RESILIENT CITY
2023
1571 Senter Road
San Jose, California
laser cut metal, 25′ x 25′
This work of art honors these two different but related centers that work to mitigate disasters providing operational and tactical response in collaboration with and in service to the community.
This symbol of resilience begins in the scattered blocks that transform up into a uniquely organized pattern framed by rays that extend up behind the City of San Jose. The three figures in the landscape celebrate fire fighters and emergency managers working in service to the community. San Jose is represented in the downtown business and civic district cityscape, local historic and cultural sites and neighborhood homes. The colors, metal material, composition and placement of the artwork works within the architectural lines of the buildings and colors at the site.
Details of this design include the Cesar Chavez Meeting Hall, historic Greenawalt House/Vietnamese Museum and the Peralta Adobe, the oldest building in San Jose. The mathematically complex centerpiece that holds the elements of the artwork together is the unique quasicrystal non-repeating pattern. The design process included discussions with the SJ Fire Chief and Emergency Managers to arrive at a visual interpretation of the nature of mitigating disasters which lies in recognizing patterns that never repeat, preparing for this eventuality and training tactically to respond and then recover.
Commissioned by the San Jose Public Art Program for the new San Jose Fire Department Training Center and Office of Emergency Management.
One Hat One Hand Fabrication Process https://www.onehatonehand.com/project-detail/resilient-city-mural
San Jose Mercury News https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/03/30/art-is-a-major-part-of-san-joses-new-fire-training-center/
