from below; today he climbs the ladder to help lift the forms onto their poles. Seeing three generations care for the work has become one of the installation's quiet rewards.

Bree also made another lasting contribution. While I was creating the Light Forms for Tommy's Park, she developed a spiral method for stringing the lights across each form. Her approach not only saved countless hours of work but also produced a more even, luminous pattern. It is the same method we continue to use today.