Fairview takes a stab at claiming world’s tallest fork
Photo by Samantha Swindler, The Oregonian/OregonLive
Author
Samantha Swindler
Date published
February 15, 2022
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Sorry, Springfield, Missouri. Fairview, Oregon is taking a stab at being home to the world’s tallest fork.
On Tuesday, a new 37-foot, 2.5-ton fork sculpture was delivered to the future home of the Fairview Food Plaza. The massive fork will be the centerpiece of the new city-backed food cart pod at the corner of Northeast Halsey Street and Northeast 223rd Avenue.
The city of Fairview eventually hopes to have its giant fork certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s tallest, edging out a 35-foot fork sculpture in Missouri outside a building that houses offices for The Food Channel.
Fairview’s fork arrived by truck from McMinnville, where it was designed and created by custom fabrication shop Solid Form.
The stainless steel fork is actually 40 feet tall, said Ken Fehringer, project manager with P&C Construction, but its four tines will pierce the ground by about three feet.
The fork started, as many of the best ideas do, as a joke. The city had requested some sort of large art piece, like a clock tower or sculpture, be placed on the corner of the lot.
“Someone on the design team said ‘Let me put a fork in it and we’ll get back to it later,’ ” said Mayor Brian Cooper, and Scott Edwards Architecture added a literal fork to one of its concept drawings.
“Over the coming months, it just rattled around in the head for awhile – the Fork in Fairview,” Cooper said. ”We came up with a whole marketing scheme, and it just made sense.”
The fork has a large F stamped into its handle. Whether that stands for food, fork, or Fairview is up to the beholder.
The Fairview Food Plaza is a public-private partnership designed as part of the “Main Street Halsey” effort to reduce speeds and bring more public gathering spaces and retail to one of East County’s busiest roadways. Construction is being funded with about $3 million in urban renewal funds from the city of Fairview. The fork itself cost about $220,000 for design and fabrication.
The site will include a 4,000-square-foot indoor food pavilion and beer garden and a 9,600-square-foot outdoor plaza with 16 food carts and seating. It’s expected to open in April.
The city has a 10-year lease with the property owner for the food plaza, and has hired a third-party to manage its operation.
“We’re planning movie nights, community nights, there will be a farmers market on Sundays probably starting in June,” Cooper said. “I think this is the opening salvo of what we envision Halsey will eventually become, which will be a walkable place where people can come and have food and entertainment and spend some time on the Halsey corridor.”
