Claremont Village Square, Claremont, California

Having developed the conceptual design for the West Village expansion—a movie theater, hotel, and five commercial buildings with retail and restaurants—we were asked by the City of Claremont to design a public gathering place at the center of this mixed-use project. The square is a response to the culture and landscape of the city. Its elements—seating, fountain, hardscape and plantings—were conceived as a pixilation of the natural landscapes of the nearby foothills. Playful, figurative sculptures placed in the fountain by the artist Tom Otterness allude to college student life and to reptilian and amphibian wildlife.