With architecture, words are not enough.

Consider the World Trade Center Transportation Hub.

In recent weeks, readers of The New York Times have compared it to a cathedral and a Venus fly trap, a pigeon deterrent and a bird carcass, the collapsing twin towers and the steel pieces that remained after they fell. Santiago Calatrava, its principal architect, sees it as a dove. I thought in 2005 that it was becoming more of a stegosaurus.

How can architecture get through so many verbal thickets to reach readers?

In the work of Fred R. Conrad.

For 37 years at The Times, Mr. Conrad has let buildings speak for themselves.

You’d think it would be easy to photograph buildings. They don’t squirm or tell you they don’t want their picture taken. As a rule, they stay put from one week to the next.