On Exhibit
verdant laboratory
Architecture Center Houston is proud to announce their upcoming exhibition Verdant Laboratory by Falon Mihalic opening Thursday, June 12, 5:30-7:30pm, and continuing through August 22, 2025.
Verdant Laboratory transforms the gallery into a speculative ecology—part science lab, part art installation—that tells the story of Houston’s wild and often overlooked landscapes.
Through large-scale mixed media drawings, sculptures, and a video projection, Mihalic explores the living systems that form Houston’s foundation. Houston is not just a city built on bayous—it is a bayou. Situated at the intersection of the Galveston Bay estuary and coastal prairie, Houston exists within a dynamic and powerful web of water, soil, and biodiversity.
Event is free and open to the community.
About
Falon Mihalic is a sculptor and landscape architect who began making art with watercolor paintings in 2007. Their projects investigate our perception of landscapes and ecology through site-specific works in light art, ceramics, and large-scale public art installations. Falon is a licensed landscape architect (TX, FL, IL) with a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design and a B.A. in Natural Sciences from New College of Florida. Their work has been supported by the Kaboom Foundation, the Houston Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, the Houston Arts Alliance, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Center for Spatial Studies at Rice University.
Falon has presented widely, including a recent international talk at the Center for Metropolitan Planning in Prague. They currently have multiple permanent public art commissions underway across the US.
June 12-August 22, 2025
Architecture Center Houston
902 Commerce St,
Houston, TX 77002
Exhibition and Programming Sponsor:
The City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance
REES
CORT
ASLA Texas, H/GC Section
Texas Parks & Wildlife
Verdant Laboratory invites visitors to reconsider the city’s terrain not as backdrop, but as a vibrant, evolving protagonist.
“This work is about listening to the land,” said Falon Mihalic. “Houston’s ecology is alive. It floods, it heals, it reshapes itself. Through art and design, we can begin to see landscape not as a passive setting but as a resilient, responsive system essential to our urban future.”
As the effects of climate change become more visible and the city of Houston continues to grow, Verdant Laboratory prompts a critical conversation: How can we foreground landscape ecology in shaping the resilient cities of tomorrow? Join us as we reexamine what it means to live with, not just on, the land.
on falon's Bookshelf
- A Garden Book for Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast, River Oaks Garden Club
- Remarkable Plants of Texas: Uncommon Accounts of Our Common Natives, Matt Warnock Turner
- Texas Wilflowers, Leo Meier and Jan Reid
- The North American Prairie: A guide to the plants, wildlife, and natural history of the prairie, including where to hike and camp, Stephen R. Jones and Ruth Carol Cushman
- Trees of Texas, Stan Tekiela
- Cabinet of Natural Curiosities, Albertus Seba
- The Audubon Society of Field Guide to North America Fossils, Thompson Knopf
- National Audubon Soceity Field Guide to North American Weather, Thompson Knopf
- The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers, Thompson Knopf
- The Texas Landscape Project, Todd Ogren
- Second Nature, Michael Pollan
- A Field Guide to Common Texas Insects, Drees Jackman
- Grasses of the Texas Hill Country, Brian Loflin and Shirley Loflin
Peterson Field Guides - Southwestern and Texas Wildflowers, Theodore Niehaus, Charles Ripper, Chuck Ripper and Virginia Savage
- Hawks, William S. Clark and Brian K. Wheeler
- Edible Wild Plants: Eastern/Center North America, Lee Allen Peterson
- Eastern Forest: A field guide to birds, mammals, trees, flowers, and more, John Kricher and Gordon Morrison
- Insects, Donald J. Borror and Richard E. White
falon's favorite native plants
- Almond Verbena, Aloysia virgata (naturalized, not native)
- American Elm*, Ulmus americana
- American Fringetree*, Chionanthus virginicus
- Bald Cypress*, Taxodium distichum
- Barbados Cherry, Malpighia glabra
- Cedar Elm*, Ulmus crassifolia
- Cherry Laurel*, Prunus laurifolia
- Chinquapin Oak*, Quercus muhlenbergii
- Drummond Red Maple*, Acer rubrum var. Drummondii
- Elderberry, Sambucus spp.
- Esperanza*, Tecoma stans
- Florida Anise, Illicium floridanum
- Fragrant Tea Olive, Osmanthus fragrans
- Live Oak*, Quercus virginiana
- Mexican Plum*, Prunus Mexicana
- Mexican Sycamore*, Platanus mexicana
- Mexican White Oak, Quercus polymorpha
- Montezuma Cypress, Taxodium mucrolatum
- Oakleaf Hydrangea, Hydrangea quercifolia
- Southern Red Oak*, Quercus falcata
- Southern Magnolia*, Magnolia grandiflora
- Southern Wax Myrtle, Myrica cerifera
- Swamp Chestnut Oak*, Quercus michauxii
- Sweetbay Magnolia*, Magnolia virginiana
- Texas Mountain Laurel, Sephora secundiflora (native to arid Texas)
- Texas Redbud*, Cercis canadensis var. Texensis
- Vitex Tree, Vitex agnus-castus
- Walter’s Viburnum*, Viburnum obovatum
- Yaupon Holly, Ilex vomitoria
Ready to Visit?
Hours
Monday-Thursday: 9am – 5pm
Friday: 9am – 3pm
Directions
902 Commerce St
Houston, TX 77002
