Discover more about the ship the Great Eastern, which stretched to the limits of Victorian technology and, perhaps, cost the life of its visionary designer - Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

The park was designed by Robert H.H. Hugman, the visionary designer of the River Walk in San Antonio.

"The collaboration of community education and economic development, environment and a visionary designer is what interests us," said Tracy Calvan, director of exhibitions and programs for the society.

A revival of the 1960's white coat, the signature color of the visionary designer of the decade, André Courrèges (the first to put women in miniskirts, pants and boots), is back as a force with today's manufacturers.

But the popularity of closet lights, dimmer switches, garage-door openers, central heating, soundproof walls and indoor plumbing can all be attributed in part to the visionary designers of futuristic houses.

It felt very much of today, which is when Ms. Westwood, one of the most visionary female designers, is most needed.

But the practice of hiring visionary designers for low-income housing, architects say, fell out of favor in the United States as public housing projects came to be seen as a failure.

A portrait of the visionary designer of Central Park.

Only in this century did such visionary designers as Hermann Oberth and Robert Goddard show that rockets could reach space.

Yet the most visionary designers have tended to focus on personal psychic terrain rather than large-scale development and planning debates.