Portlandia Welcomes You To The Portland Building

1120 SW 5th Avenue
Portland, Oregon

Portlandia is a sculpture by Raymond Kaskey placed on the a landing on the third floor of  Michael Graves' Portland Building in downtown Portland. The sculpture is based on a figure in Portland's city seal of a woman, dressed in classical clothes, who welcomes traders into the port of the city. It is notable for being the second largest copper repoussé statue in the United States after the Statue of Liberty. The sculpture is 36 feet tall but if Portlandia was magically to stand up, she would be over 50 feet tall. Portlandia is an example of the city's Public Art Program that works with the public and private sectors to integrate art into communities that reflects a range of disciplines, media and thinking.

Installed in September 1985 after being floated down the Willamette River on a barge and then transported through the city on a large truck. While it was being transported people lined up the streets to see it and once it reached the building the crowd reached out to touch it before it was installed.

Raymond Kaskey was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1943. He studied architecture and graduated from the Yale School of Architecture. He then became a professor and sculpted part-time. His earlier art was mostly abstract. His current art is figurative (depicting recognizable people and things). Kaskey now lives in Washington, DC, and is a full-time sculptor.