Client: City of Hillsboro | Parks & Recreation Department: Cultural Arts Division and Planning Department with the Oregon Department of Transportation, in memory of Valerie Otani
Location: Hillsboro, OR, United States
Completion date: 2023
Artwork budget: $1,200,000
Project Team
Artist
Cliff Garten
Cliff Garten Studio
Project Management/Design
Sixto Cordero
Cliff Garten Studio
Fabrication
Metal Arts Foundry
Public Art Supervisor
Karl LeClair
City of Hillsboro: Cultural Arts Division
Transportation Planning Supervisor
Gregg Snyder
City of Hillsboro: Planning Department
Former Public Art Supervisor
Valerie Otani
City of Hillsboro: Cultural Arts Division
Overview
The integration of art and infrastructure transformed this bridge over Highway 26 into a gateway for the Hillsboro community. Highway 26 is a major East-West artery between Portland and the Oregon coast. Low rolling hills and dramatic skies of Hillsboro inspired the Bridge of Land and Sky which is specific to its place in the landscape. The panels are laser-cut with topographic lines taken from maps of the surrounding landscape, creating a 200’ long ribbon of lines which provide a mediating layer between the roadway, the surrounding landscape and the sky. The long ribbon-like panels become a mirror for environmental phenomena of changing clouds and light in the surrounding landscape. CGS’ longstanding expertise in art and infrastructure guided the partnership between the Oregon Department of Transportation and the City of Hillsboro, Oregon. CGS facilitated an 8-year process of negotiating, installing, and illuminating this unique and large-scale infrastructure project. LED lights spanning the length of the deck provide a changing light show curated by CGS. The Bridge of Land and Sky is a singular event on Highway 26 that ties its bridge infrastructure into Western Oregon’s rolling hills and dramatic skies.
Goals
The Bridge of Land and Sky proposes that all infrastructures are valuable to the expression of the landscapes, places, and activities that they are a part of. The bridge exists as another layer of the surrounding landscape heightening our experience in our vehicle. What would have been an uninteresting code driven security fence becomes a dramatic register of changing environmental conditions that are seen on and through the ribbon outlining the deck of the bridge. This small, but dramatic change to the form of the bridge defines a landscape and a place that is to be enjoyed and celebrated, rather than just driven under and over. Here infrastructure is a reflection of its environment, functioning to fulfill our needs as well as our desires for beauty in our everyday activity.
Process
The project is a collaboration between CGS, the Oregon Department of Transportation, and the City of Hillsboro Cultural Arts Division and the Planning Department. The retrofit of the panels that form the deck of the bridge was accomplished through a collaboration with the Oregon Department of Transportation and CGS, and fabricated by Metal Arts Foundry. CGS produced all the technical drawings and specifications in collaboration with ODOT, and developed a modular system of bridge panels containerized and delivered to the site for installation by a load bid contractor. Complete illumination of the elevations of the bridge is marked by an artist-curated color changing LED light show at night. CGS' longtime collaborator, Metal Arts Foundry, fabricated and delivered these laser cut panels that were installed by ODOT's contractor.