In 1947 Robert Royston was contacted by the owner of a chain of San Francisco movie theaters to design a garden to accompany his new home. The first version of this design, although much liked by the client, was not installed due to cost considerations. The bid from the landscape contractor was in excess of $50,000, quite a sum for a garden in the period immediately following the war. Royston retruned to the drawing boards and created the design that was built several years later.