A flash design tour of Orange County

The Noguchi Garden, as it is informally known, is tucked between a cluster of modern glass office towers and the 405 Freeway near South Coast Plaza. The 1.6-acre work -- officially titled “California Scenario” -- reflects on six different elements that comprise the state’s landscape, such as desert, above.

Opposite the desert setting, a mound lined in California redwoods evokes the state’s forests. Temperatures in this area are noticeably cooler than in other parts of the garden. Lange thinks the whole ensemble is a “brilliant testament” to Noguchi’s skill in setting a scene.

After visiting Noguchi, we did a drive-by of South Coast Plaza to pay a visit to Welton Becket’s Bullock’s wing (now a Macy’s), completed in the 1970s -- a veritable temple to shopping. Becket is perhaps best known for his iconic Capitol Records building in Hollywood.

Our last stop on the tour was the Crystal Cathedral (now Christ Cathedral), the early Garden Grove mega-church founded by televangelist Robert H. Schuller. The 34-acre campus contains an array of name-brand architecture, including this glass church and tower by Philip Johnson, completed in 1980 and 1990, respectively.

We approached the campus from the south, where it appears like a mirage from Lewis Street. To keep things chronological, Lange and I began with a visit to the oldest structure onsite: a stone-lined sanctuary designed by Richard Neutra that was completed in 1961. Johnson’s Crystal Cathedral can be seen in the distance.

The interior of Neutra’s original sanctuary. The windows to the right could be entirely opened so that Robert H. Schuller might also preach to the cars parked outside in the lot. Unfortunately, the church is missing its original wood pews -- which means row upon unforgiving row of black plastic chairs.

Robert H. Schuller, a profligate builder, added another structure to the campus in 1968: a tower designed by Neutra and his son, Dion Neutra, which contained classrooms and office space. In the foreground are the edges of Richard Meier’s building, originally dubbed the International Center for Possibility Thinking. The entire campus now belongs to the Catholic Church.

Philip Johnson’s glass cathedral was conceived for the television age. His adjacent tower appears to have predicted the Instagram age: a shining steel shard that doesn’t have a bad angle. Lange says the tower’s omnipresence reminded her of Eero Saarinen’s North Christian Church in Missouri, which has a steeple that dominates the flat landscape around it.

Richard Meier’s contribution to the campus is pretty Meier-y, looking more like a microchip plant than a religious building -- not to mention the Getty Center, which he also designed. (The cross is from the Neutra Tower of Hope that sits behind it.) Moreover, the steely exteriors looked chilly in the cloudy weather.

The architecture is pretty remarkable. The statuary, not so much.