Crew begins work on ‘Stepwell’ art feature in Riverfront Park
Part of the challenge of assembling Riverfront Park’s signature art piece “Stepwell” is that nothing like it has ever been built before.
“We pre-fabricate all this stuff as much as we can,” said Poyao Shih, the design lead for the project taking shape near the meadow west of the main promenade in Spokane’s downtown park. “When we come to the site, it’s like a puzzle.”
That puzzle is made of laminated Alaskan yellow cedar, stands a little less than 10 feet off the ground and cost a half million dollars to build and install. Shih’s firm Quarra, based in Madison, Wisconsin, fabricated the laminated wood pieces and is constructing the art piece based on a design by architect J. Meejin Yoon, which was selected by the Spokane Park Board in 2018.
Yoon requested the site for the piece because of its views of the river and location near the Fearn Conservation Area, said Melissa Huggins, executive director of the nonprofit Spokane Arts working with Yoon on the project.
“The experience of the sculpture is, you can sit down and read a book. Someone can play guitar,” Huggins said. “Someone can have a poetry reading. It’s a place you could come here and eat your lunch.”
“That site was the No. 1 choice, because of the quiet serenity there,” said Fianna Dickson, communication manager for the parks department.
Tucked between the Providence Playscape all-access playground and the pedestrian suspension bridges near the former Washington Water Power building, the site’s design includes natural elements intended to evoke contemplation, said Josh Trumm, site supervisor for Quarra. Workers this weekend will install the first 14 pieces of laminated timber shipped from Wisconsin, with completion scheduled for October.
“You’re coming through these coniferous trees, and then you get here, and the first thing is the site. As you get closer, you start to understand the gravity, and the grandeur, of the place,” Trumm said.
Visitors will be able to climb a set of symmetrical stairs and find seating, with views over the falls of the Spokane River. The site will be lit around the clock, and the sculpture will be accessible by an ADA-compliant ramp.
Quarra, known for its stone work on projects at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., John Hancock Plaza in Chicago and others, manufactures the fabricated wood pieces using robots, Trumm said. The pieces are trucked into the site, and the wood will be meticulously sanded to give it a smooth, rather than mechanically cut, feel.
“The sanding is not difficult, but I think it’s important to the piece. It’s important that when people get here they’re not looking at machine lines,” he said.
The installation team also includes Brian Adams, safety coordinator, and Shane Abelman and Dylan Pryce.
Planning documents indicate the design will use more than 46,500 pounds of laminated wood when it’s finished.
The fluctuating price of lumber during the pandemic led to the design team requesting an additional $68,407 for the project in February, to account for the higher price of the laminated timber. Spokane Arts also donated $8,000 to help defray the cost.
The money for the artwork was set aside in the original $64 million in bond money approved for the project.
While work on “Stepwell” is already underway, another piece of public art, “The Seeking Place,” is also set for construction this fall in Riverfront Park. That design, a custom aluminum structure with seating and wheelchair-accessible ramps created by Sarah Thompson Moore, was selected last year as a companion piece and will be built on top of a hill on the east side of the promenade, overlooking the new U.S. Pavilion.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony is in the works for “Stepwell,” Huggins and Dickson said, but no date has yet been selected.