Several years ago, I saw a remarkable exhibition at the San Francisco MOMA; it featured a collection of elaborately beautiful architectural drawings by one, Achilles G. Rizzoli.

Rizzoli was possessed by visions of a sort of utopian theme park called Y.T.T.E (Yield To Total Elation) that he created to celebrate peace, poetry, happiness, and even euthanasia. His intricately drafted illustrations are accompanied by exhaustive annotations, filled with elaborate puns, and punctuated with sly acronyms that he uses as a sort of semi-secret code through which he addresses his dreams and near-total lack of experience with the intricacies of real life (he slept in a cot at the foot of his mother's bed, and remained a virgin for his entire life).

His flights of fancy are gorgeous and gothic, and reflect to a great degree the inspiring style of the School of Beaux-Arts of which he was a graduate. His drawings have been collected in a gorgeous book called A.G. Rizzoli: Architect of Beautiful Visions that I personally own and highly recommend.

(This entry was inspired by Mister Haitch's wonderful post about the autistic savant, John Henry Pullen)