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2 0 1 7 T R A V E L G U I D E T O C A L I F O R N I A 67 RAFAEL RAMIREZ LEE/SHUTTERSTOCK ; MARIUSZ S. JURGIELEWICZ/SHUTTERSTOCK . OPPOSITE: MTAIRA/SHUTTERSTOCK ; NAEBLYS/SHUTTERSTOCK Arts & Crafts to Computer Contemporary American Arts and Crafts became closely associated with California at the turn of the 20 th century. The use of natural materials such as warm, burnished wood panels and beams, glass and stone reflected Califor- nians' deep feeling for nature. Such buildings, exemplified by the 1908 Gamble House in Pasadena, seemed to grow organ- ically out of the earth. The cedar brown shingle wooden homes of Berkeley, fea- tured on Berkeley Architecture Heritage Association walking tours, are pleasing examples (berkeleyheritage.com). The streamlined power of early 20 th cen- tury technology found mesmerizing form in the Art Deco style of the 1920s and 1930s. Perhaps the noblest example of functional Art Deco in North America is the 1937 Golden Gate Bridge. With its taut suspen- sion cables, thrusting towers and trademark International Orange color, the Golden Gate Bridge dramatizes the energy, ambition and power of Art Deco (goldengatebridge.org). The next breakthrough for architecture came around the turn of the new millen- nium with what could be called Computer Contemporary style. Here, too, the Golden State shines. Frank Gehry's brilliantly realized 2003 Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, with its swooping roofs and shining metallic skin, is a fantasia that couldn't have been realized without sophisticated computers or built without modern alloys (laphil.com). The rippled gray-white surface and horizontal windows in the 2016 tower of the greatly expanded San Francisco Museum of Modern Art are of a piece with the contemporary, cutting-edge artwork inside (sfmoma.org). Gardens North & South Major formal public gardens blossomed in California in the early 20 th century. The splendor of Hakone Gardens, opened in Saratoga in 1915, showed the way. Hailed as the oldest Japanese and Asian estate gardens in the Americas and spreading over 18 hilly acres, serene Hakone Gardens is known for koi ponds, waterfalls and strolling and meditative walks (hakone.com). In 1925, Casa del Herrero (House of the Blacksmith) opened in a decorative Spanish Colonial Revival mansion, a style still hugely popular in host city Santa Barbara. The estate is celebrated for its Moorish garden with its water fountain and hedged outdoors "rooms" (casadelherrero.com). Both Los Angeles and San Francisco host distinguished public botanical gardens. San Francisco debuted the Strybing Arboretum in 1940 on 55 acres in Golden Gate Park. Now called San Francisco Botan- ical Garden, it is renowned for its rhododendron dell, magnolia collection, redwood grove and native California plants (sfbotanicalgarden.org). The Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden was opened in 1956 in aptly named Arcadia, with a lovely waterfall, Queen Anne cottage and garden of perennials (arboretum.org). The Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden, opened in 1961, shows off an inspired pro- fusion of blooms on winding Highway 1 at Fort Bragg. More major public gardens fol- lowed (gardenbythesea.org). Among them: 654-acre Filoli, nestled in the hills of Woodside south of San Fran- cisco. Debuting in 1975, Filoli is known for quiet paths and ponds, a charming rose garden, 250-year-old live oak trees and 16 th - century-style English Renaissance Garden (filoli.org). In 1993, the former estate of Polish opera singer Ganna Walska pre- miered near Santa Barbara as Lotusland, featuring fruit orchards, a succulent garden and a butterfly garden (lotusland.org). WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL in Los Angeles, right; Hakone Gardens, a traditional Japanese garden in Saratoga, below; Victorian houses on Steiner Street across from Alamo Square, opposite bottom.