The use of the shingle in architecture caught my attention when I was in 6th or 8th grade, when the neighbors down the street in my hometown added a second store to their house, and chose shingles as the siding, only for that second story. It looked so odd, out of place, in that suburban street, where everything else was lawn and stucco. But as I travel the Pacific Northwest, I see more of these structures, and they appear less odd to me now, and more somber, holding more gravitas. These buildings hold some sort of secret, but not so dark of a secret, just the kind of secret that seems slightly unknown, just out of view.