Given the elliptical, concentrically radiating design of the lobby space both in the stone floor pattern and the reflective ceiling pattern with its centered hanging chandelier, an object occupying the center of the floor fits with the architectural condition of the site. The serpentine boulder in recognizing the physical ground asserts the most basic of conditions, the geologic foundation upon which the building is constructed. The use of stone in the lobby architecturally states the permanence and solidity of the building. Yet the lobby spans an underground parking structure. Because of weight load limitations, this space could not carry the full weight of the stone, which had to be hollowed out. So while the lobby appears to have been built around the protrusion of California Rock, both floor and boulder are floating over a sub-floor.
Foucault Pendulum:
Hanging from the center of the ceiling, down and through the circular chandelier, is a stainless steel reflective plumb bob that replicates a Foucault pendulum. With this pendulum, Jean Foucault, in 1851, demonstrated the rotation of the earth around its axis. The inert pendulum, if allowed to swing in Sacramento, would take approximately 40 hours to describe a circle. The pendulum connects the ceiling to the floor. By vibrating in relation to the serpentine boulder, the pendulum appears to make the stone the center of the rotation of the earth, as it is in the center of the space.
