https://www.johnsonfavaro.com/perspective daily 0.75 2026-07-22 https://www.johnsonfavaro.com/perspective/2025/1117/against-the-grain-43gfj-gk8gp monthly 0.5 2026-07-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/a05cb2d5-a534-489d-8a02-8d0952e2eacf/Paperclip+Maximizer++2025.jpg Perspective - THE PARABLE OF THE PAPERCLIP MAXIMIZER: WHY THE REAL ESTATE MARKET IS UNABLE TO FIX OUR CITIES (OR EVEN KNOWS THEY NEED FIXING) - Make it stand out PUBLIC SECTOR INITIATIVE An example of what a municipal government could be capable of were it to take the initiative, this plan would accommodate a variety of uses including residences of the kind that people would want to live in. (Study for Redevelopment of Torrance Civic Center, Torrance, CA, Johnson Favaro 2023) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/2a45fede-596b-4245-9671-4356a8565f66/Paperclip+Maximizer++20252.jpg Perspective - THE PARABLE OF THE PAPERCLIP MAXIMIZER: WHY THE REAL ESTATE MARKET IS UNABLE TO FIX OUR CITIES (OR EVEN KNOWS THEY NEED FIXING) - Make it stand out TOP Image: Nick Bostrom. Official portrait. Nick Bostrom. MIDDLE Image: Bostrom, N. (2014). Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies. Oxford University Press. BOTTOM Image: Paperclip Maximizer illustration. Inspired by Nick Bostrom's thought experiment in Superintelligence (2014). Original artist unknown. MISALIGNED VALUES As much as philosophers and AI developers fear the alignment problem with artificial intelligence, examples abound over the course of human history of how we humans--our economies and our building patterns--can mis-align with our core values. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/f53601c3-d0f0-4a9d-8c7c-45d793c2c7bd/Paperclip+Maximizer++20253.jpg Perspective - THE PARABLE OF THE PAPERCLIP MAXIMIZER: WHY THE REAL ESTATE MARKET IS UNABLE TO FIX OUR CITIES (OR EVEN KNOWS THEY NEED FIXING) - Make it stand out TOP Image: François Quesnay. Engraving portrait. Bibliothèque nationale de France. MIDDLE Image: Quesnay, F. (1758). Tableau Économique. BOTTOM Image: Mazzucato, M. (2018). The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy. PublicAffairs. MAKING AND TAKING Political economics originated with the French 18th century philosopher/economist Francois Quesnay (1994-1774), whose work established the theoretical foundations for what became modern capitalism and which from the beginning distinguished between “productive” (making) and “extractive” (taking) economies. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/f91c3035-17aa-4f17-8230-75acae77777f/Paperclip+Maximizer++20254.jpg Perspective - THE PARABLE OF THE PAPERCLIP MAXIMIZER: WHY THE REAL ESTATE MARKET IS UNABLE TO FIX OUR CITIES (OR EVEN KNOWS THEY NEED FIXING) - Make it stand out TOP Image: Adam Smith. Engraved portrait. Public domain. MIDDLE 1 Image: Smith, A. (1761). The Theory of Moral Sentiments (2nd ed.). London: A. Millar. MIDDLE 2 Image: Smith, A. (1776). An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. London: W. Strahan & T. Cadell. BOTTOM Image: Mazzucato, M. (2018). The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy. PublicAffairs. INVISIBLE HAND METAPHOR The famous, variously interpreted, and misinterpreted Adam Smith quote from both Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations: “He intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention….” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/86a0b52a-df5b-40d6-aa91-bac8f396cc49/Paperclip+Maximizer++20255.jpg Perspective - THE PARABLE OF THE PAPERCLIP MAXIMIZER: WHY THE REAL ESTATE MARKET IS UNABLE TO FIX OUR CITIES (OR EVEN KNOWS THEY NEED FIXING) - Make it stand out TOP Image: Liu, G. M. Official portrait. Harvard University. Retrieved from https://gov.harvard.edu MIDDLE Image: Liu, G. M. (2022). Adam Smith's America: How a Scottish Philosopher Became an Icon of American Capitalism. Princeton University Press. BOTTOM Image: Paraphrased from Glory M. Liu, Adam Smith’s America: How a Scottish Philosopher Became an Icon of American Capitalism (Princeton University Press, 2022). FREE MARKET MYTH This historian has demonstrated that for over 250 years economists in America have deployed varying interpretations of the writings of Adam Smith to 1) convey authenticity and authority and 2) support the dogma of the moment including in our time our unqualified faith in the virtues of “the market.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/8f8018df-5d25-4915-9f36-1b2ae9b60d78/Paperclip+Maximizer++20256.jpg Perspective - THE PARABLE OF THE PAPERCLIP MAXIMIZER: WHY THE REAL ESTATE MARKET IS UNABLE TO FIX OUR CITIES (OR EVEN KNOWS THEY NEED FIXING) - Make it stand out TOP Image: Braun, G., & Hogenberg, F. (1572–1617). Londinum Feracissimi Angliae Regni Metropolis. Public domain. MIDDLE 1 Image: Whitbread, J. (1853). Whitbread's New Plan of London: Drawn from Authentic Surveys. Library of Congress. MIDDLE 2 Image: Whitbread, J. (1868). Reduced Ordnance Map of London. The London Archives / London Picture Archive. BOTTOM Image: Paraphrased from Michael Dennis, Temples and Towns: The Making of Urban Civilization (2025). SPECULATIVE REAL ESTATE ORIGINS The aristocratic estates surrounding London were had all been mostly in a state of decline since at least the 18th century rendering their owners land rich and cash poor, hence the need to develop their land, developments which expanded the footprint of the city and have become some of the most sought after neighborhoods in the city. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/e0be9a9c-ca69-4605-b86f-417f4c968a9d/Paperclip+Maximizer++20257.jpg Perspective - THE PARABLE OF THE PAPERCLIP MAXIMIZER: WHY THE REAL ESTATE MARKET IS UNABLE TO FIX OUR CITIES (OR EVEN KNOWS THEY NEED FIXING) - Make it stand out TOP Image: Kip, J. (c. 1717–1720). The Piazza in Covent Garden (view looking north). Public domain. MIDDLE 1 Image: Rocque, J. (1746). A Plan of the Cities of London and Westminster, and Borough of Southwark. Public domain. MIDDLE 21 Image: Google Earth. Satellite imagery of Covent Garden, London. © Google. BOTTOM Image: Paraphrased from Michael Dennis, Temples and Towns: The Making of Urban Civilization (2025). RESIDUAL VALUES Composed by architects the plans that emerged for these properties included squares, parks, affirmatively designed streets, row houses, and flats. Imbedded in them are values and norms of town planning that had matured over centuries of experience in the western world, mostly on the European continent. (Covent Garden, Inigo Jones, London, England, circa 1630). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/9936a3fd-878d-4ae2-8f28-857198de8c64/Paperclip+Maximizer++20258.jpg Perspective - THE PARABLE OF THE PAPERCLIP MAXIMIZER: WHY THE REAL ESTATE MARKET IS UNABLE TO FIX OUR CITIES (OR EVEN KNOWS THEY NEED FIXING) - Make it stand out TOP Image: Nicholls, S. (c. 1731). Grosvenor Square, London. Engraving. Public domain. MIDDLE Image: Rocque, J. (1746). A Plan of the Cities of London and Westminster, and Borough of Southwark. Public domain. BOTTOM Image: Google Earth. Satellite imagery of Grosvenor Square, London. © Google. BOTTOM Text: Paraphrased from Michael Dennis, Temples and Towns: The Making of Urban Civilization (2025). CORE VALUES The neighborhoods produced by the estate developments always centered around a stable core, the square, around the perimeter of which residences aligned and out of which emerged streets that connected to the rest of the city. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/ed4f9e3a-893e-4e33-b21e-c3c6aaf710d2/Paperclip+Maximizer++20259.jpg Perspective - THE PARABLE OF THE PAPERCLIP MAXIMIZER: WHY THE REAL ESTATE MARKET IS UNABLE TO FIX OUR CITIES (OR EVEN KNOWS THEY NEED FIXING) - Make it stand out TOP Image: Bedford Square, London. Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. MIDDLE 1 Image: Google Earth. Satellite imagery of Bedford Square, London. © Google. MIDDLE 2 Image: Dennis, M. (2025). Bedford Square section and townhouse plans. In Temples and Towns: The Making of Urban Civilization. MIDDLE 3 Image: Dennis, M. (2025). Bedford Square urban plan. In Temples and Towns: The Making of Urban Civilization. BOTTOM Image: Paraphrased from Michael Dennis, Temples and Towns: The Making of Urban Civilization (2025). DRAWN BY ARCHITECTS The estate plans were drawn by architects, which mostly entailed subdivision of large properties into smaller ones (mostly residential townhouse lots) that were then sold to developers who then hired architects to design the buildings on them. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/11f57833-127d-44cd-a16f-a6dbdb3da1c2/Paperclip+Maximizer++202510.jpg Perspective - THE PARABLE OF THE PAPERCLIP MAXIMIZER: WHY THE REAL ESTATE MARKET IS UNABLE TO FIX OUR CITIES (OR EVEN KNOWS THEY NEED FIXING) - Make it stand out TOP Image: Google Earth. Satellite imagery of Belgravia, London, showing Belgrave Square, Eaton Square, Cadogan Square, and Onslow Square. © Google. MIDDLE Image: Google Earth. Satellite imagery of Belgravia, London. © Google. BOTTOM Image: Google Earth. Satellite imagery of Central London. © Google. BOTTOM Image: Paraphrased from Michael Dennis, Temples and Towns: The Making of Urban Civilization (2025). ENDURING VALUES Some of the most famous and sought after and therefore expensive and affluent neighborhoods in the world are those that were developed on the estates surrounding the City of London in the 18th and 19th centuries. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/8394c342-73a1-41bf-88f6-4738a6d75366/Paperclip+Maximizer++202511.jpg Perspective - THE PARABLE OF THE PAPERCLIP MAXIMIZER: WHY THE REAL ESTATE MARKET IS UNABLE TO FIX OUR CITIES (OR EVEN KNOWS THEY NEED FIXING) - Make it stand out TOP Image: Photograph of Pelham Crescent, London. Wikimedia Commons. MIDDLE Image: Google Earth. Aerial imagery of Pelham Crescent, London. © Google. BOTTOM Image: Google Earth. Satellite imagery of Central London, highlighting the location of Pelham Crescent. © Google. SHAPED TO SHAPE Adopting principles established in 16th century Italy the buildings that made up the neighborhoods took their shape primarily to shape the spaces upon which they faced. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/c40d6a17-7794-4354-a9c6-99329f3f5d57/Paperclip+Maximizer++202512.jpg Perspective - THE PARABLE OF THE PAPERCLIP MAXIMIZER: WHY THE REAL ESTATE MARKET IS UNABLE TO FIX OUR CITIES (OR EVEN KNOWS THEY NEED FIXING) - Make it stand out TOP Image: Photograph of Onslow Square, London. Wikimedia Commons. MIDDLE 1 Image: Aerial photograph of Onslow Square, London. Wikimedia Commons. MIDDLE 2 Image: Google Earth. Aerial imagery of Onslow Square, London. © Google. BOTTOM Image: Google Earth. Satellite imagery of Central London, highlighting the location of Onslow Square. © Google. PIAZZA INTO SQUARE In lieu of the mostly paved “piazza” of Italy, the neighborhood “square” in London is usually a park. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/ace06e80-be9d-4682-8825-637e1f9fc8a7/Paperclip+Maximizer++202513.jpg Perspective - THE PARABLE OF THE PAPERCLIP MAXIMIZER: WHY THE REAL ESTATE MARKET IS UNABLE TO FIX OUR CITIES (OR EVEN KNOWS THEY NEED FIXING) - Make it stand out TOP Image: Rockefeller Center, New York City. Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. MIDDLE 1 Image: Aerial view of Rockefeller Center, New York City. Google Earth. © Google. MIDDLE 2 Image: Figure illustrating the site plan of Rockefeller Center. Adapted from Dennis, M. (2025). Temples and Towns: The Making of Urban Civilization. BOTTOM Image: Adapted from Michael Dennis, Temples and Towns: The Making of Urban Civilization (2025). LONG TERM VALUES Rockefeller Center in mid-town New York, like the London Estates, was a privately funded project which like the London Estates was both a profit-making endeavor and one which recognized that its returns would materialize only in the long term. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/e44323da-f99c-4243-ace7-5bb2280aaaca/Paperclip+Maximizer++202514.jpg Perspective - THE PARABLE OF THE PAPERCLIP MAXIMIZER: WHY THE REAL ESTATE MARKET IS UNABLE TO FIX OUR CITIES (OR EVEN KNOWS THEY NEED FIXING) - Make it stand out TOP Image: Hudson Yards, New York City. Photograph. Related Companies. MIDDLE 1 Image: Aerial view of Hudson Yards, New York City. Wikimedia Commons. MIDDLE 2 Image: Hudson Yards Master Plan. Related Companies and Oxford Properties. BOTTOM Image: Adapted from Michael Dennis, Temples and Towns: The Making of Urban Civilization (2025). SHORT TERM VALUES Hudson Yards on the upper west side of New York required multiple third party sources of funding, most of which demand short term returns (typically five years) on their investment, such demands were reflected in both the urban design plan and architecture of the development. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/4b941faa-ab34-4f0b-aa43-8420ad4f9109/Paperclip+Maximizer++202515.jpg Perspective - THE PARABLE OF THE PAPERCLIP MAXIMIZER: WHY THE REAL ESTATE MARKET IS UNABLE TO FIX OUR CITIES (OR EVEN KNOWS THEY NEED FIXING) - Make it stand out TOP Image: Aerial view of Rockefeller Center, New York City. Google Earth. © Google. MIDDLE 1 Image: Adapted from Dennis, M. (2025). Temples and Towns: The Making of Urban Civilization. MIDDLE 2 Image: Aerial view of Hudson Yards, New York City. Wikimedia Commons. BOTTOM Image: Adapted from Dennis, M. (2025). Temples and Towns: The Making of Urban Civilization. VANISHING VALUES The values that drove the plan and design of Rockefeller Center a century ago -- those that saw development within a city not only as an economic project, but as a form of neighborhood and city building—had by the time of the Hudson Yards long vanished. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/cab563d2-c668-4c36-8b9e-e34d1f781b79/Paperclip+Maximizer++202516.jpg Perspective - THE PARABLE OF THE PAPERCLIP MAXIMIZER: WHY THE REAL ESTATE MARKET IS UNABLE TO FIX OUR CITIES (OR EVEN KNOWS THEY NEED FIXING) - Make it stand out TOP Image: Google Earth. Aerial imagery of Century City, Los Angeles, California. © Google. BOTTOM Image: Century City Master Plan (c. 1970s). Adapted from Dennis, M. (2025). Temples and Towns: The Making of Urban Civilization. CYNICAL VALUES Like the London Estates, Century City in Los Angeles, was initiated by a cash poor, land rich private player (the movie studio 20th Century Fox) but unlike the London Estates and more like Hudson Yards, Century City was designed as a citadel, almost entirely isolated from its surroundings. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/570cffa4-5948-489b-9a10-d82148a27c56/Paperclip+Maximizer++202517.jpg Perspective - THE PARABLE OF THE PAPERCLIP MAXIMIZER: WHY THE REAL ESTATE MARKET IS UNABLE TO FIX OUR CITIES (OR EVEN KNOWS THEY NEED FIXING) - Make it stand out TOP Image: Century City skyline, Los Angeles, California. Wikimedia Commons. BOTTOM Image: Century City, Los Angeles, California. Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. MARKET DRIVEN NIHILISM Like Hudson Yards and countless real estate developments across the nation Century City could be anywhere in the nation as it bears no relationship to where it is. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/2c447947-c176-4e6b-a8b8-5c87ef03e848/Paperclip+Maximizer++202518.jpg Perspective - THE PARABLE OF THE PAPERCLIP MAXIMIZER: WHY THE REAL ESTATE MARKET IS UNABLE TO FIX OUR CITIES (OR EVEN KNOWS THEY NEED FIXING) - Make it stand out TOP Image: Shaftesbury Capital PLC. Investors. https://www.shaftesburycapital.com/investors/ MIDDLE 1 Image: Adapted from Shaftesbury Capital PLC. Investors. https://www.shaftesburycapital.com/investors/ MIDDLE 2 Image: Derwent London PLC. Investors. https://www.derwentlondon.com/investors/ BOTTOM Image: Adapted from Derwent London PLC. Investors. https://www.derwentlondon.com/investors/ EXTRACTION MASQUERADING AS INVESTMENT In an extractive global economy third party investors seek out facilitators such as investment banks who through mechanisms such as Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) provide opportunities to put their wealth “to work”, meaning generate income from Returns on Investment (ROIs)—all entirely removed from the real estate development that generates the ROI. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/906615aa-749f-4f4c-9263-123d58f91c49/Paperclip+Maximizer++202519.jpg Perspective - THE PARABLE OF THE PAPERCLIP MAXIMIZER: WHY THE REAL ESTATE MARKET IS UNABLE TO FIX OUR CITIES (OR EVEN KNOWS THEY NEED FIXING) - Make it stand out TOP Image: Mazzucato, M. (2018). The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy. Penguin Books. BOTTOM Image: Quoted from Mazzucato, M. (2018). The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy. Penguin Books. MISALIGNED MARKET No part of our economy illustrates better what this author claims than the current state of the real estate market, which given the most exaggerated and extractive shape it has taken since is so out of alignment with how most people want to live still determines how they live. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/1cd1095a-1df6-4515-9aa7-1b8b03ee428c/Paperclip+Maximizer++202520.jpg Perspective - THE PARABLE OF THE PAPERCLIP MAXIMIZER: WHY THE REAL ESTATE MARKET IS UNABLE TO FIX OUR CITIES (OR EVEN KNOWS THEY NEED FIXING) - Make it stand out REALIGNED MARKET Clearly the real estate market has so lost itself that only by recapturing classical principles of urban design with their emphasis on the coherency and utility of spaces between buildings and the diversity of residential arrangements within buildings drawn and enforced by architects alone will we ever recover from the mess of the last 100 years. (Study for Redevelopment of Torrance Civic Center, Torrance, CA, Johnson Favaro 2023). https://www.johnsonfavaro.com/perspective/2025/1117/against-the-grain-43gfj monthly 0.5 2026-06-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/641a383e-38c2-45d2-9eba-eac241032cb3/Abundance+05.25.jpg Perspective - Abundance of what? - Make it stand out PUBLIC SECTOR INVESTMENT in the form of a new branch library will catalyze mixed-use residential development in this distressed 1960s era suburban shopping mall creating a neighborhood where currently there resides little more than struggling retail, too-wide streets and vast empty parking lots (Newbury Park Branch Library, Thousand Oaks, CA, Johnson Favaro 2023) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/1989b6e3-d406-40c2-bf2f-297594b02eec/Abundance+05.252.jpg Perspective - Abundance of what? - Make it stand out ABOVE images: Abundance, How We Built a Better Future, 2025, Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson PUBLIC SECTOR AGENCY (in the purest sense of the word) is at the heart of the argument here, somewhat masked by the cheer-leading and vaguely misleading term “abundance.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/05abcd46-3ed8-42d0-b112-5f0e83c4eb23/Abundance+05.253.jpg Perspective - Abundance of what? - Make it stand out TOP: Front page, Petaluma Argus-Courier, March 28, 1972 by Petaluma Historical Library & Museum, MIDDLE: Petaluma postcard, early 1970s by Petaluma Historical Library & Museum, BOTTOM: Google Maps FEAR NOT VISION OR DESIGN drove the anti-growth movement in places like Sonoma County in northern California in the 1970s when rampant suburban development threatened to overcome the natural environment as far as the eye could see. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/371a3db4-4b22-4e25-81d5-f1d9d3dd8047/Abundance+05.254.jpg Perspective - Abundance of what? - Make it stand out TOP :Farmland east of downtown Petaluma, 1939 by Sonoma County Genealogy & History Library, MIDDLE 1: Construction of U.S. 101 viewed from the new East Washington Street overpass looking north, 1955 by Sonoma County Genealogy & History Library, MIDDLE 2: Housing construction on Hill Boulevard and Bassett Street above Petaluma High, 1955 by Sonoma County Genealogy & History Library, BOTTOM: Madison Square housing development, looking down Madison Street, early 1950s by Sonoma County Genealogy & History Library. UNDERLYING ASSUMPTIONS OF SUBURBAN DEVELOPMENT -- -our reliance on single family housing tracts and automobiles --- were never questioned in the 1970s era California anti-growth movement, nor have they yet. (The transformation of Petaluma in northern California from a ranching and farming community to a suburban community in the 1950s and 60s) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/724b1426-15c5-48cd-b124-4ab1864fe6e6/Abundance+05.255.jpg Perspective - Abundance of what? - Make it stand out TOP: Aerial views of the Janss Ranch, prior to the 1955 widening of the 101 freeway by Thousand Oaks Special Collections / Calisphere Archive, MIDDLE: Historic 1960 groundbreaking ceremony for the Conejo Village development in the Conejo Valley, California by Thousand Oaks Special Collections / Calisphere Archive, BOTTOM : Mid-century aerial view showing early commercial development along the US-101 corridor in the Conejo Valley, featuring the original Conejo Village retail plaza by Thousand Oaks Special Collections / Calisphere Archive. NORTH, SOUTH, EAST AND WEST suburban development, widely considered the apotheosis of the good life expanded at a fast clip across California in the post-war and mid-century years. (The transformation of Thousand Oaks in southern California from a ranching and farming community to a suburban community in the 1950s and 60s) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/8a571e8e-9264-40d6-9e44-1a18d586ac43/Abundance+05.256.jpg Perspective - Abundance of what? - Make it stand out TOP: Thousand Oaks Boulevard in Ventura County, California by Thousand Oaks Library Special Collections / Calisphere Archive, MIDDLE: Map of Thousand Oaks showing city limits by Google Earth, BOTTOM: Google Maps THOUSAND OAKS, a community of 125,000, 55 square miles in extent, lies west of the Los Angeles metropolitan area and like suburban communities across California came into its own with the building of a freeway (in this case HWY 101). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/53a00590-330d-4b9f-a82d-618b482213a8/Abundance+05.257.jpg Perspective - Abundance of what? - Make it stand out ABOVE Images: Source Shutterstock 1970s CALIFORNIA recoiled from what seemed like out-of-control development and instituted environmental controls through laws and ordinances that curtailed it in many places across the state, among them Santa Monica in the south and Napa in the north. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/fb7a4308-4d43-467a-b93d-ae37606120bd/Abundance+05.258.jpg Perspective - Abundance of what? - Make it stand out ABOVE 4 Images: Tracy Hills resort-style development project by tracyhillslife.com, MIDDLE 5: Aerial Map of Tracey Hills Development by Google Earth, BOTTOM: Google Maps. NEW SURBURBAN SINGLE FAMILY TRACT DEVELOPMENT continues seemingly unabated to this day, the underlying assumptions about how we live not having budged since 1950 (New “Tracy Hills Community” development under construction in 2025 along Interstate 5 on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/8ebd8308-2df8-4d53-9c27-12215631b452/Abundance+05.259.jpg Perspective - Abundance of what? - Make it stand out ABOVE : Google Maps/ Satellite OUTWARD EXPANSION CONTINUES consuming ever more virgin lands at increasing distances from metropolitan areas of the state. (Northeast Sacramento County above, Northeast San Diego County below) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/3df5c4b3-3fa3-42ac-b36d-5795054a73c8/Abundance+05.2510.jpg Perspective - Abundance of what? - Make it stand out ABOVE Images: Source Shutterstock MEANWHILE THE USSR also built alienating and dystopian tracts of housing to accommodate burgeoning populations in the 1950s and 60s-- in their case tall apartment buildings --- in abundance and without abandon across the empire. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/b6d35a8b-7a56-401c-a26f-f6b9d6e556d5/Abundance+05.2511.jpg Perspective - Abundance of what? - Make it stand out ABOVE Images: Source Shutterstock BURGEONING POPULATIONS admittedly require extreme measures, when, for example, traditionally agriculturally based populations flood into metropolitan areas; and yet we also know that the density of development required need not nor should it have taken the form that it has. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/566313f2-db18-4f16-977a-ddb6afde09b7/Abundance+05.2512.jpg Perspective - Abundance of what? - Make it stand out ABOVE Images: Source Shutterstock AN ABUNDANCE OF POOR JUDGEMENT driven by irrational impulses, megalomania, international finance and greed has given us hugely extravagant and expensive developments that are little more than distractions from what are the central urban design challenges of our time https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/f8b60118-b941-44c5-9d18-9f2b09e89a6b/Abundance+05.2513.jpg Perspective - Abundance of what? - Make it stand out TOP: Shutterstock, MIDDLE: New Murabba Development Co. / AtkinsRéalis, BOTTOM: “Sphere Sensation Celebration Photo Gallery,” Tripadvisor, Nevada Tour Co. AN ABUNDANCE OF VANITY PROJECTS has proliferated across the country and the world, but to what end, in the name and to the benefit of whom? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/a61dcee1-e2ea-4f0f-9594-463f8a265bef/Abundance+05.2514.jpg Perspective - Abundance of what? - Make it stand out TOP: Regional rendering of the proposed "California Forever" city in Solano County by California Forever / Flannery Associates, MIDDLE 1: Montezuma Hills near Rio Vista, proposed site by Solano County Agricultural Land Registry Archive, MIDDLE 2: Aerial rendering of high-density residential core meeting protected greenbelt by California Forever, MIDDLE 3: Conceptual walkable, transit-oriented neighborhood by California Forever, BOTTOM: Google Maps BILLIONAIRE FUNDED AND INTERNATIONALLY FINANCED path-of-least-resistance real estate development continues to plague the state no matter how camouflaged it is in “new urbanist” imagery (California Forever’s proposed “new town” near Rio Vista in east Sonoma County, CA, just 30 miles east of Petaluma, CA) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/5779242f-ad42-427e-9452-cebaac2c31a2/Abundance+05.2515.jpg Perspective - Abundance of what? - Make it stand out TOP: Aerial view of the dual-span Carquinez Bridge over the Carquinez Strait at dusk, linking Vallejo and Crockett on I‑80 by California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), MIDDLE 1: Commuter ferries cruising down the Mare Island Strait waterway in Vallejo by San Francisco Bay Ferry, MIDDLE 2 and BOTTOM: Google Maps / Satellite OLD TOWNS across California even ones near the California Forever site such as Vallejo, CA just 10 or 15 miles to the west are distressed, underbuilt, prime for investment--and whose redevelopment would accomplish all the goals of the California Forever project not only better but also with less impact on the natural environment. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/259e0119-0817-4f10-a01d-54a890247898/Abundance+05.2516.jpg Perspective - Abundance of what? - Make it stand out TOP 3 Images: Downtown Vallejo Commercial Historic District, BOTTOM 2 Images: Google Maps / Satellite DOWNTOWN VALLEJO is a 40-minute ferry ride from San Francisco, beautifully situated geographically, abandoned and for sale--and certainly affordable for the billionaires who have bought up the ranchlands under California Forever’s proposed new town. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/bd969144-034a-458a-8d6e-601dc80d68ba/Abundance+05.2517.jpg Perspective - Abundance of what? - Make it stand out TOP: Side street view of the multi-tenant auto service property at 3424 Sonoma Blvd, Vallejo by Sac Platinum Realty / METROLIST, MIDDLE 1: Source: Google Earth, MIDDLE 2: Street view of the closed Safeway at 774 Admiral Callaghan Ln, featuring mid-century arch windows by Yelp / Commercial Property Archives, BOTTOM 2 Images by Vallejo Community Development Projects Registry / Doc No. May-2019-MP ABANDONED PROPERTIES AND VAST PARKING LOTS across the northeast and northwest areas of Vallejo are situated in a gorgeous setting adjacent to the San Pablo Bay into which the nearby Napa River (and valley) empties—all that is required is a little billionaire money and a little imagination. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/afcb41d3-98d2-40d9-839d-19b70b331750/Abundance+05.2518.jpg Perspective - Abundance of what? - Make it stand out DISTRESSED MID-CENTURY ERA SUBURBAN NEIGHBORHOODS across the state are prime opportunities for redevelopment with the leadership of the public sector, as in this case where the city of Thousand Oaks intends to rebuild their branch library as a catalyst and anchor for a newly densified and vitalized neighborhood. (Thousand Oaks Library Master Plan, Johnson Favaro, 2023) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/b8b49b8b-90ef-49e2-a9ba-123f52aceca0/Abundance+05.2519.jpg Perspective - Abundance of what? - Make it stand out CITY INITIATIVE on city owned property is the key to the successful redevelopment of this important site at the heart of this distressed neighborhood, in this case through the building of a branch library and a park as an anchor for new private sector development (Thousand Oaks Library Master Plan, Johnson Favaro, 2023) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/c6a9ed9f-9c53-4544-a0d6-121d92cf9fbc/Abundance+05.2520.jpg Perspective - Abundance of what? - Make it stand out PUBLIC PRIVATE COLLABORATION, initiated by the public sector is the only way to bring cities back from the brink, the private sector having proven itself utterly incapable of it for almost a century. (Thousand Oaks Library Master Plan, Johnson Favaro, 2023) https://www.johnsonfavaro.com/perspective/2026/1/20/urban-lite monthly 0.5 2026-01-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/48947a10-5ebb-4b6e-ad2e-533d5c3a8604/Urban+Lite+2025.jpg Perspective - Urban Lite - Make it stand out CATALYTIC, INCREMENTAL COMPACT DEVELOPMENT in its accumulation provides the blueprint and roadmap for the emergence of true urban neighborhoods within the Los Angeles metropolitan area. (Blackwelder Residential Development Preliminary Study, Culver City, CA, Johnson Favaro, 2023) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/537d4d7d-1e6a-41ee-8ee6-18c48d5331d4/Urban+Lite+20252.jpg Perspective - Urban Lite - Make it stand out NOT REALLY A PARK the 1920s era Hancock Park development nevertheless stands out as a rectangle of green within the vast stretches of pavement and roofs of central Los Angeles. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/3267776f-5ba7-4d14-b001-a92b719b60d2/Urban+Lite+20253.jpg Perspective - Urban Lite - Make it stand out THE LACK OF WATER held back the expansion of Los Angeles which was until Mulholland’s engineering feat of 1909 little more than a Spanish/Mexican “pueblo” on the site of what is now “downtown.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/f4ea5b23-745f-4c62-ae33-ea6112975130/Urban+Lite+20254.jpg Perspective - Urban Lite - Make it stand out RAPID EXPANSION of the metropolitan area over the last century, typically described as “first growth,’ occurred entirely on undeveloped land upon first of which were laid out streets and electricity, a relatively novel way in which to originate a city. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/8d26e248-1623-475e-8763-1c919fdea568/Urban+Lite+20255.jpg Perspective - Urban Lite - Make it stand out THE BACK BAY NEIGHBORHOOD in Boston, MA was also developed on undeveloped land—land fill where the Charles River emptied into the Boston bay--at the edge of an already 200-year-old dense urban city the only major American city developed almost entirely on pre-industrial era planning principles that remains substantially intact. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/73b4b8f7-1b7d-4b57-a4b6-72fca9695c6e/Urban+Lite+20256.jpg Perspective - Urban Lite - Make it stand out URBAN OR SUBURBAN? The Back Bay development taking place as it did in the second half of the 19th century and at the height of the industrial era when planners and developers turned against the city, its compact arrangement combined with the demarcation of separate (albeit still attached) homes and extensive greenery along vehicular oriented streets, is as much a “park” setting as an urban one. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/65b98aae-497a-4d72-bb81-ed7caaabb0cf/Urban+Lite+20257.jpg Perspective - Urban Lite - Make it stand out THE TURN OF THE 20TH CENTURY saw the first indications in Europe of the ideological rupture that was to come when urbanists and architects turned against the compact, multi-valent city and toward dispersed, zoned “metropolitan areas” – this just as Los Angeles was ready to take off as a major city. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/d72e4036-a0ca-46d5-bc2c-1b2b540a568a/Urban+Lite+20258.jpg Perspective - Urban Lite - Make it stand out RESIDENTIAL ZONES made up of free-standing houses as distinct “neighborhoods” outside of industrial and commercial zones were first visualized at the turn of the twentieth century perhaps most notably by the Ecole des Beaux Arts trained architect Tony Garnier in his imagining of the Cite Industrielle a roadmap if there ever was one for the modern American metropolis of which Los Angeles is exemplary. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/8ccd68cd-9675-49a2-87da-ed2fe4ff3965/Urban+Lite+20259.jpg Perspective - Urban Lite - Make it stand out THE HOLLOWING OUT OF THE CITY even centuries-old ones such as Paris was modernism’s final solution in its campaign against 5,000 year old building practices most literally illustrated by the three proposals put forth by Charles Jeanneret in the 1920s one of which was the Plan Voisin a proposal for the redevelopment of the center of Paris published in 1925 just as development of Hancock Park was underway. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/f0af022f-b93a-40e1-9133-7de09b926b47/Urban+Lite+202510.jpg Perspective - Urban Lite - Make it stand out EXPRESSED AS HOUSES ON A LOT the apartment buildings on Sycamore Avenue and the duplexes on Orange Avenue are more closely packed versions of the houses and mansions further east in Hancock Park, presumably to both accommodate and conceal socio-economic diversity in the neighborhood. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/248d973a-2f7e-4501-908e-2e61e2248ffe/Urban+Lite+202511.jpg Perspective - Urban Lite - Make it stand out TIGHTLY PACKED FREE-STANDING BUILDINGS masquerade as urban street forming frontages but are belied by the porosity of their arrangement necessitated by driveways between buildings that lead to garages at the rear of the lots, while the sidewalks along the street (or “parkways”) bordered by trees on one side and front yard gardens on the other suggest a path in a park. (Sycamore Avenue, Los Angeles, CA) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/90fa9288-2922-4a8d-8cff-6498617d9e27/Urban+Lite+202512.jpg Perspective - Urban Lite - Make it stand out FIVE STORY APARTMENT BUILDINGS proposed in a neighborhood of two-story buildings would today generate nothing but horror and protest, when in fact they contribute to the wealth of both the visual and socio-economic diversity of the neighborhood. (Sycamore Avenue, Los Angeles, CA) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/9b4d14c9-1944-4b66-ba15-5508d1473beb/Urban+Lite+202513.jpg Perspective - Urban Lite - Make it stand out THE INCREASING DENSITY of Hancock Park from mansions in the east to the apartments in the west does not ever cross the line into the kind of urbanism that characterized cities prior to the 20th century. (The mansions, houses, duplexes and fourplexes of the Hancock Park neighborhood, Los Angeles, CA) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/89cd9cce-f175-46c5-bad2-746cbc0147ed/Urban+Lite+202514.jpg Perspective - Urban Lite - Make it stand out HOWEVER CLOSELY PACKED isolated buildings on lots lined up along streets do not manifest in authentically urban environments in which streets are “carved” out of building blocks (like Boston’s North End and Beacon Hill neighborhoods) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/137c6115-a12a-425c-b16d-49be387eb9bb/Urban+Lite+202515.jpg Perspective - Urban Lite - Make it stand out BOHEMIAN MODERNISM had taken root in Los Angeles by the 1920s mostly via the Austrian diaspora (Neutra, Schindler et. al.) and almost entirely within the genre of the single family house, setting the tone from the outset for how modernism would unfold in Los Angeles as mostly a modest, atomized effort. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/f262b5c7-0e10-4671-b6a6-3f1711fdbefa/Urban+Lite+202516.jpg Perspective - Urban Lite - Make it stand out THE SINGLE-FAMILY HOUSE in the Los Angeles metropolitan area would be for the next half century the focus of architects who either didn’t care about or were oblivious of the impacts of the accumulation of single-family neighborhoods on the environment, the fabric of society and our mental health. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/bca24e28-1d99-44f5-adee-6e657ec6e40a/Urban+Lite+202517.jpg Perspective - Urban Lite - Make it stand out ALMOST A CENTURY OF EXPERIMENTATION by modern architects devoted almost exclusively to the single-family home in Los Angeles did little more than deliver moderately improved home life for those who could afford it while extinguishing any sense of the city as a home. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/cdeffb11-4ddb-4048-8d53-eaf2099ffb2b/Urban+Lite+202518.jpg Perspective - Urban Lite - Make it stand out MID-CENTURY URBANISM in Los Angeles consisted of “garden and tower complexes” were anything but urban, as is most notably exemplified just west of Hancock Park at Park La Brea an obvious copy of Jeanneret’s Parisian proposals from two decades earlier. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/4c73d48a-6832-41d4-8262-c0009ddb7a77/Urban+Lite+202519.jpg Perspective - Urban Lite - Make it stand out GARDEN AND TOWER apartments arranged on this huge site in the middle of the metropolis obliterated the underlying and surrounding orthogonal street geometry not to mention any hope of recovering anything resembling a true urban environment in one of the densest parts of the metropolitan area. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/1e77391f-d751-48c2-b80e-846828b2e5f4/Urban+Lite+202520.jpg Perspective - Urban Lite - Make it stand out ZERO LOT LINES meaning buildings, even tall buildings, attached to one another are key to the incremental development of coherent blocks, streets and squares that form a true urban neighborhood. (The future of the Blackwelder-Smiley neighborhood as visualized by Johnson Favaro, 2025) https://www.johnsonfavaro.com/perspective/2025/1117/against-the-grain monthly 0.5 2026-01-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/25542dd6-4cc3-4837-8bb5-f4e291464557/Against+the+Grain.jpg Perspective - From Avant Garde to Against the Grain - Make it stand out AN ANCIENT NORM is applied here in which a new building is shaped to shape the open space around and within it in a manner that is distinct from how for the last century we have become accustomed to seeing buildings—that is, as free standing and isolated within amorphous, boundaryless environments. (LAUSD Fairfax High School New Physical Education and Arts Building and West Campus Redevelopment Project Design Build Competition Entry; Top to bottom: new gymnasium and arts classroom wing, new quadrangle, aerial view of new building and quadrangle; Johnson Favaro, 2024) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/e63b8e9a-ccd6-41f5-bb4b-59896887306d/Against+the+Grain2.jpg Perspective - From Avant Garde to Against the Grain - Make it stand out TOP olrat - stock.adobe.com BOTTOM Google Earth aerial THE IDEA OF A HOUSE IN A TOWER IN A GARDEN (AND A PARKING LOT) is a relatively new one (just a century old) and as accustomed as we are to (and by now repelled by) the idea it must have been astonishing to behold and and exciting to experience in 1952. (Unite d”Habitation, Marseilles, France; Charles Jeanneret, 1952) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/4a642197-4733-4223-b44b-f187798d17dd/Against+the+Grain+ll3.jpg Perspective - From Avant Garde to Against the Grain - Make it stand out STAND ALONE AND SELF-SUFFICIENT is this building intended as it was by its author to provide for all its residents’ daily needs—housing, physical activity, food-- without recourse to a neighborhood or a city: hence the name, “Unite”, or united, but which could have also been “Ile” or island, or in Jeanneret’s words a “vertical village.”. (ABOVE Axonometric diagram with one residential unit “pulled out”; BELOW site plan; Unite d”Habitation, Marseilles, France; Charles Jeanneret, 1952) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/2c6f863d-f362-497c-9cdc-ec405d4f0825/Against+the+Grain+4.0.jpg Perspective - From Avant Garde to Against the Grain - Make it stand out Original Design Reconstruction Le Corbusier (via Wikimedia) SELF CONTAINED as a house within a tower each residential unit has as its “yard” a double height terrace that takes the place of the old school balcony and yet still contained within the volume of the tower. (Unite d”Habitation, Marseilles, France; Charles Jeanneret, 1952) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/d6e51d0c-f1bf-4c02-973f-3fd685bdc61c/Against+the+Grain5.jpg Perspective - From Avant Garde to Against the Grain - Make it stand out A COLONNADE TO NOWHERE is the ground floor of this building which has been expressed as a kind of primitive arcade through which, presumably, passage is accommodated, by whom and for what purpose it is not clear. (Unite d’Habitation, Marseilles, France; Charles Jeanneret, 1952) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/7752fa08-74fa-4e5f-8ab2-dd2e9ef04ad0/Against+the+Grain6.jpg Perspective - From Avant Garde to Against the Grain - Make it stand out THE MODEL OF THE CLASSICAL CITY, pedestrian in scale, articulated into two main parts, one collective (streets, squares and monuments) the other individual (housing and commerce) reached its apotheosis in Hellenistic Greece roughly 2500 years ago, a model that endured across the world until 100 years ago. (Priene, west Asia Minor, present day Turkey, 4th century BCE) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/7fdc253d-d39f-401e-9f19-7561b05269f7/Against+the+Grain7.1.jpg Perspective - From Avant Garde to Against the Grain - Make it stand out THE BUILDING’S NOT THE THING that was considered primary in the configuration of these colonnades (stoa) but instead the agora--the open space--formed by the colonnades. (Priene, west Asia Minor, present day Turkey, 4th century BCE) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/4cb03c12-1f2e-4d24-91cd-74222dd5a45e/Against+the+Grain8.jpg Perspective - From Avant Garde to Against the Grain - Make it stand out AN AGORA IN MINIATURE the home (receiving its daylight not from its perimeter but from its core) further articulated collective and individual parts, and in its accumulation with other homes created the blocks which in turn formed the streets and squares. The home, the individual part of the city, dissolved into the background while the streets, squares and monuments, the collective part, assumed the foreground. (Priene, west Asia Minor, present day Turkey, 4th century BCE) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/22a9fd30-c557-4fb0-9094-db00bd40a48a/Against+the+Grain+llext2.jpg Perspective - From Avant Garde to Against the Grain - Make it stand out THE ROLE OF THE COLONNADE in service to something larger than itself in the 4,900-year-old norm has by this modern architect been subverted. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/1df503bd-386f-4636-bd99-9c556f5a5c7e/Against+the+Grain+llext3.jpg Perspective - From Avant Garde to Against the Grain - Make it stand out BY 1950 MODERNISM’S INVERSION of a 4,900-year-old norm was complete with the foregrounding of the individual realm (the block) and the backgrounding of the collective realm (the square)—a way of living that after only a century most of us believe is the only way to live (LEFT Priene, west Asia Minor, present day Turkey, 4th century BCE; RIGHT Unite d’Habitation, Marseilles, France; Charles Jeanneret, 1952) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/c575c261-1122-41e3-bad7-4f147d605348/Against+the+Grain11.jpg Perspective - From Avant Garde to Against the Grain - Make it stand out TOP LEFT: Opium Creative- stock.adobe.com, TOP RIGHT: areefa- stock.adobe.com, BOTTOM LEFT: Ekaterina Belova- stock.adobe.com, BOTTOM RIGHT: olrat- stock.adobe.com WAS IT WORTH IT, DID IT WORK? are questions that the marketplace seems to have already answered most people preferring an apartment on a street in Paris over one in a housing block overlooking a parking lot in Marseilles-- or anywhere for that matter. (LEFT Paris street and apartment, ca. 19th C CE; RIGHT Unite d’Habitation, Marseilles, France; Charles Jeanneret, 1952) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/93ea94fb-be5a-4e8e-8b35-c50e197233c9/Against+the+Grain12.jpg Perspective - From Avant Garde to Against the Grain - Make it stand out TOP archer10 (Dennis) (via Flickr) BOTTOM Pompeii, Italy; 1st C BCE (via Wikimedia) THE ROMANS established cities across the Mediterranean and Europe that were modeled on norms that the Greeks had perfected, albeit in a more rigid, more enclosed manner that was less sensitive to the underlying and surrounding geography. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/4c35690c-07c6-44f1-9da7-89e8ea97f26a/Against+the+Grain13.jpg Perspective - From Avant Garde to Against the Grain - Make it stand out THE FORUM of the Romans assumed the role of the agora which in its later iterations would over the next 2,000 years become the piazza, plaza, place and town square of cities across the western world. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/c0d55b23-e9da-4cda-ad62-64e2af225bdf/Against+the+Grain14.jpg Perspective - From Avant Garde to Against the Grain - Make it stand out THE 2,000 YEAR OLD NORM that had reached its most realized expression in Hellenistic Greece was reimagined in the 16th century in Florence, Italy as a government office building (Uffizi, Giorgio Vasari, ca. 1560, Florence, Italy) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/66e68aba-e88f-43d0-9c65-beefe73bffe1/Against+the+Grain15.jpg Perspective - From Avant Garde to Against the Grain - Make it stand out FOR A THOUSAND YEARS between roughly 500 CE and 1500 CE monasteries of Europe were stewards of the norm, the cloister assuming the role of the stoa, the courtyard that of the agora (Certosa di Pavia, outside of Milan Italy ca. 1400 BCE) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/96f353d4-e10a-4e77-9810-7c11b7c5b186/Against+the+Grain16.jpg Perspective - From Avant Garde to Against the Grain - Make it stand out THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA were—all 21 one of them—configured on the model of the European monastery, maintaining the practice of foregrounding the collective part (the church and the courtyard) while backgrounding the individual part (the residences and work spaces) (Mission del Rey, San Diego, CA, 1798, above; Mission San Juan Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano, CA; 1776, below) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/f56e0c9a-c370-4167-9a43-bc4bd40dab1a/Against+the+Grain17.jpg Perspective - From Avant Garde to Against the Grain - Make it stand out LoveMetaverse / shutterstock.com AMERICAN COLLEGE CAMPUSES such as Yale and Princeton on the east coast were modeled on northern European university campuses such as Oxford and Cambridge which were themselves modeled on the monasteries of northern Europe, while those on the west coast such as Stanford and Caltech were modeled on the monasteries of southern Europe. The universities established the planning and design model (and norms) for school campuses across the country (Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA; 1815-1906) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/cd223020-d272-48d4-84a2-e6457f06c401/Against+the+Grain18.jpg Perspective - From Avant Garde to Against the Grain - Make it stand out DON’T BOX ME IN by dropping a bombshell of a building in the middle of campus without any regard for what’s left around it. (LAUSD Fairfax High School P.E./Arts Building Design Build Site Plan Criteria Diagram above; 3-D diagram of LAUSD prescribed building site middle; 3-D diagram of Johnson Favaro proposed building site below; 2024) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/26f83039-a274-405d-8019-783412a91d55/Against+the+Grain19.jpg Perspective - From Avant Garde to Against the Grain - Make it stand out OR GO AHEAD BOX ME IN just in a different way by configuring the building to form the perimeter of and shape the more important open spaces of campus, foregrounding the collective part of campus—the quadrangles and courtyards-- while backgrounding the individual part-- the rooms and support spaces. (LAUSD Fairfax High School P.E./Arts Building Design Build Competition Entry; Los Angeles, CA, Johnson Favaro, 2024) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/2790f925-29f3-47e9-bd63-abeb8f77724a/Against+the+Grain20.jpg Perspective - From Avant Garde to Against the Grain - Make it stand out SHAPED TO SHAPE, the new building configures to form affirmatively designed open spaces within and around it. (LAUSD Fairfax High School P.E./Arts Building Design Build Competition Entry; Los Angeles, CA, Johnson Favaro, 2024) https://www.johnsonfavaro.com/perspective/2022/01/14petrified-wa64a-ckxa3-edbs monthly 0.5 2025-11-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/6fe187da-c1c2-4317-b313-fdac85ef0b68/Samohi+Discovery+View.png Perspective - Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/aefc985b-73c2-416f-8bf5-51a786009de9/Cutaway+Aerial+Looking+SE+-+Roof.jpg Perspective - Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/be6d7b54-ef5c-4ccc-916e-f2c1216e4246/1972-1200x1710+copy.jpg Perspective - Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? - Make it stand out LEFT Image from 1972 Levi’s Ad / flashbak.com. RIGHT Ground Picture / shutterstock.com OUR ADOLESCENCE CRISIS that is that young people addled as they are on relentless identitarian activism delivered through social media and the school environment suffer from chronic loneliness is no surprise. To continually cleave into ever more personal and personalized identities is a sure way to lead to social alienation. (Preliminary study for new Student Center at Santa Monica High School, Santa Monica, CA, Johnson Favaro, 2024 above; High school student of the 1970s below left, high school student of the 2020s below right) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/881f637a-3224-48de-9653-34a99c88b343/shutterstock_239400094.jpg Perspective - Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? - Make it stand out Everett Collection / shutterstock.com https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/79846eee-afff-4d49-8946-dc1cf336b0c6/Larry-Kramer-at-an-AIDS-conference-in-New-York-in-1987.-Photo-Catherine-McGann-Getty-Images.jpg Perspective - Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? Photo by Catherine McGann/Getty Images THAT ABRAHAM LINCOLN WAS GAY would not have occurred to him or anyone else in his lifetime even if he had had intimate relationships with men, physical or otherwise. Same-sex sex has been going on for millennia but the ways in which it has been viewed by its practitioners and society at-large has differed. Not until the 20th century did it congeal into a category of social identification meant to set a group of people apart. (The 16th U.S. president above; 20th century gay activist Larry Kramer, below) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/d251452a-ff46-42ba-80f5-9d56c80d425f/Abe+2025.jpg Perspective - Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? - Make it stand out HOW INDEED we might ask does gender identity and/or sexuality confine or direct our sensibilities as architects toward an outcome that only those within our supposedly self-contained identity group could ever perceive or appreciate? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/ef459998-6d0f-439f-a174-330e054716de/Abe+20252.jpg Perspective - Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? - Make it stand out 1 Installation view of Germane Barnes: Columnar Disorder at the Art Institute of Chicago, 2024. 2 Germane Barnes. Pantheon II, 2023. Courtesy the artist and Nina Johnson. (Greg Carideo/© Germane Barnes) INCLUSIVE OR EXCLUSIVE is this disingenuous activist exhibition which seems more focused on expressing victimhood and promoting otherness than making art? (Columnar Disorder, Germane Barnes, Art Institute of Chicago, 2024; courtesy of Architect’s Newspaper) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/7fa4bf4f-1c3c-468a-ab88-529c9ee3625e/Abe+2025+5.jpg Perspective - Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? - Make it stand out Tymonko Galyna / shutterstock.com Designed by Germane Barnes, fabricated by Navillus Woodworks. Migration Column III (detail), 2024. Courtesy of the artist. Designed by Germane Barnes, fabricated by Endicott. Labor Column II, 2024. Courtesy of the artist. Germane Barnes and SHENEQUA. Identity Column III, 2024. Courtesy of the artists. THAT THE CLASSICAL LANGUAGE of architectural ornament has for some come to be associated with colonialism and oppression (just as it has for others with “old school”) is fair enough, but is it inherent in the classical language itself or simply in our relationship with it? Would what’s proposed here mean anything to anyone without the explanation? (Columnar Disorder, Germane Barnes, Art Institute of Chicago, 2024; courtesy of Architect’s Newspaper) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/158ac3ed-17d2-46af-8019-1d742ddd327b/Abe+20254.jpg Perspective - Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? - Make it stand out 1 Aspern Seestadt street signs, Vienna Austria, 2024 above; 2 Eval Kail, architect, Vienna, Austria, courtesy Lisa Edi for the New York Times, July 17, 2024 via New York Times EXCLUDED FROM THE PROFESSION have been women for sure, but to then claim that women have also been excluded from the equitable (and enjoyable) experience of buildings and cities in the guise of “claiming feminine space” amounts to a cynical exploitation of societal injustices in order to claim unearned authority within the profession. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/6d0bb1f4-cad5-4262-b2a8-9f7372546774/Abe+20255.jpg Perspective - Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? - Make it stand out 1 Valentin Ivantsov / shutterstock.com 2 ‍marketa1982 / shutterstock.com NIHILISTIC CONTEMPORARY ENVIRONMENTS no matter how generously appointed with stroller storage and well-lit laundry rooms are neither “feminine positive” nor non-discriminatory in their oppression of the human spirit. (Aspern Seestadt, Vienna, Austria, 2024)2 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/2db46bad-2dc7-4801-93d3-b3b1a5056478/Abe+20256.jpg Perspective - Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? - Make it stand out THE ROAD TO UNHAPPINESS is paved with identitarian self-segregation and victimhood mentality that may properly diagnose societal injustices and improperly prescribe their remediation. Art cannot be accomplished through activism of this kind so what is the goal of it, what is to be gained from it? (Harvard University GSD Women in Design Conference, November 2018) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/3cbe0c06-5c59-48c5-9764-38d4f5b2974a/Abe+20257.jpg Perspective - Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? - Make it stand out The life span of buildings and cities far exceeds the flux of social orders and individual identities within them. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/bde851b1-e8cb-42e4-bfe3-8b88bcd34a6a/Abe+20258.jpg Perspective - Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? - Make it stand out The supposedly “scientific” taxonomy of human sexuality out of which first emerged the term “homosexuality” (classifying individuals as “homosexuals”) does not arrive until the mid-20th century in America. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/6fce3e20-cf20-4966-9832-7dc408b27244/michelangelo+portrait.jpg Perspective - Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? - Make it stand out 18th Century Portrait of Michelangelo (image via Sotheby’s) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/963a8bee-fe1a-4c21-8f8d-b7a81f1de008/sistine+nudo.jpg Perspective - Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? - Make it stand out Michelangelo’s fresco “Ignudi” on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City (c. 1508–12) (via Wikimedia ) THE PROLIFIC REPRESENTATION OF NAKED MEN in drawings, paintings and sculptures produced by Michelangelo supposedly confirms the assertion that he was “gay,” and while there is evidence he had intimate relationships with men the subject matter of his art was conventional for his time even as his execution of it was exceptional) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/fb8b19bb-9927-48d1-9755-80d99c20c651/shutterstock_2356353155.jpg Perspective - Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? - Make it stand out Ivan Moreno sl / shutterstock.com THE EXPRESSION OF PERFECTION of the human body in the philosophical and artistic traditions of Greece and Rome has got little to do with sexuality—it’s just hard to show with clothes on. (Laocoön and His Sons, author unknown, ancient Greece, ca. 200 BCE; Roman copy at Vatican City, , above; Zeus or Poseidon, bronze, author unknown; Museum of Athens 460 BCE; Disco bolo of Myron, ancient Greece,460-450 BCE lower right) Ella_Ca / shutterstock.com Gilmanshin / shutterstock.com https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/1751489663258-H6A623NI9JOC0AE75JIN/shutterstock_2424420623+%281%29.jpg Perspective - Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/1751489564543-92JWM7EAH4FDBF8P0JSW/shutterstock_2123600783+%281%29.jpg Perspective - Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/5a71f3b0-740d-42ec-b0cc-cda6f7ac0c37/Abe+202513.jpg Perspective - Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? - Make it stand out TOP LEFT Michelangelo, the Medici Tomb; Everett Collection / shutterstock.com TOP RIGHT Paul Rudolph, Yale School of Architecture, New Haven, CT (via Wikipedia) MIDDLE LEFT Grabmal von Giuliano II. de Medici (via Wikimedia) MIDDLE RIGHT Yale Art and Architecture School (via Wikimedia) BOTTOM LEFT Laurentian Library, Florence Italy, 16th C CE BOTTOM RIGHT 23 Beekman Place, New York, NY, 1978; yorgen67 - stock.adobe.com WHOSE GAY? would be not only a pointless question but an anachronistic one having little to nothing to do with the time, society or construction technology not to mention the author out of which the work emerges. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/34ea8083-e455-4198-95ea-8a1d932e9536/Abe+202513142.jpg Perspective - Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? - Make it stand out TOP LEFT Julia Morgan (via Wikimedia) TOP RIGHT Paul Revere Williams (via LA Conservancy) MIDDLE & BOTTOM LEFT Hearst Castle, San Simeon, CA 1919 | Abbie Warnock-Matthews / shutterstock.com‍ ‍ MIDDLE RIGHT Guardian Angel Cathedral, Winchester, NV 1963 | Leonard Zhukovsky / shutterstock.com BOTTOM RIGHT Theme Building, Los Angeles International Airport, 1961 | Dan Schreiber / shutterstock.com, Marina Riley / shutterstock.com WHO’S BEAUX-ARTS, WHO’S MODERN? Are questions that mattered to these architects more than their gender or skin color as difficult as it must have been to practice within what was (and still is) a white man’s profession. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/f0f9550b-f0cd-4139-82d3-d1e19e668252/Abe+202529.jpg Perspective - Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? - Make it stand out W.E.B. Dubois, spatuletail / shutterstock.com IS WESTERN CULTURE INSTRICALLY BAD? Could have been a question of this black man of the society into which he was born, who instead learned what he could from what it had to offer people of all skin colors. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/9995ea59-a3c6-47a8-812d-92fd4390146c/AdobeStock_155906657.jpeg Perspective - Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? - Make it stand out New Mexico, U.S.A, BGStock72 - stock.adobe.com https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/f10826fb-5f4c-4282-9476-5fc7eceec6a7/AdobeStock_326675592.jpeg Perspective - Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? - Make it stand out Mali, Africa, KOLA STUDIO - stock.adobe.com https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/89ba1bb2-efc8-4523-b52b-a908a1602edd/AdobeStock_359836043.jpeg Perspective - Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? - Make it stand out Santorini, Greece, gummy-beer - stock.adobe.com BECAUSE WHY DO WE BUILD sacred places as a species? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/42b114d8-12e3-4e18-8442-ba18f94fc9b7/Abe+202517.jpg Perspective - Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? - Make it stand out Santorini, Greece, sam- stock.adobe.com, Rawf8 - stock.adobe.com RED, BROWN, BLACK OR WHITE? In their least sophisticated form buildings and cities are consistent in scale and expression no matter the particulars of the culture or character (or skin color) of the people who make them, because in the end the bodies we all inhabit are more similar than not. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/ebacdbd4-4f98-45ed-8e69-08e2aa323d91/leonardo+vitrvian+man.jpg Perspective - Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? - Make it stand out Hal_P / shutterstock.com https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/211229ea-655c-4fc4-b6bd-feb6b969aec0/plates.JPG Perspective - Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? - Make it stand out Pioneer Plaques / NASA ARE THESE PEOPLE NAKED because their authors are thinking of sex and sexuality, or are their authors getting at something bigger? ((Vitruvian Man as redrawn by Leonardo Da Vince, above, NASA Pioneer Plaque, 1972) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/ccdc8c13-ed8f-47f6-b9a4-f716f4722992/Samohi+Campus+Commons+1.png Perspective - Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/ba0832e8-f415-45e5-baeb-97afff20296d/SECTION+PERSPECTIVE.jpg Perspective - Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? - Make it stand out PHYSICAL PRESENCE in the company of one another is the role of any school building—and buildings in general--- particularly one whose very purpose is to enhance student life on campus. (Preliminary study for new Student Center at Santa Monica High School, Santa Monica, CA, Johnson Favaro, 2024 above; Atrium above, section below) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/e6d23b2f-9905-4999-aa2b-781fcd1ee1d7/Samohi+Arts+Plaza+2.png Perspective - Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/7ce6dc8c-6823-4135-bd36-6a87d3367dee/Cutaway+Aerial+Looking+SE+-+Roof.jpg Perspective - Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? - Make it stand out NEXUS OF COMMUNITY is the goal of this building, where students of every cultural and socio-economic background are to live in the presence of and learn from one another. (Preliminary study for new Student Center at Santa Monica High School, Santa Monica, CA, Johnson Favaro, 2024 above; aerial view above, new student center left, new black box theater center, existing Barnum Theater right) https://www.johnsonfavaro.com/perspective/2025/01/16c-italy monthly 0.5 2025-11-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/0e7995a5-6180-407d-bc71-4d7abdb2ee50/1_shutterstock_225277435.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out lorenzobovi / Shutterstock.com https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/6a507f6b-1a1a-44e1-be53-b0dfef1ea3e5/0_OPT+C_EXT_07_AERIAL.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out THE MASTERY OF A DISCIPLINE and the confidence that came with it enabled the singularly bold project that was the placement of this monumental building in the context of this vast pastoral setting—an achievement we could only ever hope to approximate (Santa Maria della Consolazione, 1506-1565,Todi, Italia; Donato Bramante and others, above; preliminary study for the Irvine Great Park Library, Irvine, CA, Johnson Favaro, 2023-4, below) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/95d085bc-897b-4e93-a354-afa3c5d9c4d9/2_whisky-map-1902-andrew-fare.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/98760a46-5d27-410c-9709-3f0f37f0f2df/2_German-Brands.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/bc8ff660-8090-4eb5-8458-4cc0598c9244/2_persian+rug+map+of+iran.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/09a1ae8d-343b-4251-871e-22d0e4a686d8/2_guns_south_map.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE thrive within cultures when circumstances of material resources, geography, technology, human interest and agency establish fertile ground for them. (Top to bottom: whiskey in Scotland, automotive engineering in Germany, textiles in the middle east, guns in America’s southeast). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/4aee0be9-4907-4be2-8f41-592c22f68b3c/3_AdobeStock_197653189.jpeg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out helen_f / stock.adobe.com https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/2d906813-a7a5-4fb2-8df5-20f0d93023c3/3_pexels-mkvisuals-2781104.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/97a1aecd-db78-432e-af10-793e959b8a0a/3_african+jewelry.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out RM Nunes / shutterstock.com https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/8e783121-93b0-4816-a1b7-b99d9031091f/3_native+american+basket.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Paul Marcus / shutterstock.com THE PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE in art and craft is universally human even as the kinds of art and craft in which cultures pursue excellence vary dramatically across time and place. (Top to bottom: Japanese ink-wash painting, east Indian attire, African jewelry, native American basketry) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/3f315ff1-396b-4029-b0c4-b2a0e5c949d0/4_san+pietro+dome.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Thoom / shutterstock.com https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/639916c4-6187-4d24-a730-33f354764c48/4_Campidolgio+edited.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Stefano Chiacchiarini ’74 / shutterstock.com MICHELANGELO’S MASTERY in the making of buildings sprang forth not spontaneously but within the context of a community of patrons, architects and trades of which he was a part. (St. Peter’s Cathedral Dome, Vatican, Rome, 1588, above; Piazza del Campidoglio, Rome, 1538, below) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/80c526dd-9bc6-4da3-b669-6803d993dcee/5_Villa+Coronaro.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Blaz Cure / shutterstock.com https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/2616ee88-9509-4a6a-9bde-296b59f91ce0/5_AdobeStock_458894270.jpeg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Pecold / stock.adobe.com PALLADIO’S MASTERY inspired imitation across the western world for almost 500 hundred years, an influence unparalleled in the west. (Villa Cornaro, Piombino, Dese, Italy, 1552 above; Villa Emo, Treviso, Italy 1555-8, below) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/49113c4b-c64b-4a1d-9bd5-8e83502107a9/6_AdobeStock_132246532.jpeg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out penofoto.de / stock.adobe.com https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/968a0f47-8170-46e1-9246-289555a23cc5/6_Villa+Farnesina.jpeg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out stoyanh / shutterstock.com MASTERY OF THE ART OF THE FAÇADE in 16th century Italy informed the designs of cities across the west and why cities across the west were before 1945 mostly beautiful. (Palazzo Farnese, Michelangelo, Rome 1534 above; Villa Farnesina, Baldassare Peruzzi, 1510, Rome, below) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/bc63431d-5279-430d-a401-07dde09d2435/7_Villa+Giulia+Garden+Facade.jpeg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Dima Moroz / shutterstock.com https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/c57fcc6c-59d2-47ec-ac1d-43cb45afae6c/7_Villa+Giulia+Aerial.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Maps Data: Google, ©2025 Maxar Technologies https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/bbf5ef64-7e66-4c2e-84ea-5ee15c011171/7_Villa+Giulia+Site+Plan.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out MASTERY OF THE ART OF THE PLAN as the principal tool with which to shape buildings---and the idea that buildings shape what’s outside of them as much as they are shaped by what’s inside of them ---has its origins in 16th century Italy. (Villa Giulia, Barozzi da Vignola, Rome, 1551-3) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/17682c86-d9b6-40d1-994f-47ac3ab39250/8_vigevano+piazza+ducale+-1.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Idéfix~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims)., Vigevano0001, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/502fcb6d-354b-4eae-845b-2af913e6216c/8_AdobeStock_377511859.jpeg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Sara / stock.adobe.com https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/3b4c6a97-982c-40df-9777-22997de7cc2c/8_VigevanoPlan.png Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out URBAN DESIGN as practiced before 1920 (and we can only hope after 2020) owes its accomplishments to that frame of mind that was established in 16th century Italy that was that buildings are the primary means with which to affirmatively shape public spaces and the cities that contain them (Piazza Ducale, Donato Bramante, Vigevano, Italy, 1492-4) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/c59a3e14-2b00-4905-a6f4-2fa479c73266/9_Budapest+View+-3.jpg.jpeg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/f7b32d60-716a-4893-9800-c23a1eda7768/9_prague+View+-5.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out ITALIAN ARCHITECTS AND BUILDERS dispersed across Europe and the west taking their mastery with them both participating in and influencing the building of beautiful cities across the continent. (Budapest, Hungary above; Prague, Czech Republic, below) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/30036e22-53b2-485e-b0f2-a0e2c89ca27d/10_UVA+library+-+ed.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/83f5ab5c-3a24-42cd-8fea-0640dfcd0b8c/10_Monticello+aerial.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out THOMAS JEFFERSON, 3rd president of the United States studied the 16th century Italian architect Andrea Palladio whose work the Anglo-American aristocrat imitated and emulated in the designs for his home in Monticello, Virginia and at the university he founded in Charlottesville, Virginia. (UVA, founded in 1819, above; Monticello, Virginia, 1809, below) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/c6c4281c-affe-46c6-abbc-364f27f37c65/11_Texas+State+Capitol+Austin-ed.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Joseph Sohm / shutterstock.com https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/5fe35ee7-8039-406d-9b15-1a76c89e04d7/11_Milwaukee_July_2022_040_%28Gimbels_Building%29.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Michael Barera, Milwaukee July 2022 040 (Gimbels Building), CC BY-SA 4.0 DOMES AND FACADES informed by the exemplary mastery of 16th century Italian architecture proliferated across the United States. (Texas State Capitol, Austin, TX, 1882-8 above; Gimbel’s Department Store, Milwaukee, WI, 1887, below) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/4746a173-5771-4642-b646-fc65f5d24b62/12_16c+Italian+architects.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out SO MUCH MASTERY in one place at one time can only ever thrive within a culture of excellence comprised of a community of individuals cooperating and competing to be the best they can. In this field in this country at this time our obligation is to broaden both the appeal and the opportunity to be part of a community of practitioners, especially for those historically excluded of backgrounds. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/2b585ceb-8d51-4425-baf9-c5e3cbd34cf6/13_stadio+giuseppe+meaza+milan.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Zigres / shutterstock.com https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/fbf7b9f8-3feb-4a76-8e9f-255af74f07de/13_Fiero+Milano+.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out BalazsSebok / shutterstock.com CONTEMPORARY ITALY has recently produced as many bad buildings as anywhere else in the world, the culture of excellence in the building arts so masterfully achieved in the 16th century in Italy having five hundred years later vaporized. (Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, San Siro, Milan, 1990, above; Fiero Milano, Massimiliano Fuksas, Milan, Italy, 2005 below) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/8937d8b9-a0bd-49b2-a0bc-d58e12b3b3e9/14_Europeans+c+a+3500+BC.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Denis---S / Shutterstock.com https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/f0bab5bb-fe26-48ab-aff6-a0507c40679f/14_Egypt+ca+3500+bc.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Yezepchyk Oleksandr / Shutterstock.com GEOGRAPHY AND CHRONOLOGY are at the root of the emergence of a center of excellence, and never the superiority of one kind of people over another (North Europe circa 3,500 B.C. North Africa circa 3,500 B.C, below.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/9749aac9-2bcc-411a-9ec8-ad7750d8c388/15_shutterstock_683564239.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Bill Perry / shutterstock.com https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/8bee9ef8-a4db-496b-bfc6-a5d041023e4f/15_napoleon.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out rawpixel.com / shutterstock.com https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/dfcef926-0af9-4786-b3f6-80b4002874d4/15_KehindeWiley.2019jpeg.-edjpg.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Manymanydogs, KehindeWiley.2019jpeg, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/41b4acc9-9f8a-4912-b140-7aa26fe9e176/15_Officer+of+the+Hussars.png Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Kehinde Wiley, Officer of the Hussars, 2007, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI, USA CULTURAL APPROPRIATION is never a bad thing when employed to uplift the appropriator, improve upon the original or even to just make a point, cultural, political or otherwise. We as architects need not recoil from the idea that we have something to gain through the study of what other people in other times and places have achieved. (Top to bottom, American Civil War monument; “Rumors of War”, Kehinde Wiley, 2019,; Napoleon on horseback, Jean-Leon Gerome, 1886; “Officer of the Hussars,” Kehinde Wiley, 2007) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/f0d18ab3-6dd1-42e3-87bd-2cec8423a3ee/16_alexander+hamilton+bust.jpeg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out IndigoTide / stock.adobe.com https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/d29ed011-72ef-489c-b634-a149bf07e744/16_lin+manuel+miranda.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Ga Fullner / Shutterstock.com https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/53a1eda2-af5d-41ee-aa4d-24ae54e97e3b/16_anne+boleyn.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Andy Lidstone / Shutterstock.com https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/c81728ff-b7e6-4eeb-b41d-7d0ae24b015f/16_thao-therese-nguyen.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Image via Instagram @stagey_snaps INCLUSIVITY IN REPRESENTATION is a way to say that what’s in the past within a society belongs to everyone within it no matter the mistakes and the tumult of its history. (Top to bottom: Alexander Hamilton represented traditionally and Lin Manuel Miranda who represented Hamilton differently in his Broadway musical of the same name recently; Anne Boleyn represented traditionally and Thao Therese Nguyen who represented Boleyn in the recent Broadway musical, “Six”) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/1748455591881-I7ZMVMHMC7P6FJCM4PTK/17_ice+cube+rapper.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Jamie Lamor Thompson / Shutterstock.com https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/1748455693901-XNHNIMBG01WRFK8NW2OJ/17_eminem.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Jgphotographydetroit / Shutterstock.com https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/1748455592054-LWIE8LX2XSH2SZIVGUGK/17_Loretta+Lynn.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Debby Wong / Shutterstock.com https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/1748455597400-C8O46V6XCP1Q7D5W2WOM/17_beyonce+knowles.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Featureflash Photo Agency / Shutterstock.com https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/6d42eef5-0257-476a-8754-046a6e3f80b2/blank.png Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out CULTURES WITHIN CULTURES AND IN ADJACENCY WITH OTHER CULTURES in an environment of free exchange produce rich and unexpected outcomes that a censorious culture can never achieve. (Top left and right: Ice Cube and Eminem both rap singers; bottom left and right Loretta Lynn and Beyonce Knowles both country music stars) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/2cf30c22-5af7-4d31-9940-6b493e53eca7/18_Yascha+Mounk.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out OECD Forum 2018 - Session: The Future of Democracy in a Digital Age" (CC BY-NC 2.0) by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/5f4f7437-1870-4e75-8f94-598831780c7d/18_Yascha+Mounk+Quote.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out CORRECTING SOCIAL INJUSTICE by prohibiting cultural exchange and claiming cultural exchange itself to be a social injustice is a self-defeating and ultimately unwinnable exercise the outcome of which can only ever be division and stagnation. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/60b61a3f-396e-47ef-9926-51c9b9afdb5c/19_-Villa_d%27Este%2C_Tivoli%2C_Italy_%2839366313511%29.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Carole Raddato from FRANKFURT, Germany, Villa d'Este, Tivoli, Italy (39366313511), CC BY-SA 2.0 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/0013d404-9c09-44b1-a808-273704c78990/19_51.-villa-deste.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/4c28f3e3-bcdb-497f-aa75-ad3835bc52a2/19_Botts+Classroom+Terrace.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/bfa45b80-4c49-4d7e-b111-e9cb9a601527/19_Botts+AERIAL+VIEW+_PHASE+2.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out THE IDEA OF THE BELVEDERE or terraced hillside whose purpose is to highlight not the hillside but the view from it originates in the architecture of 16th century Italian villas. It is an idea that in our time we are free to appropriate toward the democratization of a view. (Villa D’Este, Pirro Ligorio, Tivoli, Italy, ca. 1565, above; Culver City Park Redevelopment Master Plan, Johnson Favaro 2023-24, below) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/e80dfee0-8cd6-4a96-a4f8-b87a97eb5ef2/20_Vets+PARK+VIEW.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/3feef1ae-2074-4f9b-9559-0d794eb5f4bb/20_Vets+PARK+AT+COMPLETION_PARK_SOCCER+FIELD.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/fe28c438-5c86-4ed5-ae6c-d2f0c53dbe13/20_-Roma_-_Villa_Medici_-_2023-09-10_18-13-14_006.jpeg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out Laterbat, Roma - Villa Medici - 2023-09-10 18-13-14 006, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/6099ebf6-d64b-491a-9468-91f0f6889e4e/vue-aerienne-m3-studio.jpg Perspective - The Super Stupendous Marvelously Magnificent Architectural Achievements of 16th Century Italy: What We Can Learn and Why We Don't - Make it stand out BUILDINGS SHAPED TO SHAPE WHATS AROUND THEM (Villa Medici, Bartolomeo Ammanati, Rome, 1544, above; Veteran’s Memorial Park Redevelopment Master Plan, Culver City, CA, Johnson Favaro 2023-24 below) https://www.johnsonfavaro.com/perspective/category/2019 monthly 0.5 https://www.johnsonfavaro.com/perspective/category/2018 monthly 0.5 https://www.johnsonfavaro.com/perspective/category/2025 monthly 0.5 https://www.johnsonfavaro.com/perspective/category/2021 monthly 0.5 https://www.johnsonfavaro.com/perspective/category/2020 monthly 0.5 https://www.johnsonfavaro.com/perspective/category/2022-2023 monthly 0.5 https://www.johnsonfavaro.com/market-sectors daily 0.75 2025-02-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/1701295198537-LWUMLR7GCDEVZAZLC8UW/Fairmount+Yes+dev+Yes+Glass.jpg Market Sectors - In Progress https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/1701295198537-LWUMLR7GCDEVZAZLC8UW/Fairmount+Yes+dev+Yes+Glass.jpg Market Sectors - In Progress https://static1.squarespace.com/static/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/5ef2367d14ce7c31c398ec93/5ef236d7cbb0e444d3b6fbd9/1592932055367/ Market Sectors https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/1622761643034-7QF6H04RQZ2Z8Z4YV4FJ/Manhattan-Beach-Library.jpg Market Sectors - Libraries https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/1668636965766-A45XODLC8T7FV72AS5B8/image-asset.jpeg Market Sectors - Arts + Culture https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/1591740164596-SF2J2R8L21HN2LRLO73L/Bridge+2_16.jpg Market Sectors - County, Municipal, and Community https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/1616703592361-OSFD2X9GWEL26Q8VUAHU/Revised+Rendring+with+Auditorium.jpg Market Sectors - Higher Education https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/1724976443535-2XCLJD7ERIKA2DKAJ3VJ/EXT.+VIEW+1.jpg Market Sectors - K-12 Schools https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/1616708373158-4O0NNWK5ELCQD0A3KORD/Aerial_01.jpg Market Sectors - Master Planning https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/1592432607772-WR14SDTRVF2XXBACFR6D/image-asset.jpeg Market Sectors - Private Residences https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/593f0796893fc090cfb327f9/1616703471237-CX5S6PEH4DA2LHRW3IXW/Costa%2BMesa%2BPublic%2BLibrary%2B2019%2B%2528199%2529.jpg Market Sectors - All Projects https://www.johnsonfavaro.com/portfolio-pages daily 0.75 2023-08-24 https://www.johnsonfavaro.com/civic-muni-singles-galleries daily 0.75 2023-08-25 https://www.johnsonfavaro.com/library-singles-galleries daily 0.75 2023-08-24 https://www.johnsonfavaro.com/higher-ed-singles-galleries daily 0.75 2023-08-24 https://www.johnsonfavaro.com/art-culture-singles-galleries daily 0.75 2023-08-24 https://www.johnsonfavaro.com/master-plan-singles-galleries daily 0.75 2023-08-24 https://www.johnsonfavaro.com/residential-singles-galleries daily 0.75 2023-08-24 https://www.johnsonfavaro.com/new-cover-page daily 1.0 2025-06-02