The pattern of light pulses never repeats itself and is synchronized with an original musical composition by composer William Kraft. These are not independent qualities, but rather each one builds on the other like stones in a pyramid. The bottom layer is firmitas, the necessity that a building be structurally sound and protect its occupants from the elements. Next is utilitas, the requirement that a building must serve the purpose for which it was constructed and meet the needs of those using it. The crowning principle, like the gold cap on a pyramid, is venustas, or in the words of Sir Henry Wotton, delight.
Delight is more than just beauty.
It is the quality that, when achieved, distinguishes the truly great building. The United terminal complex has significant deficiencies in all three of these attributes. The primary problem of structure centers around the glass roof of the twin concourses. On rainy days the concourse aisles are littered with buckets, waste baskets, and other containers to catch the water dripping through the leaking roof. Horizontal glass panes are extremely difficult to seal in a steel and aluminum structure due to substantial differences in their coefficients of expansion.