A new 11-foot Corten steel sculpture now stands at the entrance to the newly rebuilt Harriet Tubman Elementary School in Columbia Heights. Enduring Dreams of Home, designed by Washington Glass School artists Michael Janis, Erwin Timmers and Tim Tate, brings together the history of the neighborhood, the legacy of Harriet Tubman and the future of a new generation of Washington students.
The sculpture began with the history provided in the DC Department of General Services’ (DC DGS) call for artists. The site had once been occupied by Washington rowhouses, and the original school was built in the 1960s after the District acquired and demolished homes on the block. That history of architecture, displacement and neighborhood change became an important point of departure for the design.
Responding to the brief, the artists fragmented a three-dimensional composition of rowhouses, windows and structural forms. At the center is a stylized image of Harriet Tubman. The architectural fragments appear to pull apart around her, suggesting both the physical transformation of the neighborhood and the larger ideas of movement, freedom and change associated with Tubman’s life.
The design evolved considerably during the process. Early studies explored different approaches to Tubman’s portrait, architectural forms and the relationship of the sculpture to the school. An early concept also considered pairing Tubman with Washington figure Mary McLeod Bethune before the design was ultimately refined around a single Tubman figure.
The final sculpture is deliberately open. The Corten steel is cut through in places that allow the viewer to see the school and the surrounding architecture beyond the work. As viewers move around the sculpture, the relationship between Tubman’s face, the fragmented houses and the brickwork behind it continually changes. The sculpture can be seen as both an architectural object and a kind of visual lens into the landscape beyond.
That transparency was an unexpected but important part of the final design. Washington Glass School is known for working with glass, but the artists were drawn to the strength and material character of Corten steel for this project. The steel was approached almost like an opaque panel, with the artists cutting, opening and layering the material until the solid surface became visually transparent. The result connects the material thinking of the glass studio with the physical presence of a large-scale steel sculpture.
Fabrication was completed by Tim Scofield, followed by the complicated task of transporting and installing an 11-foot steel structure in the city. The sculpture had to be maneuvered through narrow Washington streets and carefully positioned on the school grounds. Once installed, the Corten surface began its own transformation, with the steel continuing to weather and develop its characteristic patina over time.
Enduring Dreams of Home now stands outside a school filled with images and stories of Harriet Tubman. Here, however, her image takes on a different form. Rather than a conventional heroic portrait, Tubman is integrated into an architectural landscape that connects the memory of what once stood on this site with the school that stands here today.
The sculpture is ultimately about more than a historical figure. It is about home, displacement, transformation and the possibility of a future shaped by the generations who come next.
Enduring Dreams of Home
Michael Janis, Erwin Timmers & Tim Tate
Washington Glass School
Corten steel, 11 feet
Harriet Tubman Elementary School
3101 13th Street NW, Washington, DC 20010