FREMONT, CALIFORNIA
Warm Springs will become a burgeoning new environment for the high tech industry in Fremont. Located adjacent to a new Bart Station and a recently constructed Tesla factory, Warm Springs is part of larger transit-oriented development plan that provides residents and technology workers a new publicly accessible civic landscape. The Landscape is centered around a large sunken plaza, The Black Box, acting as a gathering space for the surrounding community and new tenant for the site. The plaza also serves to anchor the western portion of the transit-oriented district plan that is a mix-ed use development . The human brain is oft referred to as a black box. The question emerged of how to create a landscape that can spur novel ideas to create an environment for technology workers and community residents alike. Research has linked the activation of sensory stimuli in the brain with the emergence of novel ideas and divergent thinking. The Black Box plaza does this through the curation of botanical species, tactile materials, and the animation of water.