The June 2012 issue of San Francisco Magazine features an article about Timothy Brown, the first person to cured of AIDS.  Brown was given a bone marrow transplant in Germany that seems to have eliminated all traces of the HIV virus.  An interesting and inspiring story, but what I found personally interesting is that Brown has moved to San Francisco and is helping scientest develop treatments that will help other patients -- AND -- he lives at the Ambassador Hotel in the Tenderloin.  The renovation of the Ambassador Hotel is a project Mock/Wallace completed a few years ago.  Nice to feel connected to this story in some small way.  Click this to see the Ambassador.    LM

Walking down a tree lined street in Berkeley  with shingled houses steeped in the Bay Area shingle style, there's no shortage of inviting homes with front and side gardens.  I almost walked by this fence and gate without paying much attention as there isn't much  to distinguish it from many others.

Then I noticed.  The modest grape stake fence weathers beautifully and provides security plus privacy.  The simple criss-cross grill moves the eye up and gives measured glimpses -- where privacy is not a concern.   A simple trellis completes the fence and the unadorned brackets announce the gate.  The overflowing green vines promise viewers of delights beyond.  Its just there and it's friendly and nice. . . .LM

Everyone knows trees are a valuable natural resource absorbing carbon dioxide, producing oxygen, and providing shade.  As vast forests shrink and the effects of gobal warming become more apparent, the value of each tree becomes more important.  At least that is what the City of Chicago thinks.  In the streets and parks of Chicago, the City has tagged trees showing their contribution to a healthy environment with an assigned dollar value.  

That's speaking in terms most people can understand. 
  

Natural sunlight bathes everything equally.  At night, lighting designers choose what to light and what to emphasize leaving the rest cloaked in darkness.  Add the option of choosing the color of light and you can really direct the eye.  In the photo on the left, nothing stands out, but in the night photo on the right when the clock tower is colored blue, it becomes a crowning focus.  Designers and architects are constantly imagining how to frame views as they mentally "walk" through buildings.

Chicago's Millenium Park is one of the most engaging public open spaces I've seen.  Public art such as the "bean" draws crowds of people.  Garden lovers stroll the marble paved paths of the 5 acre Lurie Garden  and Frank Gehry's serpentine BP Bridge is a kinetic visual delight as people criss-cross as they walk over  Columbus Drive.  

Chicago is a history lesson of 150 years of modern architecture -- particularly the development of the skyscraper.   LM

Last October 2011, I wrote about new organic LED (OLED) fixtures that were soon to be introduced.  The potential of this new product -- composed of thin layers of film that glow  -- promise to dim the distinction between light fixture and light bulb.

French Lighting manufacturer, Blackbody, has introduced a line of OLEDs and  one is pictured.  A suspended series of thin disks, each an OLED, seems an ideal match for this new technology.  See this link for their 2012 catalog.