Ashland Youth Center


CLEARING at REACH 2013

Collaboration Amy Trachtenberg and Mallory Cusenbery Architect

Commissioned by Alameda County Arts Commission

Exterior building skin of porcelain and ceramic tile

90 feet x 210 feet x 33 feet


Clearing is a large installation enveloping the exterior walls of the new Ashland Youth Center. It is a continuous porcelain and ceramic tile surface in modulating tones, anchored by a two-tone color field. The artwork reinforces and amplifies the inherent rhythm of the building intensifying at the entrance with intervals of polychrome bands of color. Greens and metallics offer a sense of dappled light, luminosity and shade as experienced under a tree canopy. Wood tones carry memories of Ashland’s history of orchards. Touches of pink signal refuge and optimism, with the new youth center inviting discovery and opportunity.