Posts by Alison Moore

Lawrence Halprin, The Irving Levin Garden, San Anselmo, 1951 Courtesy of Fred Levin

A Landscape Planned for Living: Lawrence Halprin’s Levin Family Garden

Gardens were a wonderful testing ground for details and a great learning experience for how things are constructed. When gardens were successful they provided great personal joy and led me to some interesting discoveries and friendships.

—Lawrence Halprin, A Life

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Charles Birnbaum (Photographer), The Sea Ranch, 2008 Courtesy of Charles Birnbaum/The Cultural Landscape Foundation

Living Lightly on the Land: Lawrence Halprin and The Sea Ranch

Today The Sea Ranch on California’s Sonoma coast is known as a rustic community where people live in harmony with their environment. In 2005, landscape architect Lawrence Halprin—who developed The Sea Ranch master plan in the early 1960s—noted that wherever … Read more

Lawrence Halprin and George Lucas at the Letterman Digital Arts Center Opening, June 25, 2005 Courtesy of Robert David

Lawrence Halprin and the Letterman Digital Arts Center

Luminous beings are we… —Yoda in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, 1980

We don’t know if the renowned landscape architect Lawrence Halprin (1916–2009) was a Star Wars fan, but we can say with some certainty that … Read more

[The Human Be-In, Golden Gate Park, 1967 January 14], photograph by Gene Anthony, courtesy, California Historical Society, CPA-SOL_005

49 Years Ago: The Human Be-In

The “Summer of Love” in 1967 is generally thought to be when everything changed in San Francisco. As with most historic moments, there were many precipitating events which were bellwethers of things to come.… Read more

Levi’s Plaza Fountain with Levi Strauss & Co. Headquarters in the Background, 2015 Courtesy of Alison Moore

The Sierra in the City: Lawrence Halprin and Levi’s Plaza

In 1973 Levi Strauss & Co. left its cozy quarters at 98 Battery Street in San Francisco for the bold, upright world of the new Embarcadero Center, a series of four skyscrapers located near the city’s waterfront. Within a few … Read more

Ghirardelli Square Courtesy of Fairmont Heritage Place

Urban Renaissance with Mermaids: Lawrence Halprin’s Ghirardelli Square

Today we know that the revival of the urban inner city begins with the restoration and re-use of old buildings. Cities that have preserved their old downtowns and industrial districts find in them the seeds to begin anew. Seeking community, … Read more

Sproul Plaza, courtesy Alison Moore.

Lawrence Halprin and the Plaza That Changed the World

Is architecture capable of changing the course of history?

On October 1, 1964, in the midst of a growing protest, University of California, Berkeley student Mario Savio hopped onto the roof of a police car in Sproul Plaza, the open … Read more