Penumbra
Craig Scott

Penumbra

IwamotoScott Architecture as Architects

Penumbra is a work of Public Art situated on Market Street, San Francisco's urban spine. In addition to our scope as designers of the Serif condo interiors, lobby, common spaces and amenity spaces for this large new mixed use development, IwamotoScott was commissioned by Group i to create this signature piece of immersive sculpture.

photo_credit Craig Scott
Craig Scott

Situated in a courtyard between the historic Warfield Theater and  the Serif residences / Line hotel, Penumbra's form takes cues from the scientific phenomena of penumbra, 'a partial shadow between regions of full shadow and full illumination'.

photo_credit Craig Scott
Craig Scott

Penumbra functionally defines the passage to the second lobby entrance to the Line hotel from Market Street, and offers  shade to the outdoor seating for the hotel's restaurant, Tenderheart.

photo_credit Craig Scott
Craig Scott

Aesthetically, Penumbra establishes a dialogue with the adjacent faceted building design by Handel Architects, as well as the irregular site geometry.

photo_credit Craig Scott
Craig Scott

Daylight is refracted, captured, amplified and reflected through Penumbra's modulated array of perspectivally-transformed volumes.

photo_credit Craig Scott
Craig Scott

The suspended, hollow overhead modules are organized in a radial pattern in plan, with a subtly double-curved underside in section - whereby the aggregation of modules forms a shallow vaulted space benath.

A series of sculptural Y-shaped columns march along the long sides of the courtyard space, supporting a lattice of radial steel plate beams from which Penumbra's precisely crafted aluminum modules are suspended.

photo_credit Craig Scott
Craig Scott

The complex spatial/material quality and phenomenal effects of Penumbra gain from Penumbra's precise detailing, craft and subtle two-tone coloration.

Looking up through Penumbra's apertures, the variously-angled tapering aluminum modules frame the sky, surrounding urban fabric and space, and the changing light of day.

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