OTL’s Role:
Hillsdale Shopping Center
LOCATION
San Mateo, California
DEVELOPER
Bohannon Development Company
GENERAL CONTRACTOR
C.W. Driver
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
Lifescapes International
PROJECT OVERVIEW
- Design
- Build
- Show Fountain
- Synchronized Water Shows
- LED Lighting
- Music Selection
In San Mateo, California, Hillsdale Shopping Center’s North Block plaza needed more than retail: the city’s Art in Public Places ordinance required a genuine work of art. OTL worked with a team to design and build a 1,871-square-foot show fountain that doubles as living sculpture for the 1.3-million-square-foot destination.
PROJECT
CHALLENGE
The developer needed a fountain that satisfied the city’s public art requirement while still functioning as North Block’s central gathering place, sophisticated enough to be considered art rather than simple ornamentation.
OTL’S
SOLUTION
OTL programmed 71 individually controlled nozzles into choreography visually intricate enough to read as living art, paired with 142 color-changing LED lights and an eight-speaker, two-amplifier audio system for a concert-quality show. The landscape architect designed the surrounding plantings woven directly into the fountain basin, while OTL engineered those plants to stay dry and separate from the splashing water. Every element, onsite and remote, can be controlled by tablet or phone.
Four times each evening, that fountain transforms North Block into a musically choreographed light show, now recognized as the artistic centerpiece of Hillsdale Shopping Center and a gathering point for the San Mateo community.
