Client: City of Milwaukie

Overview

This artwork serves as a dividing wall between the adult and children sides of the Ledding Library. Fourteen angled rectangular boxes pass-through the beech cladded wall and stand 2” proud of the wall surface on each side. The pass-throughs contain commissioned artworks from local artists and historical objects that are related to the community, and the history of the library and its founder Florence Ledding. A child-sized door was designed into the wall to allow children to have their own entrance and engage their curiosity of the space.

Goals

The goal for this artwork was to represent a variety of subjects that spoke to the surrounding contemporary environment, the history of the library building, its founding community, and the Clackamas People that lived in the area long before Europeans first visited. We intentionally commissioned many local artists for the objects to genuinely represent a broader sense of the community and a variety of aesthetics.

Process

We worked very closely with the architects and engineers to design this wall as an integral part of the architecture. We had multiple research sessions with the Milwaukie historical society and the Ledding librarians to deeply learn about the area and accurately represent its history.