Sculptures make splash at Waterline

Published 12:00 am Thursday, April 23, 2015

An owl, a tree and a log.

Three sculptures inspired by the drawings of the late railroad night watchman Tom Stefopoulos are being installed in the courtyards of the Waterline Apartments on Northwest Front Avenue.

Las Vegas-based developers Fore Property Co. built the Waterline Apartments. Finishing touches are still being added as the buildings roll out. Amenities include pet-washing stations and a rooftop wet bar. There currently are four apartment buildings. Eventually there will be six. The developers were allowed to build one story higher with the addition of public art.

Stefopoulos, a Greek immigrant, died in 1971. He is best known as the artist who painted mythological figures on the Lovejoy Columns in ghostly, white paint. The columns, immortalized in Gus Van Sant’s films “Drugstore Cowboy,” supported a viaduct over the rail yards. The ramp was demolished in 1999 to make way for Pearl District development.

At that time, Portland developer John Carroll, RIGGA Architects and the Regional Arts and Culture Council joined forces to restore and preserve the columns, which remained in storage for years until two of the original columns were placed on permanent display in the Pearl District.

One of the new sculptures at Waterline is named “Nurse Column.” Like a fallen log that sustains new life as it decays, the sculpture depicts a bird rising from a skeletal, fallen “column.” Lighting and an interpretive portion that tell Tom’s story will be added soon. Two additional sculptures — “Lyric Tree” made of spiraling straps of aluminum and a 6-foot tall metal “Owl” — will be placed during the week of May 18.

Portland’s Rhiza A + D, an art and design group whose work is on the Eastbank Esplanade and at TriMet’s Mt. Hood Avenue station, was selected by the Regional Arts and Culture Council to design and fabricate the sculptures.

“It’s exciting,” says Rhiza architect John Kashiwabara, “once we get the base and the lit panel installed on “Nurse Column,” this spiraling, graphic story comes together. It’s like one of Tom’s old paintings, fallen but re-emerging to tell another story.”

The “Owl” could become a Front Avenue landmark, drawing pedestrians toward the Willamette River.

“He’s creating his own perch,” Kashiwabara says. “He’s holding a big pen and he’s drawing. He’s like Tom, a watchman.”