Estate Planning

My comfortable Libran logic is steeped in symmetry, proportion, scale and balance.  However, I delight in the unruly behavior of Michael Smith's home which completely hoodwinks the Golden Proportion.  Circles and squares form nice rotundas and water features but they have been assembled it seems, with little regard to the other.  The effect is interesting.
Sitting skewed on the property within puzzle piece shaped pools, the residence looks like it is temporarily moored on site.  This approach allows the suggestion of a breezy Rockford File lifestyle within the heavy hills of California...an architectural feat.

Cultural Attache

Coachella is a music festival in Cali that licks a landscape experience equal to the task of it's lineups. With Jim Jones punched faces, the throngs muddle like mint through the open space gallery of landscape installations.  The collision of art and music is a cultural mitzvah.

Sunnylands

Considered the Camp David of the West, Sunnylands was once a prestigious destination for gubernatorial grand fromages.  This year, the garden became open for public pleasure.  Located in Rancho Mirage, the exterior environment appropriately shouts a quintessential Slim Aarons vibe.

The pink ceramic facade is fun however, the trees buffering the house from the water are fantastic. Their placement around the structure reminds me of a jaw. Each one of them is a tooth in a perfect expression.

Where man versus nature collide, man concedes and permits the trees to pierce through the roofline. It gives the effect that they are stakes, holding the structure in place. 

A floss of open spaces are created in the interstitial areas between the canopies to allow for social participation with the landscape to play out.  Love it.