Oracle’s Austin Waterfront Campus—Art and Graphics Collection

Practice Area

Client

Oracle North America

Industry

  1. A two-story graphic in Oracle’s Waterfront dining area turns a 1930s postcard into a larger-than-life op-art view of Barton Springs, one of Austin’s legendary swimming holes.

  2. A wall-mounted slot car track allows racers to take a super fast, small-scale spin around a replica of Austin’s F1 Circuit of the Americas.

  3. This custom wall covering catalogues the tastes of Texas — from quest to Dairy Queen — as lotería cards, a playful marriage of culture and content. Illustrations by Brave the Woods.

  4. Notable lyrics from songs about Texas or by Texas artists were masked and painted onto a pass-through wall in the building’s core, then punctuated with dimensional artifacts.

  5. An homage to Austin’s long-running affinity for food trucks, the quilted stainless wall in this break room hosts acrylic trucks painted by 15 local artists, all curated and managed by our team.

  6. This friendly Spanish greeting is made of 225 bottles of Mexico’s favorite bubbly embellished with internally applied candy color.

  7. Elevator lobbies display abstract references to the Texas flag, each made from re-appropriated materials. This piece on a music-themed floor includes 4,560 guitar picks—and many layers of clear coat.

  8. The theme of this break room is amped up with a tactile equalizer made of 203 speakers inset into a metallic cloth background.

Project Vision

Oracle North America invested in an extensive collection of graphics, art and interactive installations that reflect its commitment to innovation and its ambitious plans for its new Austin campus. Since Oracle often relocates recent college graduates from across the country, Asterisk developed the content-rich program based on the culture, geography and history of Austin and Central Texas. This offered an opportunity to educate new employees about a region and culture they might not be familiar with, while leveraging a rich collection of local lore and visual content to translate into distinctive experiences and loosely themed floors.

More than 100 interpretive panels accompany the installations. The team worked to make the installations so distinctive, memorable and identifiable that they could support wayfinding and navigation. Signage isn’t always the most intuitive way to navigate a space and unique recognizable elements serve as landmarks for wayfinding and spoken directions.

One of the most significant challenges was the schedule that the design-build project demanded. Asterisk’s efforts began late in the interior design process so many walls were already built before concepts were approved or recesses could be accommodated. All dimensional installations had to be built off site and hoisted up the exterior of the building, then brought in via sliding terrace doors.

Following the opening of the project, Asterisk held focus groups and managed surveys to gather input on the content and interactions users deemed most valuable and engaging—and to guide development of another 100+ installations for a second phase of construction. The owner called the project “one of the finest pieces of real estate in [their] corporate portfolio,” and the content-driven interior art and graphics collection defined a new bar for Oracle’s other North American workplaces.

Project Details
Design Team

Susanne Harrington (engagement and creative director); Shawn Harrington (design director); Pam Caperton, Crystal Glover (designers)

Project Area

540,000 sq ft

Consultants

Polly Little, Eileen Wright, Meghan Taylor-Steshyn, Brittani Long, STG Design (architecture and interiors); Itzé Pavón, Pavón Design (design and documentation) Mark Denton, (content, context, copy)

Fabricators

Ion Art (fabrication and installation of all dimensional items), Blik (printing and installation of all flat wall graphics)