The Stata Center at MIT, named for Ray and Maria Stata,
continues to fascinate me as I process the images from this trip. Only
yesterday I met an employee of Analog Devices, Mr. Stata's company,
here in Austin. 
The
building's architecture is a tremendous statement to the thinking
processes that go into conceiving new ideas, natural or artificial. On
the natural side, there is one image from the beach just north of Woods
Hole. Enough to make one ponder the sea as well.
I have not had any beans yet, but lots of Chinese tea and great architecture. Boston is a wonderful town. A quick walk across the Boston Common and we were in Beacon Hill. Almost immediately a local resident who was walking his dog sparked a conversation with us and started giving me some of the local history and culture. Within seconds he said "follow me" and led us to some of the great architecture of the city. Some blocks later having parted ways with my first host, a gracious lady coming home struck up a conversation as she entered her home. She said "Oh you're from Austin, the people there are different from the rest of Texas aren't they?". I said "yes, we didn't vote for George".
So much history here.... I walked 12+ miles on the first day, and 9+ on the second. The whole of the "Freedom Trail" to Bunker Hill Monument, the USS Constitution, water shuttle back to downtown, Boston Common down Commonwealth Avenue, over to Newbury... across Harvard Bridge, and like a magnetic pull I was drawn to Frank Gehry's architectural masterpiece on the MIT Campus. Then back to the city across the Charles River and a sail boat race. Boston has it all. Tomorrow I am off to Woods Hole, MA. More from there....
Yesterday I had the really great pleasure to see some wonderful architectural work here in Austin, Texas. One of the most amazing was the one on the left. It was reassuring to see that the spirit to bring ideas from "outside the box" into reality was alive and well here in the heart of Texas. My thanks to the owners of all the homes we saw, and to the Friends of Architecture at the University of Texas.
Update Dec 8th: I found out a few days ago that this image was featured at the top of the FOA web site. http://soa.utexas.edu/foa
