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Josh Lighthipe proved in his backyard that kinetic stormwater sculptures could work for a Southwest Portland affordable housing project.

Lighthipe, a KPFF Consulting Engineers associate, hooked a hose up to his home rain gutter and attached it to a jerry-rigged fountain made from PVC pipe, a used cottage cheese container, a plastic bottle and a garbage can. A float with a Papa Smurf toy on top assessed the water level.

He then used his cellphone to shoot video of the contraption in action during a downpour. The video helped convince officials with Home Forward, a Portland-based government agency, to add art to the stormwater planter system at the 6-acre, 122-unit Stephens Creek Crossing development in the Hillsdale neighborhood.

“I had to convince them to give me more leeway to make these more than your normal pit planters,” Lighthipe said.

His push for a sculptural element in the Stephens Creek Crossing stormwater planters led to Home Forward hiring Portland artist Brian Gualtieri to create five kinetic sculptures for the development. The sculptures, which will be installed in about two weeks, consist of aluminum pipes that tip and tilt as they fill with rainwater.

“The harder it rains, the more activity will happen,” Lighthipe said.

Gualtieri worked closely with Lighthipe on the project and learned a lot in the process, especially about how water could be pushed up into the sculpture.

“They had engineered this big spectacular feat with the stormwater system,” Gualtieri said. “To me, it was really mind-boggling how the water could come up to a 4-foot height.”

Home Forward officials were equally impressed by Lighthipe’s efforts to demonstrate the sculptures’ feasibility, said Julie Livingston, Home Forward senior project manager.

“Josh has been so creative in solving the problem,” she said. “He did that (backyard test) in large part to show that it works and that it was a really simple system.”

Stormwater treatment is required by the city, but Lighthipe figured that he may as well make it an attractive feature of the $52.8 million housing project designed by MWA Architects and being built by R&H Colas Construction.

“You’re going to have to put all this money into treatment,” he said. “It’s a lot of money that nobody gets to appreciate.”

Stormwater planters too often end up becoming muddy pits, Lighthipe said.

“They serve a purpose, but they’re not as attractive when they’re a pit,” he said. “If you go through that much trouble, you might as well make a sculpture.”

The backyard model he created was inspired by deer scarers – Japanese bamboo garden fountains that tip when filled with water to startle grazing animals. Other inspirations for what could be done at Stephens Creek Crossing included KPFF’s stormwater planter work at Bud Clark Commons and an umbrella-shaped stormwater fountain at Providence Portland Medical Center.

“You kind of get an idea of how hard it’s raining,” Lighthipe said. “Most people don’t see stormwater because it goes into a pipe and it’s never seen again. That’s what we’ve been doing for 100-plus years is putting it into pipes and (forgetting) about it.”

This was part of the inspiration for the Stephens Creek Crossing sculptures, Gualtieri said.

“In addition to the sound of the rain, I wanted there to be different cues to understand how much rain was happening,” he said. “My original goal was that hope that there would be this interest and this curiosity that would be intrigued by these sculptures.”

Stormwater sculptures, however, require some tricky engineering, Lighthipe said. The beta test in his backyard came in handy to test the pressure needed to push the water up into the sculpture and figure out a way to prevent clogs of leaves, sediment and other debris.

“I could look out my (bedroom) window and see if it was still working,” he said. “The backyard model is actually spot-on in a lot of ways for what we needed.”

The Papa Smurf toy helped Lighthipe determine if water was being flushed out of the system. If Papa Smurf didn’t drop from sight into one of the pipes, a water escape valve needed to be opened wider.

“I was worried about water staying in there permanently,” he said. “It has to be flushed out.”

Lighthipe also used the mock-up to test a sediment trap used in the final product. The trap collects debris before water travels through the sculpture.

Gualtieri’s sculptures are a great outcome from the backyard experiment, Lighthipe said.

“They’re much grander than I’d imagined,” he said. “This test made it possible.”