The mural was designed by commercial artist Eric Larsen, who created the piece after winning a competition. It was painted on the north wall of the
Skidmore Fountain Building (also known as the Reed Building and Packer-Scott Building) in 1990 by North Pacific Sign and Design. The artwork depicted
Packy (born at the
Oregon Zoo on April 14, 1962), an
Asian elephant who was the first elephant born in the
Western Hemisphere in 44 years. In 1997, Mike Hashem, who served as president of Skidmore Management Corporation—the owner of the Skidmore Fountain Building—expressed his desire to replace the mural. He said the artwork served as a free advertisement for the Oregon Zoo, and should be replaced with something that promoted the Old Town Chinatown neighborhood. In addition, the mural has been used as an example of a decorative outdoor wall painting in articles about the city's sign regulations.
Destruction in 2011 In 2008, the mural was destroyed during the building's renovation to become the new headquarters for
Mercy Corps. The top part of the artwork was painted on the building's uppermost floor, which had a stucco exterior and was removed to restore the building to its historic state. Windows were also installed along the wall on which the mural was painted. Mercy Corps planned to "pay tribute to the mural" in the updated building's ground floor. A spokesperson for the organization confirmed that they consulted with the mural's artist and the Oregon Zoo, the neighborhood association, and the
Regional Arts & Culture Council. She said: We understand that it is an important part of the neighborhood's history. ... We're renovating the Skidmore Fountain Building to its historic condition. That means that the mural begins to come down. And then additionally, we have to restore the condition of the brick, which is crumbling and disintegrating and eventually would become unstable. ... Historically, a lot of it had been warehouse space and didn't need windows, but we're going to utilize all the square footage for our offices. ... We have documents of the mural in its condition since we've taken ownership of the building and we've talked to the zoo, which has some of the original photographs. ==Reception==