Tiller Terrace
Architectural Bas Relief Sculptures
Tiller Terrace is a new affordable housing complex in the heart of Portland, Oregon, in the historic Goose Hollow neighborhood.
At the turn of the 19th century, the surrounding area was home to thriving vegetable gardens farmed by Chinese immigrants, who terraced their fields to take advantage of flood-prone land in the Tanner Creek gulch.
To memorialize the history of the site, I designed a series of eight sculpted plates for the façade.
Studying historical accounts of the neighborhood and era, I illustrated a timeline of agricultural scenes throughout one harvest cycle. An abstraction of Tanner Creek flows behind each illustration, unifying the series.
The final 5-foot wide relief panels span the East and West faces of the building, just above ground level. On the East, day breaks across scenes of tilling, seeding, and tending. Continuing up the hill to the West side of the building – a steep trek the farmers would have made daily – warm afternoon light shines on the harvest and completion of the season.
TILLING
SOWING
WATERING
TENDING
HARVEST
CARRYING THE HARVEST TO MARKET
RESTING
REFLECT & RESET
I worked with the building developer and the architects to refine the concept, placement, material palette, and scale.
To fabricate the plates, I partnered with sculptor Patrick Gracewood and the team at Architectural Castings, a custom masonry studio.
Patrick brought my sketches to life in clay medallions, and Architectural Castings created a template to frame them. Each piece was molded and cast in a cement composite, and then finished with weatherproof paint to match the masonry of the building.
Prep
The sculpted clay plates are varnished with shellac to reinforce the surface before a rubber mold is poured.
Mold
A concrete composite is poured into the mold (yellow) to make a final cast (pink).
Frame
Each circular plate is set into a patterned frame cast from the same material. The final piece is approximately 5 feet wide.
The building is situated on an active block near Providence Park stadium and a MAX transit line.
The farmers who contributed to the bustling beginnings of Portland are a little-known part of the city’s origins as the farms were lost to rapid development at the turn of the century.
Through this series, their place in Portland’s history is revived and elevated.
