REPORT TO ARTS COMMISSION
SUBJECT
Title
Approve Art in Private Development Project - Jay Paul Company/Moffett Towers II
Report
BACKGROUND
Under the City’s Art in Private Development Ordinance, the development along Discovery Way (between 5th and 11th Avenues) is required to provide public art on site or pay an in-lieu fee. 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 if the nature and style of the artwork is appropriate to the site;
3) Determine if 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 request that the Arts Commission consider approval of the proposed artwork. Under the Art in Private Development Ordinance, the Arts Commission is authorized to make a final determination of the proposed artwork and the City Council is not scheduled to consider this item. The Commission’s decision, however, may be appealed to the City Council by the developer.
EXISTING POLICY
Sunnyvale Municipal Code 19.52 - Art in Private Development
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
A Supplemental Environmental Impact Report (SEIR) (SCH # 2001052121) was prepared for the underlying project, Moffett Towers II. Consistent with SMC Chapter 19.52 (Art in Private Development), art was a required component of the project and project conditions of approval required the applicant to provide a bond for the required art and meet with the Arts coordinator regarding the project’s art concept and integration throughout the campus. The City Council certified the SEIR, adopted a statement of overriding considerations and approved the project on June 14, 2016 (RTC 16-0556).
DISCUSSION
Project Location: This project is a 47.4-acre parcel located in North Sunnyvale (Attachment 1 - Vicinity Map). This area of Sunnyvale consists predominantly of large office campuses, such as Lockheed Martin to the north, Google to the south, Juniper Networks to the east and Moffett Towers I to the west. Staff anticipates the campus will receive both pedestrian and vehicular traffic due to the number of workers that will be employed in the new office buildings, as well as the number of workers already employed by the surrounding businesses.
Project Description: Moffett Towers II consists of five new 8-story Class A office buildings, one 2-story amenities building, two 4-story parking structures, one 5-story parking structure and surface parking (Attachment 2 - Site Plan). The campus is centered around the amenities building and a large outdoor area designed to accommodate a variety of active and passive recreation activities. The outdoor area includes gardens, a pool, amphitheater and sports courts. One of the 4-level parking structures will also offer a 2-acre “High Garden” on the rooftop which includes open space areas, a running track and picnic and seating areas.
Artwork Location: The proposed artwork will reside in three locations on the site that are smaller parklet areas separated from the larger central outdoor activities area (Attachment 3, 4 and 5 - Artwork Locations). Each of the parklet areas will be adjacent to the public right of way, with Site 1 residing along 11th Avenue, Site 2 along 5th Avenue and Site 3 along E Street. All three sites will be visible to passing motorists and accessible to the public.
Selected Artist: The artist selected for the project is Southern California artist Cliff Garten (Attachment 6 - 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 three previous projects in Sunnyvale: Moffett Towers in 2012; the Courtyard by Marriott in 2014; and most recently, Moffett Gateway in July 2016. He is also in fabrication for the Moffett Place public art component, which was approved by the Arts Commission in November 2014, as well as the Wolfe@Central project approved by the Arts Commission in September 2016.
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 Proposal: For this project, the artist has created three sculpture environments entitled “Suturis” (Attachment 7 - Computer Rendering of Site 1). Each environment will not only be similar and include landforms, planting, benches and sculptures, it will also be scaled and arranged specifically for its site.
At the street entry to each of the three sites are two 18’ long, 10’ tall stainless steel sculptures that form a gateway from the street to the interior of the site (Attachment 8 - Computer Rendering of Stainless Steel Sculptures). The stainless steel is laser-cut in a floral pattern and the double walled construction of the sculptures will catch light, as well as diffuse it, creating a sense of movement (Attachment 9 - Example of Laser-Cut Floral Pattern).
As the viewer enters the gateway, the semi-transparent sculptures begin to curve and transform into a 1’6” wide cement band that is etched with a matching floral pattern. (Attachment 10 - Computer Rendering of Etched Concrete Band). This 18’ band undulates in an arc connecting the two stainless steel sculptures. At times, the concrete band is grade-level and at times, it is raised to 3’5” to act as a bench (Attachment 11 - Computer Rendering of Concrete Benches).
Throughout the remainder of each site, the viewer will encounter additional cast concrete benches etched with a floral pattern, berms of grasses, ground plane areas of decomposed granite and paved walking paths, as well as 10-40 replanted trees from the previous site.
Before leaving the parklet through the interior entry, the viewer will come upon two additional stainless steel screen sculptures. These sculptures will be single walled and smaller than their counterparts situated on the street-side entry to the parklet, but they will have a similar laser-cut floral pattern.
“The twisting of (the concrete) band, becoming a solid bench and then seamlessly moving into a semi-transparent stainless steel sculpture characterizes the kinds of motions that are set up throughout the landscape sculpture not only in solid material, but in earth and planting,” states the artist. “The path of our bodies is directed by the motions of the objects on the ground plane and by the vertical sculptures and we are held by the different aspects of the landscape and the sculpture in a place whose design has a unique logic. It is not only about the functions it forms, but it is making a strong artistic statement while it provides those functions.”
Lighting Plan: The artist is proposing to light both sides of the stainless-steel sculptures and stainless-steel screens with in-grade spot lights (Attachment 12 - Computer Rendering of Stainless Steel Sculptures at Night). The pathways will also be riddled with pedestrian lamps and each of the replanted trees will be up lit by two ground level spot lights (Attachments 13, 14 and 15 - Lighting Plans).
Maintenance: Maintenance on the artwork is minimal, consisting of a power washing and gentle detergent when needed, followed by a wax application. The artist has provided the developer with detailed instructions on how to care for the sculptures and benches.
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.
3. Take other action as deemed appropriate.
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, Community Services Coordinator
Reviewed by: Trenton Hill, Community Services Manager
Reviewed by: Daniel Wax, Superintendent of Community Services
Approved by: Cynthia E. Bojorquez, Director, Department of Library and Community Services
ATTACHMENTS
1. Vicinity Map
2. Site Plan
3. Artwork Locations (Site 1)
4. Artwork Locations (Site 2)
5. Artwork Locations (Site 3)
6. Artist’s Resume
7. Computer Rendering of Site 1
8. Computer Rendering of Stainless Steel Sculptures
9. Example of Laser-Cut Floral Pattern
10. Computer Rendering of Etched Concrete Band
11. Computer Rendering of Concrete Benches
12. Computer Rendering of Stainless Steel Sculptures at Night
13. Lighting Plan (Site 1)
14. Lighting Plan (Site 2)
15. Lighting Plan (Site 3)