All the pieces were falling into place for January. We had two stellar photographers—Paúl Rivera and Peter Aaron—shooting Grimshaw’s EMPAC building. After some discussion, we chose a Rivera image of the performance hall, a kind of wooden egg nested in glass. The only problem: no people. But even that seemed all right once we learned he would be photographing the space one more time. We’d get our cover with people. On the day of the reshoot, I got an e-mail from Paúl asking if we had a backup plan. Attached was a digital scouting shot, but the interior was now adorned with Christmas decorations. So how did we resolve it? We performed a little holiday magic.