Old mixed in with the new: Steel sculptures added to downtown Tigard streetscape

Published 4:35 pm Friday, August 1, 2025

To borrow from the old wedding rhyme, downtown Tigard received “something old, something new” on Thursday, July 31, as a local metal sculptor helped install (and reinstall) two of her pieces.

Returning to Burnham Street after a two-year hiatus was Susan Schimelfining’s “One: Nothing,” a sculpture whose foundation has remained empty since the artwork left after sitting on the southeast corner of Southwest Burnham and Ash Street for almost three years.

Schimelfining, a former 26-year Beaverton resident who now lives in Lebanon, specializes in pieces made from old farm implements and salvaged steel. She was on hand during the reinstallation of the piece made of salvaged steel I-beams.

The artwork, which looks like a person down on their knees, was created by Schimelfining eight years ago. The title of the piece can either connote the score of a sporting event or refer to someone experiencing an existential crisis, she explained.

Schimelfining said it was an act of demolition that helped form what would turn out to be the legs of the sculpture.

“That was bent by the excavator that was pulling down the building,” she said, adding that it’s not humanly possible to create a bend like that in a 40-foot long steel I-beam, which came from a Portland demolition site when a building was being torn down a decade ago.

The sculpture most recently was on loan to Lake Oswego, where it sat in Millennium Plaza Park.

“We’re happy to have it back,” said Steve DeAngelo, Tigard Downtown Alliance founding member and president of Catering by DeAngelo’s, a longtime local business located across the street from the artwork.

Schimelfining estimated that “One: Nothing,” which took about a year to make, weighs about 400 pounds.

Kyle Knepper, executive director of Tigard Downtown Alliance, said while the sculpture was being reinstalled, someone walked by and immediately recognized the returned piece.

“This is where it belongs,” Knepper said. “We’re incredibly happy to have it back. I mean, it’s a beautiful piece.”

Tigard Downtown Alliance is a nonprofit focused on revitalizing downtown Tigard and is responsible for placing and maintaining the hanging flower baskets on Main Street.

After Schimelfining was satisfied with her reinstallation, she and her husband, Rocky, made their way up to 12200 S.W. Main St. for the installation of her brand new “Flock” sculpture, a piece made from salvaged farm implements.

“I am very excited with the way this turned out. It was very different from how I planned it, which was quite a nice surprise,” she said.

While she didn’t initially see the steel pieces that were once attached to the axle of farming equipment as resembling birds, it became clear what they looked like as she welded together the pieces of metal weighing 20 pounds each.

“Flock” is part of the downtown permanent art collection after having been purchased by what was formally known as the Tigard Breakfast Rotary Club.