Fountains & Public Art

Start: Pioneer Courthouse Square.

Finish: Pioneer Courthouse Square.

Time: Allow approximately 2 hours, not including museum visits, breaks, and shopping stops.

Best Times: Saturday and Sunday between March and December, when the Portland Saturday Market is open. The best starting time is noon, when you can see the Weather Machine in action.

Worst Times: After dark, when the Skidmore neighborhood is not as safe as in daylight and the artworks aren't as easy to see.

Portland is proud of its public art, and the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC), 620 SW Main St., Suite 420 (tel. 503/823-5111), has put together a booklet outlining several walking tours in the Portland downtown area. These walking tours will help you find many of the city's most interesting pieces of art and architecture. You can get a free copy by stopping by the Portland Oregon Visitors Association information center, which is located right on Pioneer Courthouse Square.; the RACC office; or the Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park Ave.

Start your art and fountain tour at the stroke of noon, if at all possible, by grabbing a latte and parking yourself on a terrace at:

1. Pioneer Courthouse Square--The square is bordered by Yamhill and Morrison streets, Sixth Avenue, and Broadway. Known as Portland's living room, this brick plaza has several sculptures, a waterfall fountain, a Starbucks, Powell's Travel Store, and the Portland Oregon Visitors Association information center.

The reason to get here at noon is to witness the day's weather forecast by the fascinating Weather Machine, a sculpture that displays creatures to represent the current weather--a sun (sunny), a dragon (stormy), or a blue heron (drizzle). A weathervane, thermometer, and puffs of smoke are all part of this unusual weather-oriented sculpture. Other works of art on the square include Allow Me (a bronze sculpture of a man carrying an umbrella), and Running Horses.

From the square, walk east on SW Yamhill Street, past Pioneer Courthouse. Along the sidewalk here, you'll see:

2. Animals in Pools--These are among the best-loved statues in the city. Included among these bronze statues are a mother bear with two cubs, a doe and fawn, and two curious river otters.

Turn right on SW Fifth Avenue, and you'll see:

3. Soaring Stones--This unusual sculpture consists of granite boulders on steel columns. Because the five boulders are staggered above the sidewalk, they appear to be flying.

Continue up SW Fifth Avenue to the intersection with SW Salmon Street. Here you'll find one of the:

4. Simon Benson Fountains--These drinking fountains and many just like them were donated to the city in 1917 by local timber magnate Simon Benson after he tried to get a glass of water in a saloon and was told he had to first buy a glass of beer or whiskey.

Continue another block south, and you'll come to:

5. Portlandia and the Portland Building--These landmarks are located between SW Main and SW Madison streets. The building, designed by Michael Graves, is considered the first postmodern building in the world. Out front is Raymond Kaskey's hammered-copper statue Portlandia, the second-tallest beaten-copper statue in the world (second only to the Statue of Liberty).

From here, walk east on SW Main Street 1 1/2 blocks to the:

6. Elk Fountain--This life-size bronze elk and water fountain were installed here in this park in 1900 and once served as a watering stop for horses.

Continue south on SW Fourth Avenue for 4 blocks to the:

7. Ira Keller Memorial Fountain--Consisting of a complex waterfall, this fountain, surrounded by a tree-filled park, is meant to conjure up images of waterfalls in the nearby Cascade Range.

After lounging around the falls, head back 7 blocks on SW Fourth Avenue to SW Yamhill Street, and turn left to find:

8. Street Wise--This is an installation of granite paving blocks that are engraved with sayings and quotations. "You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things" (William Shakespeare) and "I've been on a calendar but never on time" (Marilyn Monroe) are just two of our favorites.

From here, head back east to SW Naito Parkway, turn right, and go 1 block to the corner of SW Taylor Street. Cross Naito Parkway, stopping in the middle of the street to visit:

9. Mill Ends Park--This is the smallest public park in the world. Once merely a hole left over when a telephone pole was removed, this little circle of flowers became a park after a popular local newspaper columnist began writing of the exploits of the park's leprechauns.

Continuing across the street, you come to the much larger:

10. Tom McCall Waterfront Park--The park is the site of many of Portland's outdoor festivals. Here you'll find Portlanders biking, skating, or simply enjoying the outdoors.

One block south is the:

11. Salmon Street Springs fountain--This amounts to a public sprinkler system for kids (and the occasional adult) to play in on hot summer days. It's also fun to just sit and watch these ever-changing fountains.

From here walk north through the park on the paved riverside path and in 10 blocks you'll come to the:

12. Waterfront Park Story Garden--This fascinating installation is a cross between a maze and a board game, made up of carved granite paving stones scattered along a cobblestone pathway maze. Carved on the paving stones are images of everything from 1950s board game characters to Northwest Coast Indian images. Other stones ask questions (What is your joy? What is your failure? What is your secret?). You could easily spend half an hour or more just wandering through this mazelike installation.

A few steps away is the:

13. Japanese American Historical Plaza/Bill of Rights Memorial--Standing boulders inscribed with poetry are scattered throughout the plaza. In spring, the cherry trees are covered with blossoms.

From here, cross NW Naito Parkway, turn left on NW First Avenue, and under the Burnside Bridge you'll find the:

14. Portland Saturday Market--The market, held on Saturdays and Sundays, is filled with artists from all over the region and has a fascinating assortment of one-of-a-kind art and interesting crafts. This is perhaps Portland's greatest public art treasure.

Take A Break--If it is Saturday or Sunday and the market is set up, this is a great place to grab some good, cheap eats. There are all kinds of inexpensive meals available at market stalls. Other days of the week, you'll find budget eateries in the New Market Block building across SW First Avenue from the market.

Across the market is the:

15. Skidmore Fountain--Erected in 1888 and intended to provide refreshment for "horses, men, and dogs," it did just that for many years. Today, however, the bronze and granite fountain is primarily decorative.

From here, walk up SW Ash Street 4 blocks to:

16. Untitled--This is a large sculpture fountain vaguely reminiscent of a giant brass musical instrument.

From here, turn left and head south 4 blocks on SW Fifth Avenue to the corner of SW Washington Street. Here you'll find:

17. Kvinneakt--You're looking at the most notorious piece of public art in Portland. This bronze sculpture of a nude woman was made famous in a poster titled "Expose Yourself to Art," which featured a man in a trench coat flashing the statue. The man in the photo was Bud Clark, local tavern owner and Portland's most colorful former mayor.

Continue another 2 blocks on Fifth Avenue, turn right on SW Morrison Street, and you will see more of the bronze:

18. Animals in Pools sculptures--On this side of the Pioneer Courthouse you'll see a pair of beavers and a family of seals. Pioneer Courthouse Square, the end point of this stroll, is just across SW Sixth Avenue.