Olympic Topiary Gone Wild

It's not a secret that I'm a big fan and proponent of vegetation occupying the vertical spaces in our lives. Perhaps it's the ubiquitousness of the natural surroundings, but the jarring use of landscape that confronts us the way great architectural materials does - makes my day. On the other hand, perhaps this can be taken too far (even for a bit of literally greenwashing)... and a once per four year opportunity does not give one the right to mis-use veg.itecture in such ways... Period.


:: image via Inhabitat

I first received this via email from a colleague at work - and then it started making the rounds in the blogosphere - and I would be remiss in not making more people endure this - just so we can all look, walk away, and do better. I'm not a big fan of herbicide use, but the Beijing Botanical Gardens International Flower exhibit must be stopped... (apologies to the gardeners... as technically these are amazing...but...)

So first the passable...




:: images via Inhabitat

...the mediocre...




:: images via Inhabitat

To finally, the just plain awful...






:: images via Inhabitat