OTL’s Role:
Scripps Pitzer Science Center
LOCATION
Claremont, California
PROJECT OVERVIEW
- Design
- Build
- Architectural Fountain
- Custom Sculptural Water Feature
The Scripps Pitzer Science Center, known as The Nucleus, is a 65,000-square-foot STEM facility opened in 2024 by Scripps College and Pitzer College. Amid its teaching labs, greenhouse and collaborative spaces, the campus needed a quiet space for reflection within its courtyards. OTL designed and built a water feature that became a contemplative centerpiece of campus life.
PROJECT
CHALLENGE
The colleges wanted a feature that offered students and faculty a genuine moment of calm amid a demanding science program. The design needed a suspended sculptural element that felt light and open rather than heavy or imposing. Achieving that sense of movement meant the water and sculpture needed to interact naturally with sunlight.
OTL’S
SOLUTION
OTL designed and built a water feature centered on a bronze sculpture suspended over a reflection pool on slanted steel columns. The sculpture’s flowing curves open its interior to sunlight, giving it the appearance of glowing from within. Water recirculates continuously over a black granite retainer, so the sculpture’s shadow shifts across the pool as the sun moves.
Surrounded by outdoor seating in a sunny courtyard, the feature now offers a quiet place for studying, reflection and meditation. As tomorrow’s scientists prepare for the future, the space gives them a place to pause and recharge.
