vents

For most of my life, I've been lucky to live within easy driving distance of a bunch of great national parks.  Yosemite, Sequoia, Joshua Tree - the names alone flood my mind with memories of towering waterfalls, raging rivers, incredible landscapes, amazing rock formations and campfires that couldn't quite keep the cold at bay. In all my visits through the years, I've seen these "neighborhood" parks as naturalistic-design laboratories, as settings in which careful observation influences the work, fills the spirit and send watershapers back to the drawing board with all sorts of general ideas that might be of use down the line.  Conceptual and visual treats, in other words - the stuff of inspiration. Last month, my wife and I ranged a bit farther afield than usual, hopping a plane to visit Yellowstone National Park.  I have to say that the experience completely altered my sense of what a "naturalistic-design laboratory" might be.  In this one park, I saw more