Trained as an art historian, Philip Larson turned to art-making in the early 1970s. In his sculptures and prints, he frequently incorporates geometrical patterns that are inspired by architectural forms—especially the building ornamentation of Chicago and Prairie School architects such as Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright. In the bench he designed for the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, Larson explores progressive permutations of basic geometric forms. The cast-iron components of the piece represent the six possible combinations of four irregular diamond shapes dervied from rock crystals. Larson has also created such public projects as the walkway system for General Mills and the etched-glass transit shelters along Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis.