A Filtration Plant in Steubenville, Ohio

I recently recieved the following email from Mark Lund:

Professor Clayton,

We were in Steubenville OH recently and saw this filtration plant.​ I found the additions interesting.  The original building followed a more traditional form as you spoke about.  Then the additions became more and more purely functional without regard to how it looked.

What he is referring to is the proportions of the building on the right. Notice how with two horizontal lines of white bricks, it is divided into three unequal heights, each in relationship with each other such that the first is to the second as the second is to the third. This is what harmonious proportion is.

I particularly like to see architects trying to introduce beauty into the mundane. It shows that anything can give glory to God! And furthermore, I would argue, it ought to.

To find out more about this subject you can go to my course, the Mathematics of Beauty, which will be offered by Pontifex University as part of the Masters in Sacred Arts at the end of the Fall.