601 City Center
Urban Ecotones, a living wall designed by David Brenner, founder and principal at Habitat Horticulture, is the first living wall to achieve artistic designation under Oakland’s Public Art for Private Development municipal code.With more than 25 plant species that intertwine to form a living, multi-dimensional tapestry, the 19-foot-by-34-foot living wall resides in the east lobby of 601 City Center – the public space access of a new 24 story, 600,000 sqft mixed-use commercial building opened in the fall of 2019 by real estate investment and development firm, Shorenstein Properties. On the other side of the lobby sits Sense of Place, a digital data painting created by internationally renowned artist, Refik Anadol – the other public art commission for the building’s communal space.As reflected in the title of David Brenner’s design, an ecotone is a transition zone where two adjacent communities come together to share characteristics. Urban Ecotones is an interplay of the varying tones, colors and textures woven together to celebrate Oakland as an epicenter for eclectic, cultural expression. “I designed Urban Ecotones with the intention to mimic what Sense of Place would communicate in both the visual design and subtext,“ explains Brenner. “The diversity in tones, colors, texture variance, and composition of the living wall reflects continuous movement, and the interaction between the species will subtly evolve overtime.”
Visible from both inside and outside the lobby's public space, the two artworks reflect and respond to the surrounding environment and passersby, though in very different ways. While the plant medium of Urban Ecotones evolves with the interior climate, seasons, and plant life cycles, Sense of Place uses sensor devices to capture real-time raw data of detailed weather metrics, WiFi and LTE activity, radio wave activity and ambient sound. The invisible forces and patterns surrounding 601 City Center are projected on a 360 square foot LED screen to display an array of undulating and colorful visuals that never repeat. Taken together, Urban Ecotones and Sense of Place consists of a diverse suite of visual styles and aesthetics, each telling a unique real-time story of the changing forces and patterns at play the urban environment.
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Urban Ecotones, a living wall designed by David Brenner, founder and principal at Habitat Horticulture, is the first living wall to achieve artistic designation under Oakland’s Public Art for Private Development municipal code.With more than 25 plant species that intertwine to form a living, multi-dimensional tapestry, the 19-foot-by-34-foot living wall resides in the east lobby of 601 City Center – the public space access of a new 24 story, 600,000 sqft mixed-use commercial building opened in the fall of 2019 by real estate investment and development firm, Shorenstein Properties. On the other side of the lobby sits Sense of Place, a digital data painting created by internationally renowned artist, Refik Anadol – the other public art commission for the building’s communal space.As reflected in the title of David Brenner’s design, an ecotone is a transition zone where two adjacent communities come together to share characteristics. Urban Ecotones is an interplay of the varying tones, colors and textures woven together to celebrate Oakland as an epicenter for eclectic, cultural expression. “I designed Urban Ecotones with the intention to mimic what Sense of Place would communicate in both the visual design and subtext,“ explains Brenner. “The diversity in tones, colors, texture variance, and composition of the living wall reflects continuous movement, and the interaction between the species will subtly evolve overtime.”
Visible from both inside and outside the lobby's public space, the two artworks reflect and respond to the surrounding environment and passersby, though in very different ways. While the plant medium of Urban Ecotones evolves with the interior climate, seasons, and plant life cycles, Sense of Place uses sensor devices to capture real-time raw data of detailed weather metrics, WiFi and LTE activity, radio wave activity and ambient sound. The invisible forces and patterns surrounding 601 City Center are projected on a 360 square foot LED screen to display an array of undulating and colorful visuals that never repeat. Taken together, Urban Ecotones and Sense of Place consists of a diverse suite of visual styles and aesthetics, each telling a unique real-time story of the changing forces and patterns at play the urban environment.
Urban Ecotones, a living wall designed by David Brenner, founder and principal at Habitat Horticulture, is the first living wall to achieve artistic designation under Oakland’s Public Art for Private Development municipal code.With more than 25 plant species that intertwine to form a living, multi-dimensional tapestry, the 19-foot-by-34-foot living wall resides in the east lobby of 601 City Center – the public space access of a new 24 story, 600,000 sqft mixed-use commercial building opened in the fall of 2019 by real estate investment and development firm, Shorenstein Properties. On the other side of the lobby sits Sense of Place, a digital data painting created by internationally renowned artist, Refik Anadol – the other public art commission for the building’s communal space.As reflected in the title of David Brenner’s design, an ecotone is a transition zone where two adjacent communities come together to share characteristics. Urban Ecotones is an interplay of the varying tones, colors and textures woven together to celebrate Oakland as an epicenter for eclectic, cultural expression. “I designed Urban Ecotones with the intention to mimic what Sense of Place would communicate in both the visual design and subtext,“ explains Brenner. “The diversity in tones, colors, texture variance, and composition of the living wall reflects continuous movement, and the interaction between the species will subtly evolve overtime.”
Visible from both inside and outside the lobby's public space, the two artworks reflect and respond to the surrounding environment and passersby, though in very different ways. While the plant medium of Urban Ecotones evolves with the interior climate, seasons, and plant life cycles, Sense of Place uses sensor devices to capture real-time raw data of detailed weather metrics, WiFi and LTE activity, radio wave activity and ambient sound. The invisible forces and patterns surrounding 601 City Center are projected on a 360 square foot LED screen to display an array of undulating and colorful visuals that never repeat. Taken together, Urban Ecotones and Sense of Place consists of a diverse suite of visual styles and aesthetics, each telling a unique real-time story of the changing forces and patterns at play the urban environment.
“We turned to David Brenner due to his work at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and his reputation in the field for his distinctive creations that could qualify as art, ” explains Patrick Hanlon, Senior Associate at Shorenstein Properties.
Urban Ecotones, a living wall designed by David Brenner, founder and principal at Habitat Horticulture, is the first living wall to achieve artistic designation under Oakland’s Public Art for Private Development municipal code.With more than 25 plant species that intertwine to form a living, multi-dimensional tapestry, the 19-foot-by-34-foot living wall resides in the east lobby of 601 City Center – the public space access of a new 24 story, 600,000 sqft mixed-use commercial building opened in the fall of 2019 by real estate investment and development firm, Shorenstein Properties. On the other side of the lobby sits Sense of Place, a digital data painting created by internationally renowned artist, Refik Anadol – the other public art commission for the building’s communal space.As reflected in the title of David Brenner’s design, an ecotone is a transition zone where two adjacent communities come together to share characteristics. Urban Ecotones is an interplay of the varying tones, colors and textures woven together to celebrate Oakland as an epicenter for eclectic, cultural expression. “I designed Urban Ecotones with the intention to mimic what Sense of Place would communicate in both the visual design and subtext,“ explains Brenner. “The diversity in tones, colors, texture variance, and composition of the living wall reflects continuous movement, and the interaction between the species will subtly evolve overtime.”
Visible from both inside and outside the lobby's public space, the two artworks reflect and respond to the surrounding environment and passersby, though in very different ways. While the plant medium of Urban Ecotones evolves with the interior climate, seasons, and plant life cycles, Sense of Place uses sensor devices to capture real-time raw data of detailed weather metrics, WiFi and LTE activity, radio wave activity and ambient sound. The invisible forces and patterns surrounding 601 City Center are projected on a 360 square foot LED screen to display an array of undulating and colorful visuals that never repeat. Taken together, Urban Ecotones and Sense of Place consists of a diverse suite of visual styles and aesthetics, each telling a unique real-time story of the changing forces and patterns at play the urban environment.
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