A refuge of serenity in the middle of the city, Portland, Oregon’s Lan Su Garden is a release from the pace of everyday life. Enclosing an entire city block, this white walled precinct is designed to heighten senses, but to quiet the spirit, to engage the eyes, but diminish the rush and tumult of everyday life. It is fashioned like a fortress, with punctured exterior walls exuding modulated light. The interior is divided into rooms that flow one into the other, all opening out into a gracious landscaped exterior space in the middle of which is an irregularly shaped koi-filled pond.
During these Covid Years 2020-22, at a time when most of us are circumscribed by our own private environments, the Garden has been limitedly open to masked visitors, I frequently (sometimes daily) among them. Often a travel photographer and a lover of things Asian, it is a perfect escape. The vines, the shadows, the reflections in the water transform into line drawings. Koi animate the pond. Weathered rocks stand as sculpture. There is a constant unfolding of light and change. Because the Garden is so austere, it was a conscious choice to “see” it in color rather than monochrome.
Enter my refuge with me.
