Northwest Passage
The Lewis and Clark memorial obelisk and grand staircase mark the ceremonial entrance to Washington Park at its easternmost edge.
Image: Jeff Schnabel
A View Worth the Climb
From the top of the park, visitors can see breathtaking views of the city and Mount Hood.
Image: Jeff Schnabel
A Rose Is a Rose Is a Rose
Washington Park hosts the International Rose Test Garden. It's the oldest continually-operating public rose testing garden in the U.S. and boasts 7,000 rose plants representing 550 distinct varieties.
Image: Jeff Schnabel
Portland Is the City of Roses
The Rose Garden includes this stainless steel sculpture by modernist Portland artist Lee Kelly. Called Frank E. Beach Memorial Fountain, it is named in honor of the man who nicknamed Portland "City of Roses."
Image: Jeff Schnabel
Back to Nature
The cottage-style restroom is almost engulfed by the park’s natural landscape.
Image: Jeff Schnabel
Climbing up
Throughout the park, climbing roses are trained up the light standards.
Image: Jeff Schnabel
Performances on Site
The amphitheater hosts music, dance, and theater performances throughout the summer. When not in use for events, the space is popular for picnics and play.
Image: Jeff Schnabel
A Sense of Arrival
A basalt and brick plaza marks the arrival point into the park from the light rail station hundreds of feet below the ground. In addition to offering a sense of arrival into the park and zoo, the landscape conceals much of the elevator equipment that brings visitors to the surface.
Image: Jeff Schnabel
Fountain and Bridge
A simple bubbling fountain and bridge form the gateway to the Veteran’s Memorial.
Image: Jeff Schnabel
Spiral Climb
Within the Veteran's Memorial, the land has been manipulated into a giant spiral that requires the visitor to steadily climb while passing the names of those who gave their lives in military service.
Image: Jeff Schnabel
Memorial Objects
The Holocaust Memorial, which was designed by Marlene Salon, John Warner, and Marianne Zarkin, forms another contemplative space within Washington Park. Approaching the memorial, visitors will begin to see familiar objects, cast in bronze, laying in unlikely locations.
Image: Jeff Schnabel
Left in Haste
The art pieces are meant to represent very personal items left behind in haste during either flight or incarceration.
Image: Jeff Schnabel
Life after Death
The memorial wall has two distinct sides. The inner face includes quotes from Jews who experienced the atrocities of relocation, captivity, and loss. The outer face of the wall names victims of the Holocaust, followed by surviving relatives who live in Oregon and Southwest Washington.
Image: Jeff Schnabel
Laying History to Rest
At the end of the wall, a boulder is just visible above the surface of the ground. Below the large stone is ash and soil from six of the notorious death camps: Chelmno, Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzec, Majdanek, and Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Image: Jeff Schnabel