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The ‘s $30 million renovation on the North Park Blocks is beginning, appropriately enough, on a creative note.

PNCA has installed a new public sculpture on the block north of Northwest Glisan Street and Park Avenue that it hopes will anchor an expansion for the 143-year-old North Park Blocks corridor. It’s called Memory 99 and was designed by PNCA alumnus Lee Kelly.

The 23-foot wide, 11-foot high sculpture is made of Cor-Ten steel and was installed in 2010 at the entrance to the Portland Art Museum’s Lee Kelly retrospective exhibition. It now sits on the block adjacent to the former Federal Building, also known as the U.S. Post Office Building, at 511 N.W. Broadway. PNCA plans to renovate the building into a new academic building called the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design.

PNCA acquired Kelly’s sculpture with a special, one-time gift from the Ford Family Foundation. The donation was part of the foundation’s evolving Visual Arts program, which among other things, hopes to make significant works by Oregon visual artists available to the public.

PNCA will host a dedication ceremony for the sculpture, Friday from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. The ceremony will feature Portland Mayor Sam Adams, PNCA’s President Tom Manley and Ford Family Foundation President Norm Smith.