A collaboration between Jones & Jones Architects and Landscape Architects and Maya Lin, the nearly complete design at Sacajawea recently finished moving through rounds of public comment reviews. The project evolved to embody two major conceptual components: the installation of seven basalt Story Circles and a restoration of the landscape to its more original riparian habitat. In segments raised above ground or sunken into the landscape, the seven basalt Story Circles will express a narrative history and mythology of the site through inscriptions sandblasted into the surface of the stone. The inscriptions will include text referencing Lewis and Clark’s journals and the mythology and languages of the Native peoples. Stone craftsman John Mendoza will carefully etch into the face of the basalt 30 beautiful illustrations of the site’s native plants and animals. The shape of the circle, with its strong cultural connotation of gathering, and the sensitive text and imagery express Maya Lin’s intent to create a space more about contemplation than instruction, giving room for the observer to interpret their place amid the landscape. Photos by Maegan Moore, 2009