Images from a recent shoot in San Diego for Portland-based design firm Walker Macy. I studied photography in Chicago where you learned very quickly about the marriage of photography and architecture, so I love shooting for architecture and design magazines & firms. I'm not hired as an classical architectural photographer though, but asked to use my documentary skills that show spaces being activated and reanimated through design. I go to record the real life application of architectural design, especially in urban spaces that were often struggling or dying.

In this case, the redesigned Horton Plaza in downtown San Diego is an effort to revitalize the core of the city, away from the more popular waterfront areas that tourists populate. Under the classic U.S. Grant Hotel built in 1910, the new space mixes the original plaza, with its art-deco fountain, with a new space designed for public events, and day to day use by residents.