It is her first thought, followed immediately by the urge to back up and away — to get into the elevator, go down to the lobby, out onto the cold street.
To get inside the cube, visitors pass through a lobby and onto a balcony that looks out onto the structural base of the globe and the open exhibition space beneath it.
THE queue, which began forming hours before the doors officially opened, stretched across the lobby and onto the pavement in front of the downtown convention centre.
The spacious lobby opens onto a palm-lined courtyard ringed by 303 rooms that either face the courtyard or overlook nearby A Mountain, which has hiking trails.
The elevator from the lobby opens onto blue walls meant to suggest a night sky, with poetry by Ovid, Paul Klee, Wallace Stevens, Basho, Hughes and others written across it in different scripts and languages and illustrated with zodiacal signs.
In a quiet, green section of the modern quarter, Gueliz, the Hotel de la Menara, Avenue des Remparts, (212) 4443-6478, fax (212) 4444-7386, has a welcoming lobby opening onto the rose garden, swimming pool and tennis courts.
Those kids with shaved heads, baggy pants and skateboards are fascinated by the films they've paid to come and see". Bob stands in the lobby holding onto his walking stick.
Luxury: The 527-room Ritz-Carlton New Orleans, 921 Canal Street, (504) 524-1331 or (800) 241-3333, fax (504) 670-2864, www.ritzcarlton.com, gleams with Old World grandeur and polished marble, its lobby looking onto a handsome courtyard.
The lobby opens onto what was once a school auditorium and cafeteria, according to Ms. Ruiz, who recalls a stern principal who used to lord it over the lunch hour while smoking a big cigar.
A display of 200 works from the decorative arts collection, for which there is otherwise no gallery space, has been jammed into the lobby and onto the second-floor balcony of the museum to demonstrate to the public the problem of overcrowding and the fineness of objects that must now be relegated to storage.
