When the city of Spokane unveiled its last marquee art project for Riverfront Park in 2023, after years of delay so a prestigious East Coast artist could acquire specific materials for the roughly $550,000 project, decisionmakers expressed high hopes for the Stepwell.
“I remember making the statement in the final meeting that this could be seen as Spokane’s version of the Bean, in Chicago,” said Garret Daggett, a member of the panel that selected Stepwell from among four designs, in 2023. “This could be our signature piece by a world-renowned artist.”
The roughly rectangular, 9-foot-tall stairstep structure was inspired by the stepwells of western India, though it is elevated rather than sunken into the ground and has no central water feature.
The Stepwell was envisioned not just as something visitors could view, but something they could explore and interact with, said J. Meejin Yoon, co-founder of the firm Höweler+Yoon and the dean of the College of Architecture, Art and Planning at Cornell University, when the piece was opened to the public.
“When you do public art, the moment that is the most exciting is when you see people interact with public art,” Yoon said in 2023.
But the public has done very little interacting with Stepwell. Opened in April 2023, by September the structure was surrounded by a chain -link fence and locked up while the city attempted to address rampant vandalism.
Stepwell, a $500,000 wood sculpture by artist Meejin Yoon, is shown Friday, Sept 4, 2026 fenced off in Riverfront Park, where it was installed in 2022. The scupture , which features a bowl-shaped wooden structure with a seating area inside, was made of laminated timbers. (Jesse Tinsley/THE SPOKESMAN-REVI)
Crudely drawn genitals, acronyms promoting self-harm, initials written in pen all quickly marred the structure’s wooden panels.
Graffiti had been anticipated. The interior of the structure is not visible from most angles outside, and the wooden structure was coated with a stain meant to make the structure easily cleanable. The park’s department added lights and initially had additional patrols in the area to try to encourage “positive uses” of the space, Park Director Garrett Jones said in 2023.
But the design of the Stepwell itself frustrated these efforts.
The structure is made out of Alaskan yellow cedar – a relatively expensive softwood that was difficult to acquire during the pandemic, leading to delays – which artist J. Meejin Yoon argued at the time was integral to the art.
“We just thought it was worth the wait for the original materials specified, because of its tie with the place, with the region and with the history,” said Yoon.
It’s not clear what she meant by this. Alaskan yellow cedar’s natural range does stretch into Washington state, but it is almost entirely isolated to the Cascade Mountain range more than 150 miles away.
The firm did not respond to a request for comment.
Despite the lamination, the softwood absorbed graffiti “in a way the artist didn’t intend it to,” parks officials said in late 2023. Crews were forced to sand down the structure to remove tags.
Not long after, the city installed permanent fencing surrounding the Stepwell – so the structure could be locked up at night and reopened during the day, though it was regularly left locked for weeks at a time. Not only was the interactive installation no longer reachable, but the fencing blocked off a pathway and section of the park the Stepwell was meant to bring greater attention to.
The structure was opened to large crowds for the city’s 50th anniversary celebration of Expo ’74 during the summer of 2024, bringing in visitors to dance to disco tunes. By the following October, the fence was locked again, Parks Department spokesperson Fianna Dickson confirmed Friday.
Beyond the graffiti, the softwood has proven ill-suited to withstand Spokane’s weather. Gaps appeared between the paneling within months after it was built.
A November 2025 investigation by KXLY pointed to the wood’s susceptibility to damage and warping and uncovered an April 2024 email by Parks Operation Foreman Aaron Champagne that called the Stepwell a “wonderful piece of sh-art …”
In another email uncovered by the news station, a facilities manager expressed doubt that Stepwell would survive many more of Spokane’s winter-summer cycles.
In late 2025, Jones told KXLY that there were concerns from the beginning about using the cedar and acknowledged that it was not wise to hire an East Coast firm.
Nearly a year later, the structure remains closed to the public.
Jones declined an interview for this story. The Parks Department instead sent a short written statement.
“After conducting annual maintenance and our own internal evaluation this spring, we sent a list of concerning findings to the artist’s firm, and requested the Engineer of Record visit the site for an evaluation,” the statement said. “The artist’s team and engineer visited the site in July, and we are awaiting their results.
“We are very anxious to get the Stepwell back open for the community to enjoy as intended, we just need to ensure it’s safe to do so.”
Parks Board members could not be reached before deadline. Mayor Lisa Brown declined an interview.