When I saw in this morning's New York Times that the new arts center at the 9/11 memorial site is designed by the architectural firm of Joshua Prince-Ramus, I was reminded of Prince-Ramus's great description of the "hyperrationalism" of Seattle Central Library.

Of course, as soon as Seattle's imaginative library was finished—I love this library—everybody thought it was about "our ego," Prince-Ramus said.

But watch the video and you'll see how programmatic it was, almost comically so.

In fact, when Prince-Ramus brings up the first slide of the building model, the audience laughs.

The "mystery box" for New York trips my wire in a similar way. Its material is stately—translucent marble from the same Vermont quarry as the Lincoln Memorial—but its interior is so flexible as to seem almost digital rather than analog.

In other architectural news, I'll be reporting from the community meeting on the proposed expansion of Seattle Asian Art Museum tomorrow morning at 10:30 am at the Nagomi Tea House in the ID. See you then.