With the zig-zaggety lightning streak she carved into the 27-story glass facade of the Wit hotel, architect Jackie Koo, of Koo and Associates, injected high voltage energy onto State Street. Not bad for a Plato-loving former philosophy student who changed her path. “Architecture uses the best of your mind,” says Koo. “You really have to use everything. It starts with an idea” — -and consumes every nook and cranny.
Favorite city: Paris. It’s the city of light and cafes and cuisine and the Haussmann plan.
Muse: My son, Nicolas
Won’t leave home without it: Chanel sunglasses
Music to design by: Glenn Gould, “The Goldberg Variations”
The Wit hotel
Movies that inspire: “West Side Story”
“Marie Antoinette”
“Vertigo”
all-time treasured books: “Anna Karenina,” “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” Strunk and White’s “The Elements of Style”
Favorite color: Chartreuse — it always looks fresh.
