Asking people about their favorite architecture is a lot like asking them to name a favorite song — there are too many choices. They invariably offer a long list.

Laura Elder

When we began talking about this issue months ago, we wanted to focus on beautiful design and architecture. But where to begin? There are endless examples of beautiful architecture across the upper Texas coast. Galveston alone possesses the largest and most historically significant collection of 19th-century buildings of any Texas city. The “Galveston Architecture Guidebook,” by Ellen Beasley and Stephen Fox, spent 275 pages trying to tell that story.

“Conceived in the 19th century, Galveston’s town plan was highly sophisticated, reflecting the city’s role as a major Southern port from the end of the Civil War to the turn of the 20th century,” according to the guidebook, which features the city’s institutional buildings and houses both large and small.

On the cover: The home of Carl and Colene Joiner in Kemah lights up the night sky. Take a look inside this New England-inspired home on Galveston Bay. Photo by Stuart Villanueva

In the age of big-box stores and uninspired strip malls, we can’t help but long for the past when detail and art still mattered in the design of buildings. But there are modern examples of beautiful design all around us — be it a beach- or bay-front home or a modern center dedicated to maritime and sailing education.

In these pages, we enlisted architects to tell us about their favorite spaces new and old. And we couldn’t talk about design without bringing up the Kettle House on the island’s West End. Its weirdness evokes strong reactions.

We’ll continue to cover architecture. It’s important.

Architect Frank Lloyd Wright once said:

“The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes. If you foolishly ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it. Your life will be impoverished. But if you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life.”

We believe good architects have the power to make our lives more beautiful.