This project is the design of a 14,000 sq. ft civic plaza with a major water feature as its focus. The plaza is the entry for the Modesto City Hall as well as the Stanislaus County Office building and is planted with Gngko Biloba trees referencing age and memory and an orchard of Pistache Trees acknowledging the area’s agrarian roots. Surrounding the nut trees are rings containing etched brick salvaged from the Covell Hotel that once stood on the project site. The concept begins the Plaza Water Feature evolved from the notion that the landscape of Stanislaus County has shaped the culture that springs from it. The shape, location and physical attributes of the County are presented in the Plaza environment. The water feature/artwork takes the form of the 3-dimensional map of Stanislaus County executed in granite, bronze imbedded resin, and various stones. 

The Sierra Foothills section is made from granite from the local Sierra Nevada mountain range. The Water feature’s source is in this section of the sculpture.

The representation of The Valley Floor is made from richly colored stone tiles fitted together like fields of arable lands. Misters, on both sides of the valley section, periodically produce a fog-like vapor that cools the immediate surrounds in the plaza. Water cascades to a catch basin in the Plaza floor. 

The representation of The Coastal Range is cast in bronze imbedded resin and rises to the higher point in the sculpture. This warm-toned, organic edifice replicates the topography of the county’s westerly border.