The San Francisco firm specializes in projects that are juicy, brainy, and?in some cases?seemingly impossible Marcel Wilson probably won't like the way I start or end this profile. That's because I'm going to write about his past, and the landscape architect is obsessively focused on the future. But to fully understand what comes next, we have to look at what came before.
Wilson is changing the shape and texture of some of California's most beloved landscapes and outdoor public areas in ways that are surprising, unconventional, and delightful. As part of that, he's planting trees?and a lot of them. The irony is that his father owned a South Bend, Indiana, lumber and hardware business, and Wilson grew up watching trees chopped down and rendered into boards.
Cayce Clifford
A detail of Bionic?s 3rd Street Flash Light, an urban park in San Francisco.

You might think Wilson became a landscape architect in order to replant what his father harvested. Though it?s a poetic thought, it?s not quite the case. If anything, Wilson's work was inspired by his paternal profession. "My father would find land, cut the trees, and haul them to the mill. I spent a lot of time in the machine rooms watching that process," Wilson explains. "Looking back, it directly affected my understanding of how the world is shaped and manipulated?as well as its economics.?
And let's not disregard the influence of his hometown in his work. "In Indiana, everyo...