Kurisu Does the Contemporaine

Few people would deny the power of Japanese gardens; their calm and tranquility, their beauty and symbolism. But fewer people would probably think of putting a Japanese garden on the roof of a 15-story apartment building. And that's just what Hoichi Kurisu has done at the Contemporaine in Chicago's River North neighborhood.

Before, with Kurisu at work

After As featured in this month's Architecture:

On one of the upper, sculptural floors, a terrace garden designed by Hoichi Kurisu provides contrast and some relief to the memorable rooftop tableau of post and folded plate. The plantings and rocks belong to one of four formally interlocking penthouses...occupied by a collector of Neil Goodman's rustbelt-inspired sculpture. "As soon as I stepped out of the elevator, I said, 'That's it, I have to build a Japanese garden,'" the emphatic owner recalls.