A Passageway to...

In the course of my travels I take many pictures, but I have to admit, this particular shot is one of my recent favorites. Even though the image is vacant of many people and movement, I still feel like there is so much going on - looking at this image sends my mind racing in so many different directions.

My mind first focuses in on the design of the building. I am still captivated, today, by the blocked ceiling in the same way I was when I first took this photo. The design is so simple yet full of perfect symmetry. The order and peace created is a welcome contrast to the chaos and crowds that normally fill this downtown train station. I love how these rectangles seem to build on one another and appear to continue endlessly into the shadows of the tunnel. Mirroring these cement blocks is the track itself. The glowing steel races through the middle of the station and into the tunnel, much in the same way as the blocked design does on the ceiling. The two seem to be challenging one another to see which can reach the tunnel first - racing toward something off in the distance...

After my initial amazement from this station's design, I start to think about other old buildings which are similar in beauty and mystic. Is it me, or have modern buildings lost a bit of character - a charm that seems to tell a story? Why do modern buildings sometimes leave you wondering, "Ok, but what else do you have to offer?" Don't get me wrong, this train station certainly isn't that old, but it appears to have been built at a time when buildings still told a story. How often have you walked down a city street and stared at buildings, trying to picture what they looked like when first constructed? Did you ever marvel at how human beings could take solid cement and bricks and create such curved, ornate masterpieces? How many times have you said, "They couldn't afford to build a structure like that anymore?" Old buildings seem to be full of minute details that are lost to the average passerby. Unless you stop and study the building you will not find some of the hidden beauty: the phrase inscribed in Latin, the fabled character resting atop the roof, the curves that appear to have been carved with a butter knife, the design work set above each window...all of these details help to tell a story.

I wonder what the story of this train station could be...one of thousands of yearly commuters traveling to and from work or play; a witness to the many successes and failures of daily life; or maybe the passageway to new opportunities.

That's the Golden Perspective...what's yours?