The title of the Museum of Modern Art’s new architecture exhibit, “Groundswell,” connotes both living and man-made structures bursting forth from the soil. At the opening Tuesday night, guests, too, seemed to be blooming – under the spell of a New York landscape architect, Ken Smith, who pinned friends, strangers, and me with synthetic flowers purchased right before the party at Dee & Dee on Chambers Street. The gesture perfectly captured the mood of “Groundswell,” which celebrates the ability to transform desolate industrial spaces into joyful and colorful gathering places for people.

The 23 projects showcase redevelopment efforts in cities around the world, including Barcelona, Berlin, Rotterdam, and Manchester (where an IRA bomb in 1996 severely damaged the city’s center).

Mr. Smith’s project in the exhibit, the new roof garden at the Modern, is in a category of its own. It is meant to be seen from above from surrounding buildings, rather than from within. The garden presents synthetic materials in a camouflage pattern, separated from any connotations of war with a tropical sea color scheme that includes turquoise, green, and light blue. The pattern is Mr. Smith’s design. “I started out by xeroxing the camouflage pattern on this pair of Day-Glo orange surfer pants my wife picked up on the street, and went from there,” he said.

Almost all the designers who worked on the projects attended the opening, including James Corner, who developed the plan to turn the Fresh Kills landfill at Staten Island into a park; the architect Michael Duncan of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, who worked on a new university hub at Shanghai; Kathryn Gustafson, who worked on three projects in the show, and Joanna Averley, who worked on the Manchester project.

A curator, Peter Reed, and a curatorial assistant, Irene Shum, shaped the exhibit, which illustrates the projects with a combination of models, photographs, plans, and videos. Elements not to be missed: the video for the Bradford, England, project, a dramatic simulation that transforms abandoned lots into whimsical parks and buildings; the model for the Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park, which cleverly shows the area before construction and uses miniature copies to mark where visitors will find the Alexander Calder and Richard Serra sculptures, and the photograph of Lurie Garden in Chicago awash in wild flowers, thanks to the brilliant Piet Oudolf, who did the same for Battery Park.

After I viewed so many models and renderings, there are places I feel compelled to see with my own eyes. So sometime in 2006, when the projects are completed, I plan to walk barefoot on the Shanghai Carpet, an outdoor strip of organic materials with a red LED screen running through it. Then I’ll travel to Beirut to see the Garden of Forgiveness, which exposes the ancient foundations of the city while creating a space for contemplation. I’ll finish in Paris to see the Parc de la Cour du Maroc.

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The New School brought together jazz greats for its annual Beacons in Jazz Awards. Honored were a HIP Health Plan executive, Arthur Barnes; the rhythm & blues singer Ruth Brown; the saxophonist Jimmy Heath; the pianist Hank Jones, and the jazz pianist Billy Taylor. It was a night for emerging talent, too. New School jazz students performing in the ballroom of the Pierre on Tuesday night included Christopher Tordini, Rashaan Carter, and the 2005 “Young Beacon in Jazz,” drummer Jamire Williams of Houston. Among the guests were Ahmet Ertegun, who signed Ms. Brown to Atlantic Records in 1948, and the celebrated impresario George Wein. The event raised $300,000 for scholarships at the school’s Jazz & Contemporary Music program, which awards the degree of bachelor of fine arts in both jazz performance and composition/arranging.