"Golden State", the plaza design spanning two city blocks at the center of the Capitol Area East End Complex, is an enveloping artwork, conceived by the scale of the city. 

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                 It is a landscape, a space for public discourse, a cosmic clock, and an archive of celestial history.  As such, it produces a highly charged public space, which provides environments for human interaction, contemplation, and spiritual rejuvenation.

                    At the eastern end of the site is the "Zone of Public Gathering."  Trees and landscaping surround a stone amphitheatre that surrounds a circular stage.  Immediately to the west are two stone "rain curtains", 25 feet tall, framing the Capitol dome in the distance.  Inscribed on the stage is an image, which functions as a "key" to the entire site. 

                    Passing between the rain curtains and crossing the street, the plaza becomes a green space.  Placed at seemingly random points in the terrain are sculptural elements inscribed with images and test, which relate a history of gold as understood by science, politics, and religions.  In actuality, the seemingly random placement is a mirror image of the position of the stars and planets as they were on September 9, 1850, the date California became a state.

       At the western end of the space is a more defined piece of topography: an "excavation", the surfaces and sides of which hold another image that can be viewed only when the viewer's body is in alignment with the axis of the site.  At the end of the excavation is a golden sphere.  This golden sphere is an exact copy of the one atop the Capitol dome a quarter of a mile to the west.  The viewer's reflection can be seen in the surface, simultaneously aligning them to history and present, earth and sky.