Client: Target

Location: Sunnyvale, CA, United States

Completion date: 2009

Artwork budget: $200,000

Project Team

Art Consultant

Brad Rollins

Point 2 Structural Engineers

Art Consultant

Lisa Melander

Target Architectural Department

Public Art Agent

Kristin Dance

City of Sunnyvale

Overview

The artwork at the Sunnyvale Town Center Target store is a series of 14 large scale flower sculptures that can be viewed and experienced from a multitude of angles. Visitors encounter the artwork fist at street level, by walking through a forest of stems scattered along the sidewalk at the front entry to the store. Then, as visitors move up to the second story level, they are greeted with an intimate view of the colorful flower heads both through the glass wall in the food court and along the pedestrian sky bridge.

Goals

Responding to the site architecture, I envision the art as something that helps to define the character of the space outside the TARGET store by creating an experience of discovery for viewers. In thinking primarily about what makes this space special and unique, it is the scale and physical proximity that visitors have with the artwork during their shopping experience. At the street level and store entrance, the 14 oversized flowers create a sub-urban forest in a commercial retail space. The sky bridge connecting the parking structure with the Target store, along with the indoor cafe, both present opportunities to view the flowers up close at eye level. The flower sculptures in this space attracts the interest & curiosity of visitors in a 3-dimensional environment while playing with the scale of the building architecture and the retail design aesthetic. Each flower is approximately 26' tall, hand forged and powder coated steel.

Process

In 2009, artist Troy Corliss was selected through a nationwide search to work with Target to create a signature sculpture for the new Sunnyvale Town Center store. With these 14 oversized flower sculptures, the artist’s design introduces a handcrafted element of color and whimsy. The artwork was funded and placed by Target through the City of Sunnyvale’s Art in Private Development program.