12 California Public Art Installations Named CODAawards Top 100 Finalists

Twelve public art installations across California have been named among the Top 100 finalists in the prestigious CODAawards, an international program that recognizes outstanding commissioned artwork integrated into architectural, interior, and public spaces.

This year’s finalists represent projects from around the world, with California competing alongside entries from China, Belgium, Australia, Egypt, France, and communities across the United States.

Now, the public has the opportunity to help select this year’s People’s Choice CODAaward winners. Online voting is open from July 15 through July 30, and the two projects receiving the most public votes will earn the coveted People’s Choice distinction.

California is represented by 12 finalist projects, showcasing exceptional public art in communities throughout the state, including Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Clarita, Pomona, Oakland, San Francisco, Los Altos, Encinitas, Berkeley, Duarte, and Ross.

Iconic Blooms of San Diego County – Encinitas, CA

Commissioned by Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas, this project transforms a four-flight stairwell into a fully immersive visual journey rooted in biophilic healthcare design. Working with artist Ken Goldman, Aesthetics, Inc. reimagined a typically utilitarian space as an experiential asset — one that encourages movement, supports healing, and brings the surrounding Southern California landscape indoors. The stairwell is also fully visible from the building’s exterior, making the mural a public-facing work of art that contributes to the hospital’s architectural identity within the Encinitas community.

West Hollywood AIDS Monument​ – Los Angeles, CA 

The AIDS Monument honors the lives lost to HIV/AIDS while commemorating the activists, caregivers, and community leaders whose courage transformed grief into a lasting movement. Commissioned by the Foundation for the AIDS Monument in partnership with the City of West Hollywood, the 9,000-square-foot memorial by artist Dan Tobin features 147 hand-cast bronze traces that evolve from a scattered arrangement into a structured grid, symbolizing the journey from fear and loss to unity and hope. Engraved with personal reflections and illuminated at night to evoke the candlelight vigils of the epidemic, the monument stands as a powerful tribute to remembrance, resilience, and community.

Point of Infinity: Surface of Revolution with Constant Negative Curvature​ – Oakland, CA 

Point of Infinity: Surface of Revolution with Constant Negative Curvature is Hiroshi Sugimoto’s first large-scale public sculpture in the United States, rising 69 feet above Yerba Buena Island as a landmark of the Treasure Island Arts Program. Over a five-year collaboration, Atthowe Fine Art Services led the project’s engineering coordination, international logistics, and installation, working closely with the artist’s studio, fabricators, engineers, and public agencies to bring the monumental work to life. Inspired by mathematical concepts of infinity, time, and human knowledge, the sculpture seamlessly merges art, engineering, and landscape into a striking public destination.

T2​ – Los Altos, CA 

T2 is a 12-foot-tall corten steel monolith commissioned as a permanent public artwork for a new housing development in Los Altos, California. The second in Charles Gadeken’s Tower Series, T2 celebrates local fauna through intricate laser-cut imagery of sandhill cranes – an iconic species of California’s wetlands. The two cranes, male and female, are depicted on opposing sides of the tower in dynamic motion, their wings and bodies wrapping subtly around the corners of the form. By day, sunlight passes through the cutouts to cast shifting shadows; by night, internal LED illumination brings the silhouettes to life, animating the piece in conversation with its natural surroundings.

When Cloud Met a Cloud​ – Santa Clarita, CA

When Cloud Met a Cloud transforms civic infrastructure into an open-air classroom. Commissioned to reflect the history of the Castaic Lake Water Agency, the sculpture’s eleven gradient-colored raindrops and cloud forms give physical shape to an invisible story, making the water cycle tangible, memorable, and accessible to all ages. Metal pipes mirror the underground systems that deliver water to the community, while clouds and rain narrate the cycle that sustains it. Abstract science becomes something children can walk through, touch, and ask questions about. Since installation, the work has functioned as a living site of learning. School groups visit to explore the water cycle firsthand, grounding classroom science in sensory experience. Children engage spontaneously through play. Families extend the conversation into the community through shared documentation. The sculpture also anchors River of Light, a City of Santa Clarita illumination project in which ground lighting traces from the park’s hilltop down to the sculpture each night. This day-to-night transformation models the very cycle the work depicts: presence, movement, and return. Present by day and luminous by night, When Cloud Met a Cloud turns a civic story into an ongoing invitation: to play, to question, and to understand where water comes from.

Naga​ – San Francisco, CA

Naga, a 100-foot-long sea serpent, is the largest public art installation in the history of Golden Gate Park, transforming Rainbow Falls Pond into a whimsical landmark that celebrates creativity, collaboration, and community. Conceived by lead artist Cjay Roughgarden and brought to life by more than 200 volunteers who contributed 35,000 hours, the monumental sculpture features over 5,000 hand-painted aluminum scales, bubble-producing mechanisms, and dynamic LED lighting that animates the work from sunset to midnight. Blending imaginative design with complex engineering, Naga invites visitors of all ages to gather, explore, and experience the magic of public art.

Hands and Things ​- Los Angeles, CA

Functional Objects celebrates Los Angeles through 32 everyday artifacts spanning from prehistory to the present, each held by a community member whose hands reflect the neighborhood’s rich cultural and generational diversity. Created by artist Kenton Nelson Haendel using a blend of photorealistic pencil drawings and color photography, the work pairs local residents with objects sourced from nearby museums and cultural institutions, revealing the city’s evolving identity through intimate human connections. Developed through a collaborative process with participants from the Wilshire/Fairfax community, the installation transforms historical artifacts into deeply personal portraits of place, memory, and belonging.

COQUI – Pomona, CA

COQUÍ, a beloved symbol of the artist’s homeland, Puerto Rico, is a charming tree frog whose song fills the rainforest he calls home. COQUÍ by NiNo invites our community to explore the many attributes of this tiny but mighty creature by journeying inside his enlarged throat and becoming fully immersed in his world as he sings.

RISE​ – San Diego, CA

RISE is a larger-than-life kinetic sculpture, performance space, and shade structure inspired by the purple-striped jellyfish (Chrysaora colorata), an aquatic species often found off the coast of San Diego. Located on the Pacific coast, this work serves as a gentle reminder of the future impact of our changing climate. Should rising sea levels occur, it evokes the possibility of a real jellyfish inhabiting the very space where RISE now stands.

The Strauch Hypercube​ – Berkeley, CA

The Strauch Hypercube transforms the three-story atrium of UC Berkeley’s Grimes Engineering Center into a dynamic intersection of art, mathematics, and technology. Suspended within the glass-walled Forum, the monumental light sculpture features 46,000 illuminated points arranged in two nested cubes, using generative algorithms inspired by mathematical systems, engineering, and nature to create an ever-evolving visual experience where no two moments are the same. Conceived as both a symbol of discovery and an open platform for experimentation, the artwork invites students, faculty, and visitors to engage with a living installation that continuously evolves alongside its environment.

Leaves​ – Duarte, CA

Leaves is a sculptural shade installation by gt2P that transforms the Ted Schwartz Family Hope & Healing Park at City of Hope into a tranquil space for rest, reflection, and healing. Inspired by the instinctive act of looking upward in moments of hope, the installation’s layered metallic canopies frame the sky while providing shelter, creating an immersive dialogue between nature, light, and architecture. Blending parametric design, digital fabrication, and structural engineering, Leaves demonstrates how public art can foster emotional well-being by inviting patients, caregivers, and visitors to pause, gather, and reconnect with their surroundings.

Redwood Ripple​ – Ross, CA

Redwood Ripple is an immersive treehouse environment that spirals from the forest floor into the redwood canopy, blending architecture and play. Completed in 2024, the project features a 500-square-foot elevated platform suspended 35 feet above the ground and supported entirely by surrounding trees through custom-engineered laser-cut steel frames. Inspired by the organic emergence of mushrooms and forest fungi, the structure unfolds through layered circulation paths, suspended walkways and netted play spaces that encourage exploration for visitors of all ages. At the heart of the project is a ship-like entertainment deck connected to immersive environments below. Custom CNC-crafted detailing, integrated lighting, and biomorphic geometries create an atmosphere that feels both futuristic and deeply rooted in nature. By day, Redwood Ripple frames views of the surrounding canopy; by night, it transforms into a glowing landmark suspended among the trees.

Support California’s artists and celebrate the power of public art by casting your vote today.

Vote here: www.codaworx.com/codaawards/top-100