I went to architecture school and write about architecture, so whenever a new building goes up somewhere, people ask me what I think about it. They ask not because they want to know my expert opinion and compare it to theirs, but because they understand that they are “supposed” to like whatever new thing has just gone up in their city, but they don’t, and they want me to explain to them what they’re missing.

Most of the time, I fail at this task. Most architecture that garners significant press is pretty banal. And it makes me sad that people feel they have to ask what they’re supposed to like about a building. We spend our whole lives in architecture. Even though they might not have studied it, most people have a sense of what they like and what they don’t when it comes to buildings. So if a new building isn’t speaking to people, if it makes people scratch their heads and go “huh?” in an unproductive way, then who is that building for?

Amazon recently unveiled a design for its new headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. Designed by multinational architecture firm NBBJ, the building is a spiral glass tower placed within a city block, with trees on top. People have compared it to the poop emoji and, hilariously, Tatlin’s Tower, the monument to the Communist Third International designed by artist and designer Vladimir Tatlin.