In July 1988, Madeleine Faust began the first Percent For Art piece, Woodland Phoenix. This sculpture, made of pine and corten steel, was inspired by the abundance of waterfowl and birds in the Brechtel Park area.

Ms. Faust conceived her site-specific, twenty-two foot tall sculpture as a structure loosely based on the carved wooden totem poles made by Northwest Coast American Indians. The materials were chosen because the natural rustic setting seemed to warrant the same feeling in the sculptural piece, and the gracefulness of the bird form blends with the surrounding woodland park nicely.

Woodland Phoenix invites the viewers to create their own stories about this make-believe mythological bird. In recent years the image has been "adopted" by the community as a symbol of its urban rejuvenation.