Hackworth detoured through Merkle Hall. It was Gothic and very large, like 
most of the Design Works. Its vaulted ceiling was decorated with a hard fresco 
consisting of paint on plaster. Since this entire building, except for the 
fresco, had been grown straight from the Feed, it would have been easier to 
build a mediatron into the ceiling and set it to display a soft fresco, which 
could have been changed from time to time. But neo-Victorians almost never used 
mediatrons. Hard art demanded commitment from the artist. It could only be done 
once, and if you screwed it up, you had to live with the consequences.