Someone’s Moving My Rocks
All week long workers have been jack-hammering the bases of the sculpture “Soaring Stones” on 5th Avenue. The sculpture is being moved to make way for the new North-South light-rail line, and associated improvements being made to the bus mall.
Created in 1990 by Seattle artist John T. Young, “Soaring Stones” is located in front of Pioneer Place Mall, on 5th avenue between Yamhill and Taylor. The sculpture is a series of large boulders, the first one barely protruding from the bricks of the sidewalk at one end of the block, and each subsequent one rising a little higher on a series of increasingly taller mirror-finished pedestals. They give the impression of a boulder taking flight. Or that the stones are crashing toward the sidewalk. It’s one of my very favorite pieces of public art in downtown, and I walk past it almost every day.
Tri-Met has acknowledged that “Soaring Stones” will be relocated, as if the bustling activity to package it up, not to mention the deafening hammer of the jack-hammers, hasn’t made that clear. But I haven’t seen any indication of where it is likely to end up. I hope it’s somewhere nearby, because this is one of my favorite pieces of downtown, and I will really feel its absence.
Related posts:
I wonder how much the city paid for that piece of “art” (aka a bunch of rocks)?
I got a bunch of boulders outside my apartment building if you want to come admire them. I can even pile them on pedestals for a few thousand bucks.
i like this piece a lot as well. one of very few pieces in town that are designed to be experienced best by walking by it, instead of looking at it.
oswego, did you know that the mona lisa is a bunch of paint?
Soaring Stones has been permanently removed and taken out of town forever. The city did nothing to try and keep it and so the owner was all too happy to give it back to the artist. This is unfortunate since it appeared to be much loved by Portlanders, appears in hundreds of international guide books in the Portland entries, and was specifically designed for that exact location.