THE TEXTILE BLOCK HOUSES

As the Hollyhock House neared completion in 1920, Frank Lloyd Wright received a second Los Angeles commission, from antiquarian Alice Millard, who had arrived in Pasadena from Chicago in 1914. With her late husband she had commissioned a classic Prairie-style house from Wright in 1906; now she wanted something new, inspired by the palazzi of Venice.

WAYFINDING

Many wayfinding designers are baby boomers whose political and environmental consciousness was informed by the futile Vietnam conflict and subsequent social ferment of the 1970s. Motivated by a sense of public communal mission and zeal for creative experimentation, they gradually moved the wayfinding field into the 21st century, building upon the foundation of experience established by earlier design pioneers over the course of the previous century.

VERTICAL GARDENS

About 15 years ago, I met an uncommon and fascinating man. His solid reputation as a scientist and researcher preceded him, a living encyclopedia on plants worldwide — growing in severe and difficult conditions, deprived of light in the shadows of tall trees (where, in contrast to the old saying, there is always something growing), or deprived of nutrients among rocks... Here was a man who was familiar with strolling the Amazon forests and riding under the canopy on a raft.

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