Confluence Project Will Move Art Installation Site to Ridgefield
By Dean Baker, The Columbian, Vancouver, Wash.
Sep. 6–The Confluence Project on Wednesday moved one of its seven art installation sites from Frenchman’s Bar Park to the Ridgefield waterfront and cleared the way for an environmental coup.
The move lays on formerly polluted land the foundation for a new environmental research center designed by the noted artist Maya Lin. The proposed project also involves both Washington State University and the Port of Ridgefield
The center would be built on the 40-acre Superfund site where Pacific Wood Treating, from 1963 to 1993, shaped and baked oily, toxic creosote and arsenic into wood to preserve it, at the same time inadvertently contaminating the earth.
In effect, construction of the new center would mark a complete turnaround for a site once unfit for human use.
The center is still a dream. The financing, exact siting and planning all are at an early stage, said Jane Jacobsen, executive director of the Vancouver-based Confluence Project. “But the stars have aligned,” she said.
“Since the beginning, we hoped to create a place where people could explore and appreciate our unique environment,” Jacobsen said. “We want our work to have a positive impact on our environment for the next 200 years.”
The research center would give Ridgefield a new economic engine, said Brent Grening, executive director of the port, which owns the land. “Wouldn’t it be nice if we were taking our knowledge of the environmental industry and leverage it into jobs on the waterfront?”
Jacobsen, Grening and WSU Vancouver Chancellor Hal Dengerink have discussed the idea for months. Dengerink said he supports the vision.
“Let me be a little clear,” he said in an interview. “We do not have a totally clear plan for what this is going to be. We don’t know how large it’s going to be. We have a rather sizeable commitment to research in environmental science, especially at Vancouver Lake and the river and Willapa Bay. The Port of Ridgefield looks like a place to do it. It looks like perfect partnership. It gives us an opportunity to do all this work in a more public kind of a way.”
Jacobsen said Lin has agreed to design the building, using sustainable building materials and practices.
“This has been a dream of Maya’s that Confluence would reflect on Lewis and Clark (who camped near Ridgefield) and extend beyond to the next 200 years,” Jacobsen said.
The project could be phased over a 15- or 20-year period, she said. “We are exploring all kinds of wonderful possibilities.”
Other projects
Among other Confluence Project designs, Jacobsen said work at Celilo Park, near The Dalles, Ore., is under way with the clearing of blackberry bushes. Completion is expected in 2009.
Celilo Falls was an important gathering place for Northwest Indians for 10,000 years before its inundation in 1957 by The Dalles dam.
The Celilo artwork will take the shape of a simple wooden structure inspired by the iconic fishing platforms. Standing on them, Indians, using lines, spears and long-poled dip nets, risked their lives to catch salmon in the turbulent water of the falls.
A gentle ramp will span 300 feet and take the viewer from land to the water at Celilo. Along the way, visitors will read about the history of the falls. They’ll learn of the geology, the mythic and oral histories, Lewis and Clark’s accounts and testimony from the tribes who protested the dam. The final text, at the river’s edge, will describe the lost sound of the falls.
In Vancouver, dedication of the Fort Vancouver Land Bridge will be at 3 p.m. Nov. 16, at Old Apple Tree Park, 112 Columbia Way. The event is free and open to the public.
Update
Previously:
The Vancouver-based Confluence Project had planned to build one of its seven art projects on the Columbia River at Frenchman’s Bar Park.
What’s new:
Project leaders said Wednesday they plan to move the Frenchman’s Bar installation to Ridgefield and help build an environmental research facility there. Another Vancouver-area Confluence Project installation, the Fort Vancouver Land Bridge, will be dedicated in a free, public ceremony at 3 p.m. Nov. 16 at Old Apple Tree Park, 112 Columbia Way, near the Interstate 5 Bridge and Fort Vancouver.
What’s next:
The seven Confluence Project sites are at Ridgefield; Cape Disappointment State Park, Ilwaco; Fort Vancouver National Historic Site; Sandy River Delta, Troutdale, Ore.; Celilo Falls Park near The Dalles, Ore.; Sacajawea State Park, Pasco; and Chief Timothy Park at Clarkston.
Dean Baker writes about history. Reach him at 360-759-8009 or e-mail dean.baker@columbian.com
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Columbian, Vancouver, Wash.
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