Bay Area design editor Zahid Sardar will lead designers Roderick Wyllie and James Lord of Surface design and landscape architect Andrea Cochran in a lively conversation accompanied by slides that will examine the impact of mid-century design on the California landscape and how it manifests itself in contemporary works by them.

Inspired in part by Garrett Eckbo and also by Robert Royston (designer of Mitchell Park in Palo Alto), Thomas Church (creator of The Donnell Garden) and Gardner Dailey, all of whom worked on the Marin Art and Garden Center’s 1945 reincarnation as a public space, Wyllie, Lord, and Cochran have created large and small spaces of their own that will surely influence the next generation of designers.

The backdrop for the evening will be “Cool Outside,” an exciting exhibition curated by JC Miller (an associate of Royston). Its jazzy leitmotif celebrates the roots of California’s interdisciplinary designs.