SPOKANE, Wash – Spokane Parks Department employees have known for years about structural and appearance concerns with a public sculpture in Riverfront Park and aren’t sure what do to about its future.
The Stepwell structure was paid for with more than $500,000 in taxpayer funds from the Riverfront Park bond in 2014.
It sits on the south side of the Spokane River, not far from the Post Street boundary of the park.
COVID and other delays led to the sculpture not opening until 2023.
Months after its opening, people started noticing graffiti. The city fenced what was supposed to be an interactive sculpture and in the years since, it’s been inaccessible for weeks and months at a time.
Emails obtained through a 4 News Now public records request reveal parks employees’ concerns that it won’t last in the park much longer.
Stepwell’s History
The City of Spokane had high hopes for the Stepwell when it contracted Howeler and Yoon Architecture, an east coast firm, to turn the vision into reality.
“At the time, the park board really wanted an art piece that the public could interact with,” said Garrett Jones, Director of Spokane Parks and Recreation. “We have visual art, we have other types of arts, but they wanted something just like the Rotary Fountain.”
The city celebrated its opening with a public ceremony in April 2023.
“It looked beautiful,” said Riverfront Park Director Jonathan Moog. “It was great.”
But that enthusiasm didn’t last long.
Emails show just four months after its opening, Moog wrote, “We are astounded by how the Stepwell is being treated.”
The email included pictures of the inside of the structure, covered in graffiti.
Park Board member Gerry Sperling also expressed concerns.
“The misuse and paint, etc. that is being ‘decorated’ in all types of verbiage and markings,” she referenced. “And, of course, homeless who are occupying the space as a ‘campsite.'”
Those weren’t even the biggest problems.
“To be honest, there was concerns during that selection process of the type of material that was going to be used,” Jones said.
The material, chosen by HYA, was Alaskan yellow cedar, described online by one lumber company as “a softer wood, more susceptible to dents, scratches and warping.”
Pictures in city employee emails show issues with the Stepwell structure in Riverfront Park
“Really in the first summer, we started seeing some gaps starting to show between the interconnected pieces of the stepwell,” Moog said. “So we, we started expressing some concern about that to the, to the architect and the artist about.. should we be concerned about this?”
Soon after, the city put a fence around the 583-thousand dollar art piece and locked it up over the structural concerns and to mitigate graffiti.
‘What a wonderful piece of sh-art we were given’
In August, 4 News Now asked the city about the Stepwell and why it was still fenced off. The communications officer with the Parks and Recreation Department told us the gaps were noticed “several months ago.”
But, the city’s own emails show the gaps have been a concern since shortly after Stepwell opened.
Gaps in Stepwell structure in Riverfront Park
In 2024, while trying to find solutions, the city was informed the Stepwell artist had left HYA, adding to the parks employees’ mounting frustrations.
Parks Operation Foreman Aaron Champagne wrote in April of last year, “What a wonderful piece of sh-art we were given.”
A few months later, Parks Safety and Facilities Manager Michael Prince wrote, “At this pace, the Stepwell art piece will not survive a couple more winters and hot summers.”
Parks and Rec Director Garrett Jones admits hiring an east coast firm was not the best idea.
“We’ve kind of changed the way we solicit art to really have that regional, local artist feel,” Jones said. “I think that was just a barrier alone, being across the country and the communication and actually being able to see the site.”
So, what now?
Moog says the city has hired a contractor to tighten up the structure again and paint it because the deficiencies are obvious.
Walking through the structure, he points out gaps and sagging.
He’s not sure how much work it will take before anyone can safely enjoy the Stepwell again.
“When someone mention it’s unsafe, we want to take that seriously,” Moog said. “So they’ve flagged it as a concern and we want to evaluate it to its fullest. We don’t know.”
“We don’t want to give up,” Jones said. “We want to honor the intent of what the artist had. So, it’s just really trying to find that balance.”
Moog remains confident the Stepwell will open again – eventually.
“We are going to do the maintenance,” he said. “It’s going to start in the fall. We’ll complete the painting in the spring. I feel confident that we’ll be able to reopen it, but we don’t have that assessment from the engineer, so that could very well change. And we’re prepared for that, too.”
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