Monday night, the architectural firm Weiss/Manfredi launched a new Princeton Architectural Press book, Surface/Subsurface, with an office party, and GalleyCat correspondent Amanda ReCupido was there. “The scene was full of architects and designers,” she reports, “which left one such English-degree holding reporter staring blankly at intricate sketches and thinking, um, maybe I should have paid better attention in math?” But two of the firm’s members were kind enough to give her a tour, walking her through pictures and models of Seattle’s Olympic Sculpture Park and their more recent proposals for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Visitor Center. “I was drawn to the models, which they pointed out are built extremely to scale,” she emailed. “‘That’s always fun for the new guy,’ they joked. ‘It’s like, that looks good, but you’re 1/16th off.'” The most interesting about the firm, she adds, is its dedication to blending design with nature: Many of their works, like the model shown in inset, include winding paths that work with the landscape rather than against it. The firm’s eco-friendly designs often earn strong LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) ratings, demonstrating their commitment to sustainable green development practices.