As many of you know, I'm an all-weather cyclist...and yes, that is my commuter bike (cleaned up for the occasion) serving as a prop. Judging from their recent Bike to Work Week scores, so are some of my clients. This Photo of the Week is brought to you by the letter B: this bike shelter is at the Buchanan Building at UBC, built by the also-bike-brandishing Bruce Carsadden Architects. We photographed this almost exactly two years ago when it first opened, and it's a classic Bruce Carscadden project: combining an awareness of usability, solidity of form, a sense of (as one of their architects put it) thrift and efficiency in materials and expression, and a certain durable playfulness that dresses up what would otherwise be a somewhat banal utility space. 

Photographically, it's an example of the usefulness of winter light. This photo was made with predominantly available light and a small amount of flash fill. While Vancouver weather in December is usually grey, dark, wet, and generally blah, when we do get a few minutes of winter light, it can make for interesting photos if the conditions are right. Winter light (when it happens) is crisp and low, and does a great job of jazzing up a due-south-facing project like this one. The louvers show well in this sort of light, which penetrates deep into the structure to highlight the vertical and horizontal elements that make up the walls of the project.