San Leandro Tech Campus and Truth Is Beauty – Lit for the First Time!

By Office of Innovation
In Uncategorized
Oct 25th, 2016
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Last Tuesday evening, October 18th, Phase I of the San Leandro Tech Campus became a beautiful backdrop for the publicly acknowledged main event of the evening — the initial public lighting of the sculpture, Truth Is Beauty.

Completion of Phase I of the Tech Campus is a monumental achievement unto itself!  Phase I includes 130,000 sf of Class A, Gold LEED rated office space that will be the new home of OSIsoft — move-in from their existing space at 777 Davis Street and the Creekside offices has already begun.  Connected to Lit San Leandro, the Tech Campus is also the planned site for construction of the City’s first renewable energy micro grid – prototyping an energy resilient future for San Leandro!  For more information on the Tech Campus and Truth Is Beauty, please go to to the San Leandro Tech Campus web site.

The program began with a short video that previewed a longer documentary under development about Truth Is Beauty’s journey to the San Leandro Tech Campus (first video, below).  Mayor Cutter kicked off the program with an ode to San Leandro’s past, present and future and her invitation to San Leandrans to view Truth Is Beauty as a reminder to be kinder and gentler with each other.  Jenny Linton, President of OSIsoft, talked of her family’s commitment to San Leandro as long-time residents and community members; and as investors in San Leandro’s future through OSIsoft’s expansion and Dr. Patrick Kennedy’s public private partnership with the City that resulted in Lit San Leandro.  Rebecca Saltzman, BART Director, spoke of her pride in seeing the Tech Campus and Truth Is Beauty rise from the raw earth beside the Downtown station, promising BART will do its part to create a more pleasurable experience for riders entering at the Downtown BART station.  CIO Deborah Acosta spoke of the promise of new industries and jobs for San Leandro — and Truth Is Beauty’s invitation to address barriers to opportunity for women, people of color,  and the LGBT community in the tech industry and the increased prosperity that would come from empowering women.  Marco Cochrane and Julie Whitelaw told the origin story of Truth Is Beauty and the Bliss Project and the message behind each of the three statues: “What would the world be like if women were safe.”  SLED student interns spoke of their project “I Imagine a World….” and showed a remarkable video of SLUSD students expressing their dreams of a kinder world (2nd video, below).  Finally, the speeches concluded with a rousing talk from Nancy O’Malley, the well known and respected Alameda County District Attorney, whose work on human trafficking, sexual assaults and standardizing rape kits is legendary.

The audience then gathered at the foot of the statue, where women rape survivors stood shoulder to shoulder with members of the San Leandro Domestic Violence Task Force to light candles and begin a whisper that grew to a crescendo: What would the world be like if women were safe?  Deja Solis, the model for all three of the Bliss Project sculptures, sang a song in celebration of the moment — and then the statue was lit in purple in honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Truth Is Beauty will be lit up every evening in purple throughout the month of October in honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month.  She is programmed with at least 6 different lighting scenarios – it will be an adventure to see how she is lit in the weeks and months to come!  The City of San Leandro is hosting tours of Truth Is Beauty beginning the first Saturday in November – click here for more information.

Below are included three videos and a few memorable pictures of the event (thank you Tim Holmes for the terrific pictures!) .  Many more can be found on Facebook, Instagram and in the media.  Enjoy your search!

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“What would the world be like if women were safe” is inscribed in 10 languages around the base of Truth Is Beauty

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From left: Gaye Quinn (Westlake Urban), Deborah Acosta (San Leandro), Mayor Pauline Cutter, Greg Delaune (UIXGlobal)

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From left: Deborah Acosta, Deja Solis (the model for all three sculptures in the Bliss Project), Gaye Quinn

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Visitors from Orange Telecom, France, last week!

6 Responses to “San Leandro Tech Campus and Truth Is Beauty – Lit for the First Time!”

  1. […] Truth is Beauty as inspiration and women’s economic empowerment as our goal, the San Leandro Women Entrepreneurs […]

  2. […] support for Community Impact Lab will lay the foundation for a women’s entrepreneurship incubator space, one that will be uniquely designed to redefine what it means for a woman to integrate family, work […]

  3. […] of the City of San Leandro, I announced a new project that was already underway: the creation of a San Leandro Women’s Tech Incubator. I spoke of the promise of new industries and jobs for San Leandro — and Truth Is Beauty’s […]

  4. […] the streetscape, with the Great Migration of the Monarch Butterfly mural on San Leandro Boulevard, Truth is Beauty at the San Leandro Tech Campus, the Chime Way in Joaquin Plaza, the Spacetime from a Breath of Air […]

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