REPORT TO ARTS COMMISSION
SUBJECT
Title
Jay Paul Company/Moffett Gateway Public Art Component
Report
BACKGROUND
Under the City's Art in Private Development Ordinance, the Moffett Gateway development at 1221 Crossman Avenue is required to provide public art. The public art component must be equal in value to 1 percent of the building permit valuation. The procedure established for reviewing the artwork is as follows:
1) Review the artist's background to ensure he/she has the experience and knowledge to design, fabricate and install large-scale artworks;
2) Review the artwork itself to determine whether or not the nature and style of the artwork is appropriate to the architecture and site;
3) Determine whether or not the proposed artwork is appropriate in scale for the overall development; and
4) Review the location of the artwork for visibility to the public.
The purpose of this report is to provide information about the proposed artwork and to request Arts Commission approval of the proposed artwork. The City Council is not scheduled to consider this item. Under the Art in Private Development Ordinance, the Arts Commission is authorized to make a final determination of the proposed artwork. The Commission's decision may be appealed to the City Council by the developer.
EXISTING POLICY
Sunnyvale Municipal Code 19.52 - Art in Private Development
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
N/A
DISCUSSION
Project Location: This project is a 15.5-acre site located in north Sunnyvale (Attachment 1 - Street Map). It is bordered by Innsbruck Drive on the west, Java Drive on the north, Crossman Avenue on the east and Moffett Park Drive and State Route 237 on the south. The site is located in an industrial area, surrounded by office buildings, including the NetApp campus across Java Drive. It is also directly adjacent to the VTA's Crossman Light Rail Station.
Project: The Moffett Gateway project consists of two new 7-story office buildings, 264,607 square feet each, and a 3-level parking structure (Attachment 2 - Site Plan). The two office buildings will be oriented along Crossman Avenue and will flank a large plaza area. The parking garage will be located toward the back of the site along Innsbruck Drive. The site will have vehicular entrances from all four adjacent streets. Staff anticipates that the Crossman frontage will have a high volume of vehicular traffic, as it provides direct access to westbound Highway 237.
Selected Artist: The artist selected for the project is Southern California artist Cliff Garten (Attachment 3 - Artist's Resume). Mr. Garten has been active in the public art arena since 1990. He has received civic commissions for major U.S. cities such as: Austin, Texas; Los Angeles, California; Cerritos, California; Rochester, New York; Denver, Colorado; Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Arlington, Virginia; Hillsboro, Oregon; Clearwater, Florida; and Salt Lake City, Utah. Locally, Mr. Garten has major public commissions at the Tully Library in San Jose; San Francisco General Hospital in San Francisco; the Transit Center in Dublin; and the Veterans Memorial Building in Walnut Creek. Mr. Garten has completed two previous projects in Sunnyvale at Moffett Towers in 2012 and the Courtyard by Marriott In 2014. He is also in fabrication for the Moffett Place public art component, which was approved by the Commission in November, 2014.
The artist's work is born from his interest in the relationship between sculpture and landscape and how art creates public spaces. His work often creates a spatial composition of earthworks, landscaping, sculpture, light, architecture and public plazas, intended to be both beautiful and functional. He writes in his self-description that the places he creates "must be experienced, as opposed to looked at, because they do not enlist a single object, but are the sum of what happens on any specific site."
Images of Mr. Garten's installations and sculpture environments can be found at <cliffgartenstudio.com>.
Artwork Locations: For this project, the developer and artist chose to focus on the central plaza area and the two main entrances to the buildings (Attachment 2 - Site Plan). All three of these locations are in the vicinity of the main pedestrian entrance along Crossman Avenue.
Artwork Proposal: The artist has designed a comprehensive site-specific sculpture and landscape environment that serves as a park or plaza area for the development. The design includes three abstract sculptures, seating, paving and landscaping.
The artist has created three cast bronze sculptures, one for the central plaza between the two buildings and two smaller sculptures for the entry plaza of each building. The sculptures will have a distinct surface pattern that resembles the ribbed sediment formation of the tidal flats, created from the ebb and flow of the tides. The sculptures will also have a light blue patina applied, in reference to the bay waters.
The largest of the sculptures, and the focal point of the central plaza, is entitled "Flow" (Attachment 4 - Rendering of Central Plaza and Attachment 5 - Rendering of "Flow"). Measuring 8' in diameter, this sculpture will reside atop a round pedestal situated in the center of the central plaza. The pedestal will be surrounded by long grasses found throughout the plaza areas. It will have three steps on either side that will allow the viewer to get close and interact with the sculpture.
Beyond the sculpture and further into the development, will be two "outdoor rooms" on either side of the pathway (Attachment 6- Central Plaza Aerial and Attachment 7 - Central Plaza Plan). These rooms will be paved with decomposed granite and covered by a grove of trees, with moveable chairs and tables, cast concrete benches and large beds of long grasses.
At the entry to both buildings will be a smaller plaza area where the artist has placed a bronze fountain sculpture (Attachment 8 - Rendering of Fountain Sculptures). Each of the plazas will also include the same cast concrete benches and long grasses of the Central Plaza (Attachment 9 - Entry Plaza Aerial and Attachment 10 - Entry Plaza Plans).
Lighting Plan: The developer intends to light the large sculpture in the central plaza area with four ground/pedestal level up-lights. Four additional pole-mounted lights will also be located in the central plaza area to provide additional lighting for the sculpture and surrounding plaza area. The smaller fountain sculptures will have ambient lighting from the buildings.
Maintenance: Maintenance for the proposed artwork will be minimal. The artist will provide the developer with the necessary maintenance information for each bronze fountain. Fountain filters will require changing on a yearly basis, and chemicals will need to be added on an "as needed basis."
The landscape architects will develop a detailed maintenance routine for gardening crews to follow, so that the artist's intended relationship between the artwork and the landscaping is maintained.
FISCAL IMPACT
If approved, the developer will be responsible for design, fabrication and installation costs of the artwork, as well as ongoing maintenance. There is no fiscal impact on the City's operating budget other than incidental staff time to monitor the project, which is budgeted in the Art in Private Development Program.
PUBLIC CONTACT
Public contact was made through posting of the Arts Commission agenda on the City's official-notice bulletin board, on the City's website, and the availability of the agenda and report in the Office of the City Clerk.
ALTERNATIVES
1. Approve the artwork as it is proposed.
2. Not approve the artwork as it is proposed.
RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
Alternative 1: Approve the artwork as it is proposed. Staff concludes that the proposal adequately meets the criteria of the Art in Private Development requirement.
Staff
Prepared by: Kristin Dance, Visual Arts Coordinator
Reviewed by: Tegan McLane, Arts and Marketing Manager
Approved by: Daniel Wax, Superintendent of Community Services
Cc: Lisa G. Rosenblum, Director, Department of Library and Community Services
ATTACHMENTS
1. Street Map
2. Site Plan
3. Artist's Resume
4. Rendering of Central Plaza
5. Rendering of "Flow"
6. Central Plaza Aerial
7. Central Plaza Plan
8. Rendering of Fountain Sculptures
9. Entry Plaza Aerial
10. Entry Plaza Plans