Orchid 
Artist Janelle Iglesias, site-specific artwork entitled TEXT/TILE was commissioned by the City of San Diego for the Pacific Highlands Ranch Branch Library, in the Pacific Highlands Ranch community in San Diego. The artist spent several months learning about the site, engaging with the public, and working with the library’s design team to develop her artwork. TEXT/TILE, is an immersive tile installation that fills the library’s courtyard, which acts as a back entrance to the library.
Each tile is made of two-tones of terracotta clay and was handcrafted so that each tile contains various characters from the Latin alphabet and punctuation marks. The tiles were produced at the Cerámica Suro factory in Guadalajara. It has a tactile element so that viewers can engage with the installation by touch. At certain locations within the installation, viewers can make out words in English, Spanish, and Kumeyaay that relate to the linguistic history of the site as well as present-day populations.
The artwork activates the exterior courtyard as a unique space, while also serving as a continuation of the library’s architectural focus on bringing the outside in and the inside out: Iglesias’ installation is outdoors but merges with the interior of the building through the connections and references to the library’s programming and design. The installation was inspired by early libraries which were made up of incised letters on clay tablets. This idea relates to the Pacific Highlands Ranch Branch Library as a library overall, but also to the library’s IDEA Lab, within, which focuses on paleontology and archeology.
The terracotta tiles compliment the earth tone palette of the Spanish Revival design of buildings in the Pacific Highlands Ranch neighborhood.
Landscape elements were designed in coordination with an ethnobotanist and the landscape architect for the library. Visitors to the library are encouraged to occupy the space of the courtyard by the integration of seating elements as well as the inclusion of modular furniture.