Beautiful Stair Reinforces My Architectural Optimism

The Shepherd Center parking deck reinforces my architectural optimism, more on that in a minute.


Did the architects know how beautiful this would be? You can only see this from Bennett Street in the evening.


A quick glance south from Bennett shows a substation, railroad, then parking lots. Ugh. But wait a minute, this is beautiful.


An architectural optimist believes that we can have beauty without $billions; that the modest and the practical can delight and inspire, that the mundane can be art.


Here the requirements for stairs, lighting, ventilation, safety, paint, make something special for the few folks that happen to look.


I hope that it didn't take one extra dime to make it beautiful. Did the architects know? I'll bet they did.