I was invited by my dear friend Daniela to visit an exhibition held at a privately-owned Neutra house in Beverly Hills. Daniela and I pride ourselves on an encyclopedic knowledge of Richard Neutra as former student docents at the VDL House in Silverlake, but I had never heard of the William H. Levit House. I had also never heard of the famous celebrity hairdresser who owned the home, and my parents scoffed when I admitted as much in front of the chic docent and his French Bulldog. Feeling a little guilty for wandering into Los Angeles during crisis, we said goodbye and I climbed into the backseat as my parents chauffeured me through Beverly Hills. I’ve been here before, but I couldn’t place it. I recognize Mulholland Drive, but only from that song or that David Lynch movie or - oh no - the Manson family. Then it dawned on me, and I had to explain to my parents that I’ve been in this neighborhood before in Grand Theft Auto V. 

Grand Theft Auto V was originally released in 2013 for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, but I didn’t get my hands on the game until Black Friday in 2020. Grand Theft Auto was one of the few pieces of media my parents (understandably) didn’t want me interacting with as a kid. After Black Friday I sat on the floor, loaded up the game, and stole a sports car in broad daylight on virtual Rodeo Drive. I would find the biggest hill in the game (usually in Vinewood Hills, the game's proxy for Hollywood Hills) and launch the car full speed off a cliff and laugh until I cried. I’ve never actually played the game’s story mode, and I couldn’t tell you why this ritual brings me so much joy. But every few months when I need respite, I will wait an hour and a half for the game to redownload and laugh until my stomach hurts, taking out street lamps and running red lights until it actually becomes more fun to briefly follow the law and try parallel parking in Grand Theft Auto. This habit may be inherited, since my mother is enamored with another game by the same developer: Red Dead Redemption. RDR came out in 2010, and it’s been at the heart of many family jokes ever since. My mom now plays Red Dead Redemption 2 to ride her horse (she calls him Horace) and go sightseeing; she doesn’t care much for character dialogue or shooting bad guys. 

“Vinewood Bowl” in Grand Theft Auto V

Role-playing games such as Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption give the player an immense sense of freedom and exploration, and seem to have impressive replayability because of this. With the design of massive open world maps, game designers make careful, deliberate decisions that often mirror what an architect considers. Decisions about scale, graphic style, perspective of the players, material, light, and time must be made. Game designers must evoke a mood or even an action through design, and this is often done through architectural features. GTA V is set in Los Santos, a virtual proxy of Los Angeles. There are distinct similarities between the Los Angeles of real life and of Grand Theft Auto. While researching, I drove a stolen smart car to Legion Square (Pershing Square), the Rancho Towers (the Watts Towers), the Vinewood Bowl (I’ll let you guess that one), and the Kortz Center (the Getty Center). In contrast, Grand Theft Auto features no traffic at the airport (or anywhere for that matter) and for a game centered around driving, the neighborhoods are surprisingly close to one another - has GTA V solved urban sprawl? My recognition of real life Beverly Hills shed light on a phenomenon of video game urbanism, and digitally designed spaces. In the song “Imaginary Places,” Busdriver advises: 

“Kids, if you want to piss off your parents

Show interest in the arts

Kids, If you really want to piss off your parents

Buy real estate in an imaginary place”

“LS Airport” in Grand Theft Auto V

In some ways, video games such as GTA V are considered low brow entertainment, banned by even the most lenient parents. In many other ways, video games are a form of Gesamtkunstwerk, a total work of art. It took the work of dedicated reviewers such as Action Button and Into the Aether Podcast to teach me to appreciate video game design, and begin to see its similarities to architectural design. Across the pond, the Bartlett School of Architecture has already made this connection and offers a Masters of Architecture program(me) in Cinematic and Video Game Architecture. While architectural projects weigh considerations of constructibility, resilience, and budget, video game architecture is unbound by these restraints, but has added considerations of time and player interactivity. Game designers might use architectural features to enhance spatial awareness - a low, narrow pathway that opens into a cavernous hall means trouble ahead. Games such as Doom, Skyrim, and Borderlands are masters of this tactic, using architectural compression and expansion to heighten a player’s situational awareness. Lighting design also encourages activity, where a player might explore a dark area of a room to find hidden rewards. A private bedroom in an RPG might be a save point or a place to change your character's outfit. Architectural design in a video game is also crucial to establishing setting and tone. An architectural style will give immediate cues to a player of time period, plot, and culture. Red Dead Redemption’s Wild West town of Armadillo is instantly iconic, with a corner saloon, shops, and a humble single cell sheriff’s office at the end of this one-horse town. Whether or not you’ve played the game or even heard of it, you can probably picture Armadillo.

Through BIM or an RPG, digitally designed spaces can occupy your mind even if you have not physically been there. Because I’d never been to Beverly Hills, Grand Theft Auto’s replica held more weight in my psyche than the real thing. Within a real-world context of wealth disparity, natural disasters, and traffic, the Los Angeles of Grand Theft Auto  may be more readily accessible and familiar to some than the real thing. 

“Muscle Sands Beach” in Grand Theft Auto V

Grand Theft Auto and Las Vegas have the replica in common, and in some cases, their designers have “improved” upon the original to optimize it for a specific purpose. In 1997, architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable observed this phenomenon in Vegas in “Living With the Fake, and Liking It,” claiming: 

“I do not know just when we lost our sense of reality or our interest in it, but at some point it was decided that reality was not the only option. It was possible, permissible and even desirable to improve on it; one could substitute a more agreeable product.” 

 Huxtable passed away in 2013 at 91 years old, shortly before GTA V was released. In Las Vegas, the Great Sphinx in front of the Luxor is 50% larger than the Sphinx at the Giza pyramid complex in Egypt. Grand Theft Auto edits the Getty Center’s visitor experience to be more vehicle-friendly, creating an architectural promenade from the driver’s seat instead of emerging from a parking garage to board a tram. GTA’s “Kortz Center” is nearly identical to the real thing, with an added parking lot at the welcome center. In Grand Theft Auto, there are no speeding tickets, red light cameras, or traffic jams, and you can visit your favorite landmarks whenever you desire. When you move out of California, this becomes increasingly fascinating and absurd. Twelve years after its 2013 release, Grand Theft Auto V’s online multiplayer mode inspired the theatrical release of Grand Theft Hamlet, a film festival favorite Shakespeare adaptation created in, you guessed it, GTA V. 

“Kortz Center” in Grand Theft Auto V

In some corners of the internet, the devastation of the Los Angeles fires are being explained and understood through Grand Theft Auto V’s open world map. The GTA V map encompasses roughly 12,000 acres of land area. In comparison, the Eaton Fire burned approximately 14,000 acres, and the Palisades Fire burned just under 24,000 acres. For some growing up in another part of the world who might be more familiar with the fake Los Angeles of Grand Theft Auto, this may be a scalable way of quantifying disaster: the fires burned a combined area about 3x the size of the entire GTA map. In response, players have also begun to identify real life locations modeled in Grand Theft Auto V that were lost in the fires. We mourn the loss of the real, even if we’ve only met the fake. 

“Legion Square” in Grand Theft Auto V

Special thanks to Jeff Melgar, Devan Guzzetta, and Hunter Hawkins for their input for this blog, who are all better at video games than me.

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Aryana Leland is a designer based in Denver, Colorado. She studied Architecture + Art History at Cal Poly Pomona, and loves lowercase “a” architecture.

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Huxtable, Ada Louise. “Living With the Fake, and Liking It.” The New York Times, March 30, 

1997, National edition, sec. 2. 

Malamud, Margaret. 2000. “Pyramids in Las Vegas and in Outer Space: Ancient Egypt in 

Twentieth‐Century American Architecture and Film.” Journal of Popular Culture 34: 34. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0022-3840.2000.3401_31.x

From newcomer director Brady Corbet, The Brutalist is a three-and-a-half hour magnum opus centered around architecture. The monumental film earned ten Academy Award nominations for: Actor in a Leading Role, Actor in a Supporting Role, Actress in a Supporting Role, Cinematography, Directing, Film Editing, Music (Original Score), Production Design, Writing (Original Screenplay), and, the most anticipated award, Best Picture.¹ The film finds itself in good company among the nominees for Best Picture and was one of the most nominated films of the year, along with Wicked and exceeded only by Emilia Pérez. Despite critical acclaim and its architectural focus, I’ve been hard pressed to find any friends who have seen the film. With a whopping three-hour and thirty-five minute runtime and a built-in intermission, it’s understandable that many have not found themselves rushing to the theater since its December 20th release date. The film also competed with Nosferatu’s Christmas Day release (which, even I admittedly made time to see before watching The Brutalist in the new year). With that said, this discussion will contain significant spoilers for The Brutalist. If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend you find some local arthouse cinema (I went to Alamo Drafthouse in Denver) and hunker down - Brady Corbet earned his three and a half hours. 

The Brutalist was filmed using VistaVision, a higher resolution film process developed by Paramount Pictures in the 1950’s that runs 35mm film horizontally through the camera, rather than vertically.² Cinematographer Lol Crawley explains that VistaVision originally helped lure audiences into the cinema as home televisions became more popular, drawing parallels to today where simultaneous theatrical and streaming releases for films have become more common (The Brutalist is rumored to be withheld from streaming services until February 25th, so go to a theater).³ This filming process creates uniquely cinematic vantage points and high resolution that’s tangible throughout the movie. Director Brady Corbet explained that VistaVision also lends itself to a film about architecture, since the unique film format can capture an entire building in one frame. 

The film follows fictional Hungarian-Jewish architect László Tóth (Adrien Brody) as he immigrates to America post-WWII. The film is separated into two parts, with a prominent fifteen minute intermission. The intermission is built-in to the film and becomes part of the viewer’s experience, with an accompanying composition by Daniel Blumberg and pianist John Tilbury included in the original score. Part Two is punctuated by László being reunited with his wife and niece, who were separated from him in Budapest. This is the first time we actually see László’s wife in the film, Erzsébet (Felicity Jones), who is revealed in a wedding photo. 

With the introduction of Erzsébet in the second half of the film, the role of women in The Brutalist is brought to the forefront. Off the top of my head, I couldn’t tell you if it passes the Bechdel Test in the entirety of the film’s runtime. For those who aren’t familiar, the Bechdel Test examines how women are portrayed in media and is based on three simple rules: 

1. The movie has to have at least two women in it,

2. who talk to each other,

3. about something other than a man

Unsurprisingly, many films do not meet these basic criteria. As a woman working in the field of architecture, I loved The Brutalist - I found it to be a nuanced examination of the persona of the artist/architect, power dynamics, and the notable influence of post-war immigration on American architecture and design. With this said, we should examine what might be considered as the persona of the architect, conjuring images of a (typically white) man with a sense of unwavering, artistic genius. Men like Frank Lloyd Wright or Le Corbusier become the ideal of the architect, and in this way The Brutalist perpetuates this outdated vision through László Tóth, while many women in the film lack characterization. 

In the first half of the film, women seem to be merely a presence (or a distraction). We get bureaucracy-laden letters from Erzsébet, the overbearing presence of Harrison Van Buren‘s late mother (who we never meet), and László’s cousin’s uptight, disapproving Protestant wife, a blonde woman with an American drawl that contrasts with László’s Hungarian accent. László’s cousin and his wife allow him to graciously stay in a windowless storage closet, and she offers that she has “a friend to fix his nose;” later, her insecure lie gets László kicked out of the storage closet. Eventually, we meet sister Van Buren, whose character turns out to be a flash in the pan, a spark that fizzles out as the film goes on and she loses her nerve. We are supposed to grow into her a bit towards the end of the film when she helps Erzsébet stand back up into her walker after her brother, Henry Van Buren, assaults her, but she quickly reassesses her alliances when Daddy is pronounced missing. 

When we meet Erzsébet in Part Two, she is a complex, independent character who complements László’s artistic vision and demeanor. We learn that Erzsébet is a talented writer, caretaker, and survivor, but her art is not a part of the film. Her artistic merit is expressed in her passing approval of László’s design for Van Buren’s community center. In an interview, actress Felicity Jones described Erzsébet as “defiant and quite confrontational,” which surprised me.⁴ I would’ve more readily described László with these adjectives, but these qualities align with the perception of a male artist and if attributed to a woman, they become interrogated. 

László’s niece Zsófia (Raffey Cassidy) is actually the first character we meet in the film’s opening scene, where she is mute as a result of the war. In the film’s epilogue, a now-adult Zsófia is mysteriously body-swapped with another actress, while the original actress who played her younger self, Raffey Cassidy, now stands in the background as her daughter. Zsófia now speaks confidently about the impact of her uncle’s work at the 1980 Venice Architecture Biennale, and László is wheelchair-bound. The new actress has the unintended effect of giving the viewer a sense of unfamiliarity - who is this woman? In The Brutalist’s closing scenes, Adrien Brody has the pleasure of portraying László at a later age, but Zsófia is confusingly recast. 

Despite The Brutalist’s shortcomings with female characterization, the film is poignant in its emphasis on power dynamics: architect and client, working class and old money, Jewish and Protestant, immigrant and well-established American “royalty.” As an American viewer, the client Harrison Van Buren’s name evokes wealth and a clear association with the eighth president, Martin Van Buren, and a direct line to one of America’s earliest leaders. This contrasts with László and Erzsébets’ Hungarian names, which are certainly misspelled and mispronounced by their neighbors at Van Buren’s elaborate dinner party. As a client, Harrison Van Buren is a violent man who also places the most faith and support in László’s artistic vision. He stands behind László’s monumental, brutalist design in the face of his community and sons’ disapproval, but not when faced with a press scandal and financial threat due to the train derailment. In this way, The Brutalist also deals in architectural losses. In the design of the community center, László must relinquish his own fees in service of his artistic vision to achieve the rooms’ high ceilings, and he must return to work in New York as a draftsman when Van Buren halts construction of the community center. Additionally, László was a successful architect in Budapest before immigrating to America, and his cultural and civic work was destroyed in the war. Once again, power dynamics come into play when Van Buren, the wealthy patron, locates images of László’s work that he himself didn’t know existed, and László is moved to tears when he is reunited with photos of his work and asks to keep them. To Van Buren and the viewer, the photos serve as proof of László’s qualifications and merit as an established architect from another country with a Bauhaus education. Now, we can imagine his architectural education in Gropius primary colors, and his minimalist redesign for Harrison’s personal library early in the film is justified. 

Although the film purportedly traces the life of a fictional architect, there are distinct parallels between László Tóth and architect Marcel Breuer. Breuer was Hungaran-Jewish architect who received a Bauhaus education and immigrated to America in 1937, and was once tasked with designing a Catholic church as a Jewish architect. In contrast with The Brutalist (and to the ire of some architectural critics), Marcel Breuer immigrated to America prior to the start of WWII and had a successful architectural career in the states.⁵ This story holds true for many of Breuer’s contemporaries as well, including Walter Gropius, Richard Neutra, Eero Saarinen, Rudolf Schindler, and Mies van der Rohe. Meanwhile, László’s architectural career in America hinges on a single patron, without whom he is shoveling coal or designing bowling alleys.

At the film’s conclusion, László loses the ability to speak for himself both literally and figuratively. Erzsébet and Lászlós’ intimate heroin bender revealed the violent truth of Harrison Van Buren‘s assault on László, and it is Erzsébet who boldly confronts the Van Buren family (and a shrunken table of embarrassed dinner guests). Harrison Van Buren disappears in the chaos, presumed suicide but unaccounted for; he is lost to the viewer in the mausoleum intended for his mother. László is not pictured again until the epilogue in Venice, where he is wheelchair-bound and it is now his niece Zsófia that speaks for him - a reversal of roles as she adjusts a microphone from wheelchair-height to her own standing-height.
Overall, I found that The Brutalist is an imperfect, but monumental film. I can’t wait to see more from Brady Corbet - and maybe a female architect can consult on the next one.

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Aryana Leland is a designer based in Denver, Colorado. She studied Architecture + Art History at Cal Poly Pomona, and her current interests are public transportation and The Lord of the Rings.

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¹ “The 97th Academy Awards | 2025.” Oscars | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, January 31, 2025. .

² McGovern, Joe. “What Is VistaVision? How ‘the Brutalist’ Revived a Beautiful but Cumbersome Film Format.” TheWrap, December 23, 2024. .

³ Lammers, Tim. “Did Oscar-Nominated Epic ‘The Brutalist’ Already Get a Streaming Date?” Forbes, January 31, 2025. .

⁴ Letterboxd. “The Brutalist: Adrien Brody, Guy Pearce, and Felicity Jones on the Construction of Their Characters.” YouTube, January 9, 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErTUFRabM9M&t=263s.

⁵ Wainwright, Oliver. “Backlash Builds: Why the Architecture World Hates The Brutalist.” The Guardian, January 29, 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/jan/29/architecture-the-brutalist-marcel-breuer.

I stumbled upon Eileen Gray by accident. The Denver Central Library - designed by Michael Graves - recently reopened after four years of major renovations, and I was excited to finally see the inside. In the sunlit main hall, a graphic novel was propped up in the “Recently Returned” section: Eileen Gray: A House Under the Sun. I’d heard of her in architecture school, but only ever in connection to Le Corbusier. I brought the book home and became enamored with her story. Through the format of a graphic novel, author Charlotte Malterre-Barthes and illustrator Zosia Dzierżawska have made Gray’s exceptional history more accessible and personal, and honor her as a pioneer of architectural modernism. The graphic novel begins with Le Corbusier’s death, who drowned beneath Eileen Gray’s most famous work: E-1027.¹

Cover for Eileen Gray: A House Under the Sun, 2019. Courtesy of Nobrov/Charlotte Malterre-Barthes and Zosia Dzierżawska

If you asked my favorite architect in school, my answer would have been Richard Neutra, and I took weekend pilgrimages to see his projects throughout Southern California. Neutra and modernism were my entrance into architectural history, but it became clear that women were missing from this canon. The most famous women in modernism seemed to be clients, or wives of clients. I held on to stories of Ray Eames’ work - never devoid of Charles - and Charlotte Perriand, who was (also) most often contextualized in her relation to Le Corbusier. Eileen Gray is no exception, and she was absent in my architectural case study lists and decorative arts classes in college. Through the story of E-1027, it became clear to me that her erasure from the history of architectural modernism was strategic and, at times, deliberate. 

An early chapter in the graphic novel called “Little Eileen” emphasizes her somber, but unique upbringing. Gray was the youngest of five children to Irish and Italian parents, and eventually moved to London and later Paris to study art. Eileen Gray studied under artist Seizo Sugawara, and became highly skilled in traditional Japanese lacquer techniques. Her work flourished in Paris, and Gray became renowned in salons and her own showroom that she opened in 1922: Jean Désert. The showroom’s name was a male pseudonym that helped the business (the graphic novel even references “Mister Désert”), and she continued her work in lacquered furniture, rugs, screens, and other decorative arts.¹

In my research of her early work, Caroline Constant’s biography of Eileen Gray curiously opens with a poem from Aleister Crowley. This odd reference led me to his 1905 collection of poems Rosa Mundi: And Other Love Songs, and the thirteenth poem in the collection is titled “Eileen.” Surprisingly, Gray and Crowley - yes, Mr. Crowley - were briefly engaged in 1902 in Paris.² With her endlessly fascinating history, Eileen may have dodged a bullet with Mr. Crowley, but her design work was later influenced by another person she was romantically involved with: Jean Badovici.

While I want to refrain from solely contextualizing Eileen Gray within her romantic relationships, E-1027 was designed for Jean Badovici and named for their partnership - “Eileen Jean Badovici Gray.” The name E-1027 is a riddle: “E” for Eileen, the 10th letter in the alphabet being “J,” the 2nd being “B,” and the 7th being “G.” ² The design of E-1027 was also fundamentally altered by Badovici’s later association with Le Corbusier, making it difficult to discuss her work without including how it was vandalized by more famous men.

E-1027. © Manuel Bougot, Courtesy ArchDaily

Badovici was a Romanian architect and writer, and the land for E-1027 in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France was purchased in his name. Jean Badovici’s influence in the design of E-1027 is visible in the implementation of Le Corbusier’s Five Points of Architecture throughout the home, with subtle use of pilotis, horizontal strips of glass, access to a rooftop deck, and a free, open-plan in the entertaining spaces.² In contrast, Eileen Gray was vocal in her opposition to Corbusier’s idea that a home was a “machine for living in,” and approached the design of the home with a consideration of bodily awareness and sensuality through material use.¹ Gray meticulously designed the form and furnishings of the home, implementing sensual textures and nautical imagery and schema in E-1027. The silhouette and design of the home resembles a boat in many ways, and Corbusian “horizontal windows” are actually created with the use of canvas that fronts full-height windows. Gray also designed her famous Transat chairs to be used on the outdoor terrace, which were inspired by the deck chairs used on transatlantic steamship travel.³

Interior, E-1027. © Manuel Bougot, Courtesy ArchDaily

Despite the home’s name evoking a catalogue item number, Gray used Corbusier stencils to add phrases throughout the house as an amusing commentary on machine imagery. The phrase “défense de rire” is included in the entry - roughly translating to “no laughing matter.” In addition to being the home’s architect, Gray designed many iconic furniture pieces and interiors for the home, such as the Bibendum chair which was influenced by the Michelin Man.³ Eileen Gray’s wit, character, and sense of Gesamtkunstwerk is clear throughout the design of E-1027, a testament to her skills as an artist and architect. A life preserver hangs from the terrace deck, but too far from the ocean to save anyone. 

Interior, E-1027. © Manuel Bougot, Courtesy ArchDaily

E-1027 was completed in 1929, but Eileen moved out of the house shortly after in 1931 when her relationship with Badovici dissolved with his infidelity and alcoholism.³ Gray once stated “memories cling to things, so it’s better to start anew,” and later designed her own retreat: Tempe á Pailla.¹ She continued her prolific architectural work, and her hypothetical design for a Vacation and Leisure Center was displayed in Le Corbusier’s Pavillon des Temps Nouveaux at the 1937 International Exhibition in Paris.² Meanwhile, Jean Badovici remained in the home, and in 1938 he invited Le Corbusier to paint murals on the walls - Gray was not consulted. Corbusier stripped naked and ornamented the home with large-scale murals, some overtly sexual and featuring nude figural forms of Gray without her permission. Corbusier created a total of eight murals, with color schemes and subject matter that misaligned and clashed with E-1027’s original design intent. In Eileen Gray’s own words, the murals in E-1027 were an “act of vandalism.” ¹ ³ ⁴ In Corbusier’s later publications, Eileen Gray’s name and design of the house were omitted entirely and, perhaps in an effort to save his own work, Corbusier had an admirer purchase the home. In the 1950’s, he added the Cabanon de Le Corbusier and five holiday cabins for Etoile de Mer on the site, looking down on E-1027.³ These additions served to contextualize her most famous work within Corbusier’s legacy. 

Le Corbusier Mural in E-1027. 

© Fondation Le Corbusier / ADAGP / Manuel Bougot

E-1027 is now owned and preserved by non-profit foundation Cap Moderne, which advertises the site as “Eileen Gray and Le Corbusier in Cap Martin.” ⁶ Corbusier’s death in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin further solidified his legacy at this site, overshadowing Gray’s original design for E-1027 on the secluded hillside. His murals remain.

Eileen Gray died on Halloween in 1976, and E-1027 developed a storied history beyond her time in the home. Gray’s narrative is long overdue, but Charlotte Malterre-Barthes and Zosia Dzierżawska’s graphic novel honors her work and impact on architectural modernism through a truly unique, accessible medium. 

Eileen Gray, 1926. Courtesy of Berenice Abbott/Getty Images. 

You can learn more about Charlotte Malterre-Barthes and Zosia Dzierżawskas’ graphic novel Eileen Gray: A House Under the Sun

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Aryana Leland is a designer based in Denver, Colorado. She studied Architecture + Art History at Cal Poly Pomona, and her current interests are knitting and creative writing.

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¹ Malterre-Barthes, Charlotte, and Zosia Dzierżawska. Eileen Gray: A House Under the Sun. London: Nobrow, 2019. 

² Constant, Caroline. Eileen Gray. London: Phaidon, 2000. 

³ Saunders, Frances Stonor. “The House That Eileen Built.” The Guardian, July 20, 2001.

⁴ Courcy, Anne de. “How a Naked Le Corbusier ‘vandalised’ a Modernist Masterpiece.” The Telegraph, June 16, 2019.

⁵ Stukin, Stacie. “Photos: The Architect of Desire.” W Magazine, June 17, 2015.

⁶ “Cap Moderne, Eileen Gray and Le Corbusier at Cap Martin - CMN.” Cap Moderne, Eileen Gray et Le Corbusier au Cap Martin, n.d.

In early May, the Denver Art Museum unveiled a new exhibit titled Biophilia: Nature Reimagined. Organized by Darrin Alfred, Curator of Architecture and Design, the exhibit featured digital installations, furniture pieces, models, and other works by contemporary designers that focus on how human design is intertwined with the natural world¹. The Member Preview Event for the exhibit was accompanied by a talk by Dixon Lu, the Associate Principal of MAD Architects, which provided more insight to their project in the RiNo Art District in Denver: One River North². The new luxury apartment development was completed earlier this year and features a vaguely organic facade, quickly becoming a neighborhood landmark - an Uber driver once asked me if I knew anything about the building when we drove by it. After the talk, an audience member asked about the project’s sustainability practices, which was met with a deflated explanation. 

While the exhibit had moments that felt unfocused in tackling such a broad subject, Biophilia prominently featured models, renderings, and diagrams of architectural works that bring nature into their design. The exhibit included models of the Nanjing Zendai Himalayas Center in China by MAD Architects, Metropol Parasol in Spain by J. Mayer H., and Populus by Studio Gang. Centered in the gallery, the model of Populus allowed visitors to come face-to-face with a recognizable facade, which was under construction just down the street. 

The Member Preview Event competed with the vibrant Cinco de Mayo Festival held in Civic Center Park that same day, just outside the museum. At this time, the Populus Hotel was already making its presence known in the Denver skyline, notable for a facade that mimics the patterns on aspen trees. Aspens are native to Colorado and widespread, bringing tourism in the fall months with what Coloradans (unironically) call “leaf peeping” to see their vibrant, changing colors. As someone who grew up outside of Colorado, I was fascinated with aspens and their growth patterns when I moved to Denver - a group of aspen trees share one extensive root system, and are part of a singular organism. This feels appropriate for Populus, which joins a campus of other architectural gems, including the Denver Public Library by Michael Graves, the Denver Art Museum by Daniel Libeskind and Gio Ponti, and the Clyfford Still Museum by Allied Works Architecture. Studio Gang finds itself in good company in Denver’s Cultural Center, with Populus visible from many points in the city. Above the tents, scents, and crowds at the Cinco de Mayo Festival, the white, aspen-eyed facade peeped above the Colorado State Capitol Building. 

 The design for the Populus was unveiled in December 2020, with detailed renderings that were later included in the Biophilia exhibit³. The aspen facade creates rhythm and depth, while also blurring the floor plates of the 13-story hotel. An unrolled elevation reveals a type of modularity with the windows as well, where groupings become recognizable as a flattened drawing, but flow organically onto the building⁴. The facade design also lends itself to the triangular site, with frontage on three prominent streets in Downtown Denver.  The windows, looking like eyes or portals, reach a height of 30 feet on the ground floor, giving a glimpse into public uses on the ground floor including a restaurant, lobby, and coffee shop. Guests on the upper levels are granted views of Downtown Denver and the Rocky Mountains to the west, and the windows become occupiable as seats, creating more permeable space between the hotel and the city beyond. 

Studio Gang is no stranger to a skyline. The Aqua Tower in Chicago exemplifies their skill with facade design, earning its place on architectural case study lists and boat tours along the Chicago River. Populus is Studio Gang’s first project in the Southwest, with offices in San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and Paris. Founder Jeanne Gang’s latest work focuses on the concept of architectural grafting, and how it can promote more sustainable design practices⁵. With little to graft onto at the existing, constrained site in Downtown Denver, Populus became a sustainable case study in its own right as the first carbon positive hotel in the country⁶.  A carbon positive building removes more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it emits in construction and operation, going beyond net-zero or carbon neutral construction. The design team achieved this by incorporating locally sourced materials, reducing carbon emissions created during transport, as well as being conscientious of carbon in the materials themselves; the use of fly ash reduces the amount of cement in the concrete structure. The building is targeting LEED Gold certification, and sustainable practices are prominent throughout the design and use of the building. 

At the Cinco de Mayo Festival, a series of lowriders and classic cars, immaculate and shining, were on display in front of the entrance to Populus as it was under construction. The lowriders were displayed with reverence and care, with some featuring memorials for family members and harm reduction resources. A dog named Loca sat proudly as friends took photos of minitrucks with dancing beds. In that moment, it felt like Populus was living up to its name, serving as an effective backdrop for bustling community activity. In a rapidly growing city it becomes increasingly important to examine how new developments can be used by the community, organically, and provide for future communities through sustainable design. Even unfinished, the project asserted a quiet confidence in its presence as a new part of the Denver skyline. 

The Biophilia exhibition at the Denver Art Museum ran from May 5 to August 11, but an extensive Online Exhibition Guide allows you to see the works from anywhere⁷. Populus opened officially on October 15, just in time with the aspen (Populus tremuloides) leaves changing color for the season. 

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Aryana Leland is a designer based in Denver, Colorado. She studied Architecture + Art History at Cal Poly Pomona, and her current interests are new recipes, walkable cities, and books from the library.

¹ “Biophilia.” Denver Art Museum. https://www.denverartmuseum.org/en/exhibitions/biophilia.

² “Talk with Dixon Lu, Associate Partner of MAD Architects.” Denver Art Museum.  https://www.denverartmuseum.org/en/calendar/talk-dixon-lu. 

³ “Studio Gang Completes Populus, a New Hotel and Social Hub in Downtown Denver.” Studio Gang. https://studiogang.com/now/studio-gang-completes-populus-a-new-hotel-and-social-hub-in-downtown-denver/.

⁴ “Populus.” Studio Gang. https://studiogang.com/projects/populus/.

⁵ “The Art of Architectural Grafting.” Studio Gang. https://studiogang.com/publications/grafting/.

⁶ Han, Gregory. “Populus Opens in 2024 as the Nation’s First Carbon Positive Hotel.” Design Milk, December 13, 2023. https://design-milk.com/populos-opens-in-2024-as-the-nations-first-carbon-positive-hotel/. 

⁷ “Biophilia: Nature Reimagined Exhibition Guide.” Denver Art Museum. https://www.denverartmuseum.org/en/biophilia-exhibition-guide.

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