Moffett Gateway is a landscape sculpture made up of Ebb and Flow, two bronze sculptures, which establish spatial proximity to one another through internal sight lines. Two smaller fountains and recycled, cast concrete sculpture benches are located at entries to the two adjacent buildings. The forms of the sculptures refer to the ecology of tidal flats of the San Francisco Bay only miles northwest of the Gateway site. The movement of the tide sculpts the bottoms of the flats into tidal bars that form underwater landscapes of great beauty as well as smaller scale patterns upon the surfaces of seashells. These abstractions of line and form are echoed in each of the bronze and concrete forms and their surface textures present throughout the adjacent
plazas.
Ebb and Flow are placed at either end of the long and narrow central plaza. When standing in front of each it is possible to view the other through the opening at each center. This creates a sightline to locate one’s position within the courtyard while also refers to the scale shift of fractal patterning seen on the ocean floor or on a single shell. A Flow Fountain is located in each of two building entry plazas that are flanked by cast benches designed to resonate with the patterns and textures experienced in the adjacent larger Ebb and Flow sculptures. On either side of the central plaza are outdoor rooms paved with decomposed granite and with moveable chairs and tables under a grove of Chinese elms. Large beds of ornamental grasses surround these groves to the east and west. Continuing on the main axis the plaza opens to a large lawn surrounded by a grove of densely planted locust trees on a series of mounds surrounded with a low leafy ground cover circling the lawn. The sculptures and planting are integrated into a welcoming landscape that serves the surrounding offices for informal lunch, daily meetings, and events.
