A personal crisis in 2006 prompted developer Douglas Ayres to embark on a global journey in search of wisdom and understanding. When he returned to his home in Paso Robles, California, it was with renewed vigor and a passion for art inspired by the natural...
Design-wise, Aspen, Colorado, has long been known for its mining-era architecture, art, and fashion-forward trend setters. But the transformation of this quiet mountain hamlet turned ski town and seasonal watering hole for the global elite does little to explain how the modernist movement, specifically Germany’s...
Midway between the shores of Puget Sound and the Great Cascade Mountains in Washington lies a precipice where the meandering Snoqualmie River drops a staggering 268 feet. This spectacular waterfall, more than 100 feet higher than Niagara Falls in New York, has been at the...
Sedona, Arizona, has long been known for its dramatic landscapes of towering, red sandstone formations, its energy vortices that seem to affect the human spirit (as well as cell phones), and its rich cultural life as a hub for the arts. The almost surreal scenery,...
The Blackfoot River wends its way through a small valley in Western Montana, dividing swaths of working ranchland that roll to the toes of the forested mountains. The valley is home to grizzly bears, elk, deer, and wolves, and has been a place of travel...
San Francisco artist Ruth Asawa [1926–2013] was one of approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans held in relocation camps during World War II. Initially detained at the Santa Anita racetrack in Southern California, she passed the time by learning how to draw from Walt Disney animators and...
Washington Avenue, home to the newly revitalized Hotel 1928, has long been a thoroughfare in the Central Texas town of Waco. Its bridge spans the Brazos River and connects East Waco to downtown. Since this city’s founding in 1849, people have come to Washington Avenue...
The Arizona Inn opened on December 18, 1930, with a dinner and dance attended by a select group of couples from the nearby University of Arizona. In four years, the establishment’s founder and owner, Isabella Greenway [1886–1953], would be sworn in as the first congresswoman...
If a city could hold its stories in four walls — memorializing its glory days, bridging its hard knocks with promises for the future — San Antonio could live within the Hotel Emma. Once a brewery but always a landmark, Texas’ only AAA five-diamond hotel...
Historic preservation and adaptive reuse shape urban architecture across America. In Colorado, there are few examples as significant as the Renaissance Denver Downtown City Center Hotel, in part because this particular effort has saved a masterpiece by Colorado mural artist and illustrator Allen Tupper True...