As an architect and a city planner, we’re grateful for this stunning evidence never to sum up the city we love! This photograph is a thrilling composition of brick and steel buildings with an amazing number of water towers sitting atop them. Jaunty yet solid in their rounded shapes and pointed tops, the water towers’ playfulness counters the buildings’ heaviness and density, and give a lightness to the entire cityscape.
Water towers are vital elements of the city, which we both too often passed by. Each one is highlighted by the early morning sun coming from the right. This light also reveals the subtle color variations and the relations among the many things in this photograph.
—Dale Laurin and Barbara Buehler