A collaborative feat of multidisciplinary design; an awe-inspiring kinetic facade that brings the local environment to life. Kim West is a painter and muralist who studies memory, reflection, and landscape in her color-forward work. Her multi-canvas composition from 2022 reimagines the local vistas, groves, and creeks teeming with native wildlife. Each face of the building was inspired by journalist Mary Bowen Caroll’s writings that celebrate the abundance of wildflowers and the changes between seasons. These paintings were digitally transposed to inform the 111,692 square “flappers” that adorn the entire facade of the Alta Parking Garage across from Google’s global headquarters. Capturing each wildlife element in watercolor allowed West to study each form and hue to determine how it would pixelate and then abstract in the final installation. The movement of the wind activates these colorful flappers on the building facade.
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