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Some office buildings are simply not blessed with natural light. Maybe they’re standing in the shadows of something taller. Or perhaps their windows are mostly oriented to the dark north instead of the sunny southwest. Or maybe they’re so big and wide that sunlight can’t find its way into their murky depths. Whatever the reason, the lack of natural light presents problems ranging from additional energy usage to diminished human well-being and productivity. CBT, an architecture firm based in Boston, has been exploring unique ways of solving these problems. Using passive design approaches that require no additional energy, the firm is finding innovative ways to bring more natural light deeper into office buildings. [Photo: Robert Benson/courtesy CBT Architects] There’s no single solution, according to Tyler Lombardi, an associate principal at CBT, but there is an increasingly accessible toolbox of approaches that architects can use to bring more light into buildings, including reflective surfaces and finishes, data-informed adjustments to building facades, and even curving walls that bend light in a space. [Photo: Chuck Choi/courtesy CBT Architects] Lombardi says these approaches have been put to work in recent office projects, including for law firms and financial services companies. He says these industries have tended to prioritize private offices with good views, turning an office building’s perimeter into well-lit spaces and the rest of the floor into a dark pit. “They’re all 90-degree angles and it’s very rigid, ” he says of these projects, noting that many of the firm’s clients are confidential. “We’re trying to find ways to make that space feel more visually connected.” [Photo: Chuck Choi/courtesy CBT Architects] To do so, CBT has altered floor plans to include curving walls that wind their way into the center of a floor. “We’ll use the natural light coming in from a courtyard or a balcony or an exterior window and then we’ll shape the wall so that the light is exposed 40 or 50 yards down,” Lombardi says. Reflective paints or shiny surfaces can also be deployed strategically to milk even more brightness from this distant light. The interventions can be very subtle. Even shadows inside a room can build up. So, working with lighting designers, Lombardi says he’s been on projects that have focused on minute details like the edges of shelving units, which can be beveled and smoothed to cast a shadow line that’s less harsh. [Photo: Robert Benson/courtesy CBT Architects] Technology plays a large role in this work, Lombardi says, with 3D modeling programs capable of performing light and contrast studies while projects are in the design phase. Small changes to wall curves or window heights can translate into significant increases in light at certain times of the day, or different ways of moving light into a room. “You really get into the details of certain nominal dimensions that will work for washing light versus bending light versus reflecting light,” he says. “It can be very technical and very complex, but a successful project may hide those complexities.” [Photo: courtesy CBT Architects] Many of the design interventions that can make a space brighter are actually simple material choices. CBT uses its physical modelmaking shop to test out some of these materials, including paints with glossy finishes or metals with various amounts of sheen. “The nature of being in the design world, everyone’s looking for the latest and greatest product or material or strategy or tech tool,” Lombardi says. “When it comes down to some of these architectural principles we have to sometimes remind ourselves, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time.”
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The year, 1993. A rudimentary computer-generated T. rexa reptilian skin stretched over a wire frameplayed on a loop in a computer at Industrial Light & Magic in California. Three film legendsVFX supervisor Dennis Muren, animator Phil Tippett, and director Steven Spielbergwatched silently as the implications sank in. Cinema history changed, Rob Bredow recounts in his April 2023 TED Talk, which has just been published on YouTube. Tippett, a stop-motion pioneer, dryly told Spielberg, I feel like Im going extinct. As most movie buffs know, that line landed in Jurassic Park. Tippetts fear, however, turned out to be unfounded.The legendary effects company fused Tippetts stop-motion puppetry with nascent CGI, using a dinosaur input devicea rigged armature with motion encodersto digitize frame-by-frame animation. The result? A seismic shift that expanded artists tool kits worldwide and opened a new era in filmmaking.Bredow was only 19 when that happened. Now, as SVP of creative innovation for Lucasfilm and chief creative officer of ILM, he sees a direct parallel to todays artificial intelligence debates. Headlines say, AI is coming for our jobs, he says in the TED Talk. From the Dykstraflexthe computer-controlled motion camera that enabled Star Warss iconic dogfightsto the StageCrafta 270-degree LED curved wall that projected hyperrealistic 3D environments for The Mandalorian and now many other shows and moviesBredow argues that ILMs 50-year history is a demonstration of how technological leaps redefine, rather than replace, artistry.Stop-motion transformed and merged with 3D effects. So did physical models, full-size sets, and matte paintings. Just like its happening now with AI. Innovation thrives when old and new technologies are blended, Bredow argues. ILM was late to the AI game. This became painfully obvious when the effects company created a rejuvenated version of Mark Hamill for the Season 2 finale of The Mandalorian (despite fans cheering on Luke Skywalkers return to the screen). Done with traditional computer face tracking and 3D modelsthe same technique used to create Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin and Princess LeiaReturn of the Jedi Luke was slammed for being unrealistic. Then a Star Wars fan and AI aficionado called Shamook re-created the scene using AI. The former took hours. The latter took weeks. There was no doubt about which one looked more realistic.The difference was so obvious that the company realized it had to act: ILM hired Shamook days after the deepfake remake was released. He worked on Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, where ILM merged generative AI, trained on Harrison Fords past performances, with a meticulously handcrafted CG model to de-age the actor. The AI captured Fords micro-expressions; artists fine-tuned subtleties like eye moisture and skin texture. Ford himself said it was pretty good and really felt like him. Because it did.[Screenshot: ILM]AI is just another tool in the toolboxThe ethos that now guides its AI integration has been in ILMs DNA since its origin. It was what drove George Lucas to pair engineers with artists to solve visual storytelling challenges. Were designed to be creative beings, Bredow says. We love seeing tech and creativity work together. Bredow hinted at ILMs embrace of AI tools in a Fast Company interview back in August 2024: I do see a path forward with some combination of the algorithmic tools that weve had and some machine learning-based tools that we either already have or can imagine developing, that are really going to help accelerate artist workflows. Now he has made clear that AI has reached a point in which it is just another toolbox in ILMs toolbox. His stance about the technology is one that I have been seeing more and more since independent filmmaker Paul Trillo, one of the pioneers in using generative AI for his shorts, told me the same years ago. Trillo thinks that AI will enable indie projects to achieve blockbuster-grade VFX: It is just a powerful tool in a creatives arsenal.Its just too bad that the example that Bredow presented in the TEDTalk was so underwhelming: A video that shows some uninspired sci-fi animals that looked like Photoshop-made images quickly turned to video using Kling, a commercial AI video generation tool developed by Chinese tech company Kuaishou. He described it as ILMs moving mood board, but it falls short of what you would expect from the mother of all VFX houses.But his points and the lesson from ILMs half-century of visual innovation stand. The Dykstraflex didnt kill cinematographyit birthed a new process and visual language. CGI dinosaurs didnt erase animatorsthey just demanded hybrid skills. Now, as AI reshapes VFX, Bredow says we are witnessing another T. rex moment: one where artists, armed with generative tools, push storytelling beyond current limits.Adaptation is nonnegotiable. New tools should be embraced as long as they are not unethically taking advantage of other peoples artwork. The next game changer, he said, will light up screens worldwide. The credits wont fade on human creativity. Hordes of peoples names will keep rolling. At least for a few more years to come.
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Dallas and Houston are just 250 miles apart, but a train trip between the two cities currently takes more than 23 hours, including a seven-hour stopover in San Antonios Amtrak station. The Texas Central high-speed rail project aims to change that. The proposed project would cut the travel time down between the nations fourth- and fifth-largest metro areas to 90 minutes, using Japanese technology to propel the trains 200-plus mph. It also would include a stop in the Brazos Valley. Former President Joe Bidens Department of Transportation was eager to help advance the project. Amtrak came aboard in August 2023 to determine if it was viable. The DOT also issued a $63.9 million planning grant last year. But the DOT under President Donald Trump quickly reversed course. Last month, the department announced that it had rescinded the grant and that Amtrak would no longer be involved in the project. [Rendering: courtesy Texas Central] If the private sector believes this project is feasible, they should carry the preconstruction work forward, rather than relying on Amtrak and the American taxpayer to bail them out, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stated in the news release announcing that the department was canceling the $63.9 million grant. The move comes as the U.S. continues to lag behind other wealthy countries in its pursuit of high-speed raila mode of transport that’s safer, more efficient, and more sustainable than traveling by car. High-speed trains can cover the 820 miles between Beijing and Shanghai in a little over four hours. In Europe, a new high-speed train connecting Paris and Berlin launched in December. Even though it’s a red state, Texas has recently been pursuing high speed railand it could certainly use it. For example, Houston ranks among the 10 most congested cities in the country and among the 10 most polluted. The state of Texas hasnt gone a day without a death on its roads since November 7, 2000. High-speed rail in a pro-car administration The Trump administrations early actions show that the next four years are likely to be challenging for high-speed rail projects. The DOT has set its sights on two of the country’s three most advanced high-speed rail projects. In February, it announced a review of a high-speed rail project in Californiaanother state with air quality and congestion issuesthat would connect San Francisco and Anaheim. Eric Goldwyn, an assistant professor at New York Universitys Marron Institute of Urban Management, said it’s not a great moment to be working on a high-speed rail projectparticularly one that needs public funding. That said, it’s not totally clear how the Trump administration will come down on projects that rely on private financing. Materials laid out during the construction of a high-speed rail project in Fresno County, California, on March 24, 2025 [Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images] Right now, it sort of has the feeling of dramatic statements coming from USDOT and dramatic gestures, but less substantive actions, Goldwyn said. Trump’s DOT seems to favor privately funded projects. In the announcement about the California High Speed Rail probe, the department praised Brightline, a private company that operates a rail line between Orlando and Miami and plans to open another line between the Los Angeles area and Las Vegas in 2028. Even those projects require public support, including a $3 billion grant for Brightline Westof which the company has spent $98 million thus far. The San Bernardino County Transportation Authority also received $25 million from the federal government for Brightline West stations in Hesperia and Victor Valley, California. The long and winding history of Texas Central The Texas Central project has seen many iterations since it first kicked off in 2014. In fact, the states efforts to build high-speed rail go back to 1989 when it created the Texas High Speed Rail Authority. As for Texas Central, it appeared to be dead when transportation projects nationwide slowed to a halt during the pandemic, but the partnership with Amtrak helped to revive it. Peter LeCody has been advocating for high-speed rail in Texas since the early 2000s and has watched the entire Texas Central battle play out. LeCody, who’s the president of the Texas Rail Advocates, sees a line between the two cities as a no-brainer. [Rendering: courtesy Texas Central] You’ve got two of the largest population areas in the country that really don’t have much of a transportation system, unless A. you want to drive, or B. you want to fly, he said. Now, he said the project is on the 10-yard line, because of the regulatory hurdles it has cleared. The FRA approved the route in 2020. The Texas Supreme Court ruled that the Texas Central project had eminent domain authority in 2022. The preference for privately backed rail projects could portend well for the Texas project. As Amtrak exits the project, Texas Central has turned to the private sector. Kleinheinz Capital Partners, a Fort Worth-based hedge fund, became the lead investor on the project earlier this year, although they declined to share specifics about how much they had invested so far. (Kleinheinz Capital did not respond to a request for an interview but in a statement said the project was “shovel ready” and would create new jobs in Texas. “We agree with Secretary Duffy that this project should be led by the private sector, and we will be proud to take it forward.”) A representative from Texas Central told Texas legislators the project could be completed in 80 to 86 months during an April 17 hearing. John Kleinheinz, the companys CEO, told the Houston Chronicle that he believes the Trump administration is interested in this deal if it comes from the private sector. Kleinheinz, a longtime Republican donor, will likely be looking to bring aboard additional investors to push the project across the finish line. The DOT news release stated that the project cost is $40 billion. A project with bipartisan supportkind of Despite having some bipartisan support, skeptics and opponents remain. In November, State Representative Brian Harrison filed a bill seeking to strip Texas Central of its eminent domain authority. State Representative Cody Harris filed a bill that would bar the state from spending on a high-speed rail project operated by a private entity. It also would forbid the state from spending money to alter the roadway for high-speed rail. For years, Ive led the fight to expose the truth about Texas Central and protect our landowners from an overreaching, taxpayer-funded boondoggle, Harris said in a statement. At the time of publication, neither Harrisons nor Harriss bills have been voted on by the Texas House of Representatives. ReRoute the Route is one of the groups opposed to the project. While they aren’t opposed to high speed rail in theory, the group says it wants the rails alignment moved from its currently proposed route to run alongside I-45the highway that connects Houston and Dallasinstead. ReRoute the Route spokesperson Jennifer Stevens said the organization wants the project to proceed without taxpayer dollars, but said she isnt confident Kleinheinz is the right person to lead the project. We’ve had a lot of discussion about his overall lack of knowledge or experience in the rail industry, she said. Stevens added that her group has not met with Kleinheinz, who has been an investor in the project for 10 years. Jim Mathews, president and CEO of the Rail Passengers Association, said high-speed rail projects should be seen as an enticing investment for private entities. All these rail investments, they’re very capital-intensive, but they return enormous, enormous multiples on what you put into them, he said. When you put the money in, you get alongside it mixed-use, retail, condo buildings, high-rises. . . . That, in turn, generates additional economic activities. [Rendering: courtesy Texas Central] He added that the DOTs decision to rescind the grant isnt necessarily a death blow to the project, but he said government money is typically needed for well-run high-speed rail systems. High-speed rail doesnt exist yet in the U.S., Mathews said. In fact, its so unique that the FRA needed to create a special set of rules for the Texas Central project. But he and other advocates say high-speed rail is attractive to Americans. A 2015 APTA survey found that 63% of Americans said they were likely to use high-speed rail if it were available to them. From a policy and a psychology standpoint, we tie bricks around our ankles and then we wonder why we can’t run, Mathews said. It gets done everywhere else. We’re just uniquely bad at it. There’s no reason we have to be.
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