Decoding the Architectural Symbolism of Neverland Ranch

You know Michael Jackson‘s design legacy—those patented anti-gravity illusion loafers—but what has the King of Pop left us architecturally? Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne visited Neverland Ranch last week to find out. “At the height of his popularity, Jackson bent the music industry toward an androgynous, perpetually childlike model of superstardom,” notes Hawthorne. “He managed a similar trick in transforming the architecture of this classic Santa Barbara County ranch property.” In making the 2,600-acre spread his own, Jackson “somehow neutered and sexualized” the traditionally rugged, masculine ranch ideal.