Hillsboro: Shute Park ‘Cloud Nest’ Art Dome Construction Set to Begin, a Year After First Target
- Construction of Cloud Nest, a steel public-art dome by artist Becky Borlan, begins in late October at Shute Park, the City of Hillsboro said in an Oct.
- The dome joins two other recent projects on the park campus.
- According to the Oct.
Construction of Cloud Nest, a steel public-art dome by artist Becky Borlan, begins in late October at Shute Park, the City of Hillsboro said in an Oct. 22 release. The city now expects it to be finished by the end of 2026. That is more than a year after the October 2025 date it gave in 2024.
The dome joins two other recent projects on the park campus. Construction of a $247,000 nature play area began in mid-September, the city says, and a roof repair at Shute Park Library closed the library’s south parking lot on Sept. 21.
Residents’ paper cutouts on the lowest panels
According to the Oct. 22 release, Cloud Nest will replace “an underutilized planter bed near the playground.” Its colorful acrylic panels are meant to create patterns and reflections of light for visitors to explore.
Some of those panels come from residents. Cut-paper artworks made at Borlan’s spring 2025 workshops in Hillsboro will appear on the panels closest to the ground. A city release from April 30, 2025 counted more than 300 artworks from four events, at Lincoln Street Elementary School, the Shute Park Aquatic & Recreation Center (SHARC), Shute Park Library and the park.
The design has changed since 2024. The city says it was modified “to improve safety and accessibility,” and the dome “will also be elevated, instead of the panels stretching to the ground.”
How the timeline moved
That redesign is one of several differences from the 2024 plan. The Oct. 6, 2024 announcement described a 24-foot-high steel dome with a main archway about 18 feet high. Borlan, who is based in Baltimore, was picked from more than 50 applicants and three finalists.
That release said the city’s Public Art Fund would pay for it, “with a total budget of $245,000,” and that it was “anticipated to be completed by October 2025.” By April 2025, the city said “late fall 2025.” The Oct. 22, 2026 release gives no current budget or height, and it does not explain why the date moved.
The table sets the three campus projects side by side, using city documents only.
| Project | Funding, per the city | First timeline given | Latest timeline given |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud Nest art dome | $245,000 total budget, Public Art Fund (2024 figure) | Done by October 2025 (Oct. 6, 2024 release) | Starts late October; done by end of 2026 (Oct. 22, 2026 release) |
| Nature play area | $165,000 Metro grant plus $82,000 in SDC funds; $247,000 total | Mid-September start; done by end of 2026 (Sept. 1, 2026 release) | No later update found |
| Shute Park Library roof | Not stated in the library document | Projected finish Oct. 20, may shift (Oct. 15, 2026 Library Board packet) | No completion notice found as of Oct. 23 |
The two park projects with published figures add up to $492,000 (our calculation: $245,000 + $247,000). The art figure is the 2024 budget, so the current total may differ.
A fenced play area by the picnic shelter
Work on the play area started first. A city release dated Sept. 1 places it near an existing picnic shelter, on an underutilized patch of grass. Plans include a 4-foot fence, an accessible path, seating for caregivers and new plantings.
Metro’s Nature in Neighborhoods Community Choice Grant covers $165,000. The other $82,000 comes from System Development Charge (SDC) funds, fees charged on new development. The city says construction began in mid-September, with completion expected by the end of the year.
Parking and staging on the campus
Both park projects sit on a campus that also holds the library, the Hillsboro Community Senior Center and SHARC. For Cloud Nest, safety barriers will surround the site. Part of the south end of the senior center’s parking lot will be used temporarily to stage materials.
The library roof has its own footprint. An update on page 47 of the Library Board’s Oct. 15 packet gave a projected finish of Oct. 20, adding that the schedule “may shift.” The south lot was to stay closed for the whole project.
The packet also shows the work affecting library use. Minutes of the board’s Sept. 17 meeting say August physical renewals at Shute Park fell about 66% because due dates were extended. Moving checkout work into the Hughes Room also affected study room availability.
Washington County Cooperative Library Services extended most due dates through Oct. 20. As of Oct. 23, the library’s web pages had no notice that the roof work was done or the lot had reopened. The documents also do not say whether the art staging area and the closed library lot overlap.
What visitors will notice
The city asks people to follow posted signs and stay outside marked work areas around the dome. The library update warned of loud, unexpected construction noise and disrupted Wi-Fi near the library entrance.
Other listings also point people to the campus. SHARC appears in Focus Hillsboro’s roundup of Halloween and Día de Muertos events, and Shute Park Library has an official ballot drop box, according to an Oct. 15 city release.
The city’s Engage Hillsboro project page, last updated June 3, 2025, still says the artwork is coming “in 2025.”
Top image: File photo, 2010: the picnic area under tall firs at Shute Park in Hillsboro. Photo: M.O. Stevens, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).
