There's still the lingering question, though: Once you get past the hype surrounding Koolhaas, how good are his buildings? For the most part, they're exceptionally good, especially if you prefer visual drama and inventiveness to solidity and tradition. Nearly all his projects are full of provocative ideas and impatience with business as usual. (That's why it's disappointing that he didn't throw his hat into the Ground Zero ring.) One of his most talked-about designs is this remarkable house for a wheelchair-bound publisher and his family in Bordeaux. It features a platform holding the publisher's office, an elevator without walls that pistons up and down over three levels. The platform is at once formally adventurous and pragmatic. And it offers a wry commentary on the client's condition: In this house, the real disability is having to take the stairs.