SAN MATEO, CA—One of the largest enclosed shopping centers in the Bay Area, Bohannon Development Company's Hillsdale Shopping Center at Sixty 31^st Ave., attracts more than 8 million shoppers annually. The center is undergoing a reconfiguration of the 12.5-acre northern portion of the center, the North Block redevelopment. This involves tearing down the Sears building, and redeveloping the surface lot and 291,519 square feet of retail, dining and entertainment space.

The renovations are expected to be complete by the end of 2018 and will bring a fitness club and bocce facility among other features to the city. Led by project executive Corky Silva and senior superintendent Leo O'Brien, general contractor C.W. Driver Companies recently topped out the project.

“The renovation will cater to the changing retail landscape, in which consumers are looking for an experience when they visit a shopping center,” Brent Hughes, vice president of operations at C.W. Driver Companies tells GlobeSt.com. “The 870-seat Cinepolis luxury movie theater and Pinstripes bowling alley, coupled with a wide variety of dining options and lush outdoor space, will make this a destination for residents and visitors alike in the Bay Area.”

In addition, Bohannon and C.W. Driver have partnered with Outside the Lines and landscape architect Lifescapes International to create a unique fountain that will serve as a public art piece for the renovation and satisfies San Mateo's Art in Public Places city ordinance, GlobeSt.com learns. The fountain is expected to be completed in fourth quarter 2018, coinciding with the renovation.

“The city of San Mateo requires any project valued at $3 million or more to install art in publicly accessible places,” J. Wickham Zimmerman, chief executive officer of Outside the Lines, explains. “In order to accommodate the city's requirement, we are designing something unique that can be enjoyed as both an entertainment feature and as an art piece.”

Outside the Lines has designed and will construct the 1,871-square-foot show fountain in Hillsdale's main public plaza. The firm is partnering closely with Lifescapes International to interweave living planter pockets into the fountain's interior.

“OTL has been essential in fulfilling the project's public art requirement. In addition to designing a fountain that pushes the artistic envelope, the firm was part of the team that presented the art proposal to San Mateo's civic arts committee,” Scott E. Bohannon, senior vice president of Bohannon Development Company adds. “We are confident that OTL's work will attract art lovers and shoppers who will become art lovers at our newly renovated Hillsdale Shopping Center.”

The fountain will be surrounded by gathering and seating areas, highlighting the new public art piece, and transforming the space into a gallery where visitors can sit and enjoy the piece. The fountain will consist of 71 individually controlled aerated nozzles choreographed at low display heights to create rich fountain effects, which will not disturb the living planter pockets in the fountain basin. In addition, the fountain will boast 142 color-changing LED lights that will be individually choreographed.

Outside the Lines' other notable projects include Legacy West in Plano, TX; Grand Park in Los Angeles; Station Park in Farmington, UT; The Village at Meridian in Meridian, ID; and City Creek Center in Salt Lake City.

Instant Insights /

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