We spent a few nights in Houston; our first time. From downtown to the Museum District on foot and on the Metrorail, I identified a clear theme woven through the visit: the beauty of the artificial in the natural. Particular moments generated by the built environment emphasized, supported, complimented, imitated the natural. The natural, itself, took part in an orchestrated landscape - ordered, formalized and presented for the pleasure of Houston's citizenry. Labyrinths, Piranesi-esque constructions were microcosms - a city in compact, and an imitation of the meandering that's evocative of a natural environment. Houston is a place that feels loose, partly because of the weather, but also because I think it's on the edge of something great - a city in progress, as if a weight, or burden, has been lifted. I left wondering whether it was myself just needing a break or if it was the city providing it.

we must put the creations of man at the center, not his defects. Maria Montessori