Every Architect Has a Pilgrimage. This Is Mine.

Every architect has a pilgrimage. This is mine.

More than 20 years after my first visit, I finally made my way back to Vicenza, Italy—the city of Andrea Palladio.

Located just outside Venice, Vicenza is home to the world’s greatest collection of buildings by the Renaissance master. For an architect, walking through this city feels a little like stepping into a living history book.

Nearly every image in this collection features one of Palladio’s works. And among them is the iconic Villa Rotonda, a building I’ve admired since architecture school.

Seeing it in person after all these years was pretty incredible.

There’s something very different about experiencing a building firsthand compared with seeing it in a book or studying a photograph. You notice the scale. The proportions. The way the building sits within its landscape. You begin to understand why certain spaces feel so powerful.

But what struck me just as much as Palladio’s individual buildings was the experience of the city itself.

We stayed in an Airbnb overlooking Piazza dei Signori, with the magnificent Basilica Palladiana anchoring the square. From there, almost every walk through Vicenza revealed something worth stopping to look at.

A street would frame a building perfectly. A piazza would open up unexpectedly. A doorway, window, column, or carefully proportioned façade would offer another little lesson in design.

That’s what makes architecture so fascinating to me.

Palladio was designing more than 500 years ago, yet his ideas still feel remarkably relevant. His influence can be seen in civic buildings, churches, universities, and homes around the world.

And experiencing his work in person reminded me that great architecture isn’t simply about creating something that looks good today. It’s about creating something with enough clarity, thoughtfulness, and character to continue influencing people generations later.

For architects, I think there’s real value in making these kinds of pilgrimages. Visiting the buildings we’ve studied, admired, and drawn for years can change the way we understand them—and ultimately, the way we design ourselves.

The best buildings don’t just stand the test of time.

They continue to teach us centuries later.

What architect’s work would you travel anywhere in the world to experience?

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