When you enter the museum, you travel down from the largest of the glass pyramids. My intention was to transverse through the galleries in the Richelieu wing, which were highlighted by the smaller pyramids, on my way to see Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss, a sculpture by Italian artist Antonio Canova. That first stop upended my entire plan.

With the overhead diffused sunlight streaming down through the pyramids, shadows dancing off the marble, the space alone was stunning.  Add the white marble statues and tears welled up in my eyes; it was literally breathtaking. As an architect of over thirty years, I can now put into words what I could not back then. For me, my brain has always been attracted to the light and shadows on a form; it’s probably the most crucial aspect of the way I see the world that has propelled me into the field of architecture.

Unlike so many developments in the United States, a well-designed space, room, and piece of art has no back, like the sculptures in this room.  You can walk around each piece as I did and marvel at forms and details, almost alive to a point you want to reach out and touch them, yet knowing they are stone.  Without understanding with my brain, but definitely with my intuition and other senses, that day was the day I embraced my calling as an architect.  To be so moved by three-dimensional form solidified my quest for designing spaces that touched the soul, played with light, and provided the end-user with more than they expected. It seems only natural years later that I have continued to look for ways to express what I envision in my mind.  My Movie is my first attempt at playing with form, ideas, and technology to show you what is possible before a shovel ever touches the earth.

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