Please send letters for the website, clearly marked FORUM, to Julia Dawson at: julia.dawson@emap.com or The Architectural Review, Greater London House, Hampstead Road, London NW1 7EJ, England. PATKAU APPRECIATION SIR: It was wonderful to see that Trevor Boddy quoted John Patkau at the start of Comment (AR June, p45). It is quite fascinating to see the work of the Patkaus progress and their tenacious hold on their beliefs despite painful setbacks is inspiring. This couple is an important beacon for our profession for their belief and values. I have followed the work of the Patkaus eversince I was a student in the States (UT @ Austin, TX). Their scheme for the Houston biomedical centre was absolutely brilliant and may I say, blew the competition out of the water (which included Holl, Todd & Tsien, Machado & Silvetti etc..), sadly due to a conservative and intellectually challenged client body it was mauled by the powerful contractors in the very fine state of Texas, which eventually led to the removal or the resignation of the Patkaus. My next brush with the Patkaus was when I had the chance to be in a team that competed against them for the Seattle City Hall.  In a very provincial city, the Patkaus dared to pry open an intellectual stance for the city hall instead of the usual froo froo preliminary schemes that the rest of the competitors did. Again they lost not for the lack of brilliance but for the lack of political clout of their local Architectural partners. So, it was absolutely awesome that they were chosen for the library in Montreal, and its succesful completion. Congratulations Montreal for your wisdom has gotten a great building at great value and Seattle of which I am an ex-resident has gotten a dysfunctional building as attested by this photo I took when I tried to find my way out of Rem's public library. Seattle fell for the marketing genius of Rem and got what it deserved, an overpriced dysfunctional monolith ! Recently Australia has been in Free Trade negotiations with the USA, the Canadian legislators & negotiators have been advising us to be polite with the Americans, so it is refreshing to see John Patkau, a Canadian bravely calling a spade a spade about the state of our profession which has superstars ( in this case Rem and Zaha ) traversing the globe selling their wares to the unknowing to the detriment of these cities for decades. Yours etc Ken Yeh Sydney, Australia