The Mozart Development Company is taking steps to make the small plaza inviting and attractive. They are installing three large-scale public art structures behind their buildings on Altair Way because a city ordinance requires them to install one for each building.

Two of the sculptures are already in place. The first, a fountain designed by Archie Held and titled Community, consists of four identical columns rising out of a square pool. The pool is surrounded by a low wall, which serves as a seating area.

Chandra Cerrito from the Andrea Schwartz Gallery in San Francisco and the art consultant who served on the projects said the seating was planned to encourage passersby to spend time there, sitting and eating lunch or reading a book. The fountain, she said, could also serve as a backdrop for a photo shoot.

"Water was one of the things executives at the Mozart company were looking for. They thought active water would make it comfortable for people to hang out and have that sense of relaxation in an open environment," Cerrito said.

The most recent sculpture, artist Michael Brown's clock Ball Tower, was installed in the plaza on Feb. 28. At the top of the hour, the clock plays "The Westminster Chimes," a traditional bell tower song. The tower releases snooker balls from the top, which hit dome-shaped steel bells, releasing different notes.

After Mozart executives saw photos of a similar clock tower that Brown designed for a site in Dallas, Texas, they asked him to design one for Sunnyvale. Some of Brown's art is displayed at the San Francisco Exploratorium.

"I've always done kinetic work," Brown said. "I wanted to communicate the idea of time as a kinetic force, and the balls moving down the tower at various intervals are a representation of that force."

The third piece of art will be installed the week of March 17. Designed by Nancy Mooslin, who grew up in the Bay Area, Streams of Time is a series of pieces of glass patterned in arcs built into the walkway. Cerrito said the arcs represent the spread of water upon land—a reference to Sunnyvale's agricultural roots .

The city requires art structures to cost one percent of the company's construction budgets for each of the buildings.

Already people in the community are gathering in the small plaza. Robert Ballard, who lives in the apartment building behind the Mozart buildings and across from the art structures, said, "I've seen people taking pictures next to the fountain with their kids."