Fire Station 35, San Jose, California, USA, 2007
Lineage is made up of components that form a line connecting a new fire station to an existing community center. The primary piece is a strata wall with embedded artifacts that reference the fire department on one side and community on the other. The mass of the wall is counter-balanced with an open grove of mirrored and painted stainless steel rods recalling the tall tule reeds once growing throughout the region. Suspended near the top of the rods, a luminescent gold anodized pipe channels irrigation water to the runnel in the top of the Strata Wall, from which it cascades onto a splash stone and into the landscape. Three sculptural beacons extend from the tule reed rods to the community center are inspired by the carved log ladders used in early area mines and called escaleras.
Lineage was commissioned by the San Jose Arts Commission.