When vacationing for Spring Break I snapped a photo of the entry to Alys Beach, Florida.  Admittedly I had never heard of Alys Beach nor had I been there before.  In short it is an architectural wonder.  From my understanding the residences are mostly second homes to the rich and you are looking at ranges of 2 Million on up just to play ball there.  The thing that strikes you the most about it though is the simplicity in all the architecture.  Don’t get me wrong it is very complex I’m sure construction-wise but everything is white, or a different shade of white.  So when you have the natural back drop of the sky, grass, shutters, etc. it stands out.   This photo was taken at the entry.  To my immediate view I see what I call monuments that signal you are about to enter, impeccibly manicured lawns and then a perfectly straight row of palm trees.  The visual power that image sends was achieved by drawing your eye to simple objects, arranging them and giving them a monochrome pallet, then letting God do the rest.  I can get guilty of over doing things in the sense that you try to make every wall, every ceiling, every space special but sometimes all you really need is for the backdrop to do the work.  This can be art, plants, sculptures, furniture, etc.  This is something that has been a focus for me as a builder over the last couple of years to not continually add to my spaces that I am building and showing some restraint in favor of simplistic and elegant architecture.