I think in everything I've done, I'm leaving you at a threshold point, looking out at the environment.   –Maya Lin

Two hundred years ago, William Clark reported that he couldn't sleep because of the "horrid" racket made by so many birds in the delta area. Lin’s design for the site recalls that experience with a bird blind cantilevered above an old Sandy River channel. As the restored landscape matures, a new forest will surround Lin’s work–and perhaps attract more birds back to the site.

Access to the site was difficult before Maya Lin’s installation went in, with a dangerous highway exit and no parking. The Confluence Project worked with the Oregon Dept of Transportation to get a new exit, and then with the National Guard to build a parking lot. About forty soldiers slept on site during construction, and a few even camped there over the weekend to guard the equipment..