Lovejoy Fountain Park

Lovejoy Fountain Park
The fountain and park in 2015
Map
TypeUrban park
LocationSW 3rd Avenue and Harrison Street
Portland, Oregon
Coordinates45°30′34″N 122°40′47″W / 45.509318°N 122.67974°W / 45.509318; -122.67974[1]
Area1.11 acres (0.45 ha)
Created1966
Operated byPortland Parks & Recreation
StatusOpen 5 a.m. to midnight daily

Lovejoy Fountain Park (or Lovejoy Plaza) is a city park in downtown Portland, Oregon, U.S.[2]

Description and history

Completed in 1966, the park was designed by American landscape architect Lawrence Halprin. The park was the first in a series of fountains and open space designed by Halprin in the South Auditorium District urban renewal area.[3] The stark concrete contours of the park are bounded by tree-lined pedestrian malls that connect to other parks, including Keller Fountain Park.[4] The park is named in honor of Asa Lovejoy, one of the first landowners of the Portland town site. The Portland Penny, which was used by Lovejoy and Pettygrove to detemrine the name of the city, was used to determine the name of Lovejoy and Pettygrove Parks.[2]

In addition to the fountain, the park also features a large copper-clad pavilion designed by Halprin's collaborator, American architect Charles Willard Moore.[3]

Shortly after opening, Life Magazine published a three-page pictorial Mid-City Mountain Stream which described the park as a "piece of wilderness transplanted—wet and dry, glittering and static—which effectively invites wading and clambering and contemplation."[5]

The Halprin Landscape Conservancy was formed in 2001 to "spruce up and protect Lovejoy Plaza, Ira Keller Fountain, and Pettygrove Park, an ensemble considered to be one of Mr. Halprin's masterpieces."[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Lovejoy Fountain". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. Retrieved September 10, 2010.
  2. ^ a b "Lovejoy Fountain Park". Portland Parks & Recreation. Retrieved September 10, 2010.
  3. ^ a b Halprin, Lawrence (2009). Randy Gragg (ed.). Where the revolution began. Washington, D.C.: Spacemaker Press. ISBN 978-0-9824392-1-0. OCLC 449857189.
  4. ^ Carr, Stephen (1993). Public Space. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-35960-3.
  5. ^ "Mid-City Mountain Stream". Life Magazine. 65 (3). Time, Inc: 72–74. 1968.
  6. ^ Patricia Leigh Brown (July 10, 2003). "For a Shaper Of Landscapes, A Cliffhanger". The New York Times. Retrieved September 10, 2010.
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