Members of the Architects' Collaborative cling on to modern art outside their Harvard Graduate Center, 1949. Gropius' feet are closest to the ground. (Source: Andrew Saint, The Image of the Architect.)

“I have hope,” Simon says. “Not a hell of a lot of hope, but some hope. You need tons of hope simply in order to function. Got to think that everything will work out. I don’t think that’s condescending. I hope it’s not condescending. My father believed in the Second World War, a good choice. I believe in bricklayers but even bricklayers get things wrong, you specify a course of contrasting brick, vary the pattern of headers and stretchers and they misread the blueprints. I don’t want to be condescending. Trees have integrity, can’t go far wrong with a tree. You want to make a building look good, budget heavily for trees. A bird in the tree is better than a kick in the prosthesis. That’s all I mean.

Donald Barthelme, Paradise