Next, we stroll by the bus terminal at 16th and Jackson, and Day actually winces. “I’m not going to defend this,” he says. He can see the point of this Brutalist structure, can notice the nice detail of the concrete design wrapping its way around the building. But the terminal is in bad shape. There are massive air conditioners dropped onto the roof. The overall effect is “a little scary,” the architect says.

We hoof it over to 20th and Douglas, to that aforementioned parking garage, which Day says he hasn’t considered much before. When we reach it, he is intrigued — he can see why Priest has fallen in love with this garage. It is stripped-down, raw, simple and yet creative — a true expression of Brutalism, he thinks.

Then it’s back downtown to the W. Dale Clark Library, yet another civic building built in the Brutalist style. The library is widely rumored to be moving soon, and Day says that while he thinks a downtown library is essential in an American city, he doesn’t think this particular building is in need of saving. He gets why the library was built as it was — as a temple on a hill, he says, with a bridge over something that reminds him of a concrete moat.

“There are good buildings in every era and bad buildings,” he says. The difficulty, he says, is realizing as a city which is which.