Here's the online version of "By Design," a just-published magazine story of mine about three of my favorite things: art, architecture, and writing about art and architecture. Working on the piece reminded me why I like architects so much. The best ones are imaginative thinkers, capable of transforming highly conceptual ideas into functional forms -- and typically they are amazingly articulate about their visions. The story focuses on the newly expanded Virigina Museum of Art in Richmond, the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.