Council set to approve Centennial Viewpoint Park sculpture

Published 1:43 pm Friday, May 1, 2026

On May 4, the Auburn City Council will vote on a resolution approving the final design of the sculpture that will replace the former “The Long Look” bronze deer at Centennial Viewpoint Park opposite Mountain View Cemetery.

Council members got their first look at artists Sharon Agnor and Tim Dye’s design on April 27 at City Hall. Council member Clinton Taylor’s comment was typical: “That looks awesome, can’t wait to see the finished product,” said Taylor.

Agnor and Dye have been part of Auburn’s rotating sculpture exhibit for years. Their intention from the start of this project has been to honor “The Long Look.”

“We want to create art that’s meaningful, and thoughtful, and connects with the people it’s around and the place,” said Agnor.

Also, Dye added, they want to make it as bulletproof as possible — that is, to make it as difficult to vandalize as possible.

“The concept we’ve come up with involves stainless steel — our favorite — and very thick … glass that I cast in a kiln. It’s half an inch thick, so it’s very durable and you just can’t hurt it, really. The design has all the glass up quite high, so I feel very confident this is not going to be bothered,” Agnor said.

Visitors will see two 14-foot high stainless steel trees topped by stainless steel and colored glass leaves, which touch at the center to form an arch that frames Mount Rainier. A long metal bench faces the mountain, one of many nods to “The Long Look,” with green tendrils suggesting new growth.

“When we were asked to present a concept for this, we did our research, and we saw this space and this view,” Dye explained. “And then looking over the piece that (had been) there, we just couldn’t get over how perfect it was. And we were like, ‘oh, this is going to be huge challenge,’ and this piece was so perfect … And we decided that instead of starting over, we would do a continuation of that story.”

How we got here

In 1992 the Auburn Arts Commission commissioned then-Walla Walla artist Brad Rude to cast a bronze sculpture of a deer, gazing out over the valley floor from atop a bronze log.

Over the years, the stalwart and popular “The Long Look” survived several vandalism and theft attempts, among them the incident in 2005 when an unknown person sawed through two of the legs. The city responded that time by welding the legs back on, putting “extra heft” in them. Staff also cut back bushes that had partially blocked the park from the road.

But on a Tuesday morning in August 2012, a vandal or vandals first cut the deer away from its moorings and carted if off, leaving behind only the hoofs and the base to which they had been attached.

The city contacted artist Brad Rude, then affiliated with the Walla Walla Foundry, who still had the bronze cast, so the city was able to replace it.

In 2023, vandals did it again, using the same M.O. with the same result. That year the city received a $55,000 insurance payment to compensate for the loss. At that time, the city intended to work with Rude to replace what was gone.

“Although we got under contract with (Rude), and he started thinking through ideas, it really came to light quickly that he is a bronze artist, and did not feel comfortable creating something that far out of his comfort zone,” Hyde said. “That gave us pause, and we realized that art was still an important piece of this site.”

In 2025, the city took the $55,000 insurance payment and added $30,000 from its Capital Improvement Program funding. The city subsequently formed a committee to help guide and select an artist to create something in the same vein as “The Long Look” at the park, but not in bronze.

In October and November 2025, the city sent a call for artists from Washington state, and 48 applied.