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Public Art Plan

Moffett Towers

Sunnyvale, California

2009

Description

Cliff Garten Studio created a public art plan which is the confluence of sculpture, landscape, and architecture to form a program of landscape sculpture at Moffett Towers, a 52-acre office park in Sunnyvale, CA. A LEED Platinum project, the landscape utilizes bio-swales and grasses, cutting water use in half. Fountains for recycled water of granite and bronze align with granite seating areas surrounding the entries to each of seven office towers creating an atmosphere unrivaled by any other corporate campus in Silicon Valley. Each plaza is the sum of spaces made by arrangements of sculpture and landscape. The sculpture while significant accommodates everyday activity and captures seasonal changes in the landscape, which might be how light filters into space through a canopy of trees, how water sounds moving down a granite fountain and how stone, trees, earth, and grass share a similar scale to create a contained space for people. Two large earthworks, 150’ and 250’ long form the core of two different landscapes surrounded by office towers. The intersection of sculpture and landscape forms a public right of way to the BART light rail station, through the private development, satisfying the ambitious goals of the developer as well as the requirements for an expanded public realm qualified by the City public art program.

Information

Public Art Plan - Moffett Towers - Projects - Cliff Garten Studio

Photo Credit JD Peterson

Location
Moffett Towers, Sunnyvale, California

Date
2009

Medium
Bronze, Granite, Earth, Festuca rubra, Rye grass, Platanus acerifolia   

Dimensions
50-acres

Commissioned by
City of Sunnyvale, Arts Commission and the Jay Paul Company

Architects 
DES Architects, Redwood City, CA, Tom Gilman, Principal

Landscape Contractor
Jensen Corp. Landscape Construction

Fabrication
Rudolph Sletten and Granicor

Client / Reference
Jeannette D'Elia, Jay Paul Company

Photography 
Mark Darely, JD Peterson
San Francisco, CA