[3] Kaskey and his assistant Michael Lasell built sections of the statue in a Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C., and sent the parts to Portland by ship.

It was assembled at a barge-building facility owned by Gunderson, Inc, and was installed on the Portland Building on October 6, 1985,[4] after being floated up the Willamette River on a barge.

The statue depicts a female figure, Lady Commerce, dressed in classical clothes, holding a trident in her left hand and reaching down with her right.

[3] An accompanying plaque includes the official dedication poem, also titled "Portlandia", written by Portland lawyer and poet Ronald Talney: "She kneels down, and from the quietness of copper reaches out.

"[7]Despite being funded largely by the City’s Public Art Program, Kaskey retained the copyright to the sculpture and has threatened lawsuits against unlicensed depictions of Portlandia.