Today, rather than focus on my (as always) copious opinions on the topic “Always Be Learning,” I thought I’d give you another look at the before & after of a photograph. This is the facade of the Reuter Center, home of the University of North Carolina/Asheville’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute—also known as the College for…

No amount of googling thus far has enabled me to determine when the Inn at Biltmore Estate was actually built. I’m quite sure it was in the last 30 years or so. Nonetheless, it’s possible to sit on the porch—gazing at the mountains and blissfully soaking up the sun’s rays and the fresh air—and imagine…

Light and dark and an incredible array of textures: this image demonstrates how pattern can define our perception of a space. Certainly there are some perspectival cues, but this picture depends more upon the juxtaposition of surfaces and the interplay of solidity and translucency for its impact. It’s like a visual venn diagram. (I really…

In which we demonstrate the value of perspective by identifying the vanishing point. A Year Ago: Jockey’s Ridge Perfect weather, lovely company, dunes, and no agenda… [read more]

I like places that are layered, where the past is still present. I like places that don’t try to cover up the memory of other times, when things were different—sometimes good, sometimes bad, but always a shaper of the way things are now. Let me not sentimentalize too much or be too precious about the…