Skeletal Arch at Val Vista Park

Artist and designer Ann Chamberlain’s notes from the year 2000 state “…the scale of the sky and sense of distance to the valley ridges are at once deeply California experiences and specific to Pleasanton”.  The Skeletal Arch, near the Diseno children’s play area, offers a gateway location to the park. The steel pipe arch was constructed to follow the form and function of the Downtown Pleasanton arch and invite visitors to step into the unique landscape of Val Vista’s 19 acres of park. The winding wisteria on the arch helps with the near-far perspective and is an inviting spot of color.

Ann Chamberlain was a collaborative artist.  Her probably best-known work is the vast three-story mural she and artist Ann Hamilton created for the San Francisco Main Library. The wall is covered in 50,000 cards from the old obsolete card catalog, each annotated by hand with personal notes in a dozen different languages by about 2000 people.

Walk to Ann’s four other artworks to see Topographis (the entry bridge), Pear Blossoms (blue tiles with Pear blossoms), Alviso Adobe Trellis (wooden framed trellis near the community garden), and Diseno (nearby children’s play area). All were installed by 2004 as part of the Val Vista Park at 7350 Johnson Drive, Pleasanton.                                                                                          

Jan Coleman-Knight