Nikon D70s with Sigma 18-200 Lens on a tripod. ISO 200, 8s, f/13, manual mode, autofocus, camera RAW. The small aperture was necessary to keep the the background in focus. I usually underexpose night shots a little to avoid blown highlights from artificial illumination. 

I saw this Cesar Pelli designed building on the University of Houston campus during an architecture tour. It stands out because of who designed it and especially because Pelli's design contrast sharply with the Frank Lloyd Wright inspired '50s architecture of the rest of the campus. I decided to return at night to try to capture this contrast and this is the result. The curved element in the foreground is part of the more interesting half of Pelli's building. The grid in the background is the facade of the other half that follows a more traditional design schema. I was trying to isolate elements of both buildings that encapsulate the different styles in a clean package. Doing so at night time ensured that the curving awning would be illuminated from below. During daylight hours the building in the background would have been brighter than the awning, placing the emphasis on the less interesting structure rather then on the design elements I set out to capture. I also liked that the inside of the building in the foreground is illuminated while most of the other building is dark. [

I usually take several variations on the same theme when I go out with a specific objective. I also normally take a few overview shots before trying to frame something usable. In this case I took 21 shots of the building, exploring its design from various angles. Two of these exposures capture this particular view and I used the first one.  

Editing in this case was minimal and intended to focus the viewer on the geometric nature of the subject matter: noise reduction, correcting the perspective and lens distortion, sharpening, multiplying the image with a slightly massaged copy of itself to enhance contrast, curves, standard gradient map for b/w conversion, toning via Color Balance adjustment layer.  

I always find this is always difficult to answer for straight architecture shots. I wanted to capture the tension between the two sides of Pelli's building by focusing on a view that contrasts characteristic design elements. To me this is more about shapes and lines than a specific mood or message.