Oakland City Center, Oakland, California

Voyage, Voyage Plaza Seating and Water Feature, Unity

Richard Deutsch participated as the artist member of the design team engaged to integrate art into the buildings, plazas, and gardens of 1111 Broadway, a 24-story anchor building in Oakland City Center. Deutsch designed and created sculpture environments for the building’s front and back plazas.

The focal point in City Center’s back plaza is the 25-ton solid bronze wall relief Voyage, made from the propellers of World War II Victory ships. Facing the wall relief are black granite benches that the artist sculpted in Carrara, Italy, and a cascading water feature of stones from the California Sierras. Flanking the front of the 1111 Broadway building is Unity, which consists of two granite compositions, each with five elements. The intent was to create a visual unity to this urban plazascape, which stretches an entire city block, and to break the symmetry of a building designed on symmetrical grid.