"I asked the brick what it wanted to be and it said, "I want to be an arch." — Louis I. Khan Every day on my way to work, I drive past a house (see Figure 1A) that has bugged me since it went up. The second floor has two big picture windows flanking an arched opening. While the detailing and finishes are way above average, the place just looks wrong. The problem is with the arch. No element in the architectural repertoire is more elegant than the arch. Used alone, an arch makes a universally understood formal statement about what is important. Used in repetition, the arch creates a wonderful rhythm. Unfortunately, no element is so
