Prettything!

Of all the architectural features in the world, and I've been lots of places and seen lots of things, this is hands-down my favorite.


This is a photo of this THING in Rosslyn, Virginia, which hangs off a federal building. It's a many-panel curtain made of tiny silver discs, one over each huge air return/vent on the sides of the building. It turns something that would look pretty awful (and be a bird- and bug-trap of the first order) into something almost magical. The way the discs are tied, they reflect sunlight wonderfully - but they move like water. A gentle breeze gives you gentle ripples, traveling across; a stiff wind makes it roil, and its as though you're viewing a stormy sea from a gull's eye high overhead. I'll try to get a video someday; luckily, the three-story (!) McDonald's across the way's top floor is an excellent viewing site.