Walking through walls

On architecture, writing, and the invisible buildings in our minds.

I still walk the halls of the hotel from time to time.

My mind drifts, and I’m surprised to find myself in it; walking down the hallways, lingering in the wide stairwells, admiring the carefully-framed views from the charming porthole windows. I know it inside and out, from the rustic cedar shingles hugging the rooftop gables to the just-right bend in the corridors, angled perfectly to hug the hillside without feeling claustrophobic. I’ve been there many times. The hotel doesn’t exist, though, not in any physical form. 

It never has. 

One of the most unexpected things about being an architect, at least for me, is discovering the intimate relationships that one can and necessarily does develop with buildings that don’t exist. Designing a building is a long and complicated process, much more than simply sketching an idea on a page. From concept to construction, a building’s design can go through dozens of iterations. First, a broad idea is proposed, and a program of spaces is outlined to h…