GreenWorks Remembers Jane Jacobsen of Confluence
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The fish cutting station at cape disappointment, Washington
The sad news of Confluence founder Jane Jacobsen’s passing this spring caused us to reflect on our time working with her and the project as a whole. In the three-decade history of GreenWorks, Confluence has been one of our favorite clients. It’s an expansive and ambitious set of “art landscapes” designed by Maya Lin and implemented by artists and professional service firms from around the region. GreenWorks is proud to have played a part in creating many of those landscapes.
In addition to founding and leading Confluence, Jacobsen led many important civic engagements along the Columbia River. These included Vancouver’s recent waterfront redevelopment, the Grant House Folk Art Center at the Fort Vancouver Historic Site, being a founding member of the Columbia Land Trust and the Friends of Fort Vancouver; being a trustee at Clark College; and serving two terms on the Columbia Gorge Commission; according to a heartfelt tribute current Confluence Executive Director Colin Fogarty wrote in the Oregonian last month.
“Jane was the keystone holding the diverse project teams together, making the whole process an incredibly enjoyable and educational experience,” GreenWorks former Principal and Technical Director Jim Figurski remembers. Jim worked with Jacobsen, Maya Lin, and the Confluence team for more than five years on projects at Cape Disappointment, Chief Timothy State Park, the Sandy River Bird Blind, and Celilo Falls. “Jane’s positivity and enthusiasm infected everyone involved. She was a master at gaining funding from public and private sources and recruiting support for the incredible projects.”
Our association with Jane began at Waikiki Beach at Cape Disappointment, the endpoint of Lewis and Clark’s journey, where the Confluence Project's work began in 2000. The project site includes an installation that draws together the peninsula’s bay and ocean sides, interweaving the stories of the Corps of Discovery expedition and the stories of the Chinook people in a single, steadily unfolding experience.
Jacobsen (second from left) at the Chief Timothy blessing ceremony in 2005
This first project encapsulates the tension within the project from the beginning. In his tribute to Jacobsen in the Oregonian, Fogarty distilled it with a relevant and difficult question: “How do we practice our shared history in public?”
A project that celebrates observations made by colonizers of native lands along the Columbia River while seeking to, “elevate the voices of those who have been marginalized or erased and improve our collective understanding of our shared landscape,” as Confluence describes its work, is fraught with the weight of the injustice that happened and continues to happen. This is a tension Jane encountered consistently in her work on Confluence.
“Jane founded Confluence as a way to connect people with the Indigenous side of the story. Working with tribal leaders, Jacobsen saw the bicentennial as an opportunity to expand the expedition narrative to include the decedents of the people the explorers met and the changes we all have witnessed to our ecology over the last two centuries.” – Colin Fogarty in The Oregonian
Fogarty told the New York Times the explorers “didn’t discover this place, but they took really great notes.”
GreenWorks went on to work with Jacobsen, Maya Lin, and the rest of Confluence on three more sites. The work of Confluence today has evolved from “art landscapes” into “a community-supported nonprofit with the mission to connect people to the history, living cultures and ecology of the Columbia River system through Indigenous voices.”
The organization provides regional programming in schools and communities that is conducted by artists and culture bearers from the Chinook Nation, Nez Perce Tribe, Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Yakama Nation, Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
The sandy River Bird Blind at Sandy River Delta
Throughout our work, the GreenWorks team remembers Jacobsen’s tenacity and spirited diplomacy.
“Jane was an exceptional human being and a great leader who could adeptly navigate intense personalities, multiple considerations, and confounding challenges; all while keeping the ship on course,” remembers Mike Abbaté, Principal at Abbaté Designs and former GreenWorks principal. “After spending time with Jane, you always went away feeling better about yourself and about her. She truly valued people; not for just what they could do or contribute to her goals, but for who they were. She was an inspiring leader, client, and friend. I miss her dearly.”
“Jane has been one our favorite clients over the years. She was always someone you anticipated seeing,” GreenWorks’ Founding Principal Mike Faha said. “Her great sense of humor and laugh, her encouragement, and her desire to make the word a better place are all reasons she will be missed.”
“There are so many fond memories I have of being drawn into the confederation of talent and resources [Jacobsen] seemed so adept at assembling to a greater purpose; that and her ability to share a vision and create enthusiasm for it,” artisan Peter Andrusko remembers.
Peter did the stone feature elements and engravings at various sites, including: The Fish Cleaning Station, the pavement and landscape stones at the Cape D boat launch, the Cedar Circle engraved stones at the Cape D Waikiki Beach Access area; the mother stone at the SR14 land bridge, and maintenance for Chief Timothy and Cape Disappointment Waikiki Beach Access area.
“Hers was a driving, full-throated commitment to making things happen in a way that was fun, substantial, and made us all proud to have been selected for our role in something so special and real,” Peter said. “I really admired her perseverance and focus on completing and fulfilling the plan and vision for the Confluence Project and those projects I know of that came after... and I loved her eagerness to find a new mountain to climb—a new challenge to overcome—once those lofty goals had been met and conquered with such grace.”
We know Jacobsen’s legacy will continue in the many groups she founded or contributed time to. We’re glad we were able to know her and participate in the shared vision of making monuments to the land.
Learn more about Confluence on their website. Read more about Jacobsen’s legacy here and here.
The Confluence Group (Clients):
Jane Jacobsen
Maya Lin
Bob Balaski
Bob Friedenwald
Colin Fogharty
Contributing Artisans:
Pete Andrusko
Bob Michaud Traad
Jim Steele
Krekow Jennings
Contributing Consultants & Contractors:
Jim Owens – environmental permitting
James E John – general contractor
Swenson Fay Saget – structural engineers – Bird Blind
Kpff – structural engineers – Fish Cutting Platform
Ron Bush – surveyor – Chief Timothy, Celilo
Selin Maner – Maya Lin Studio
RMB Vivid – graphic designers
AHA – interpretive designers