When I was a student, I was lucky enough to study abroad, and while I loved the experience, I could have never imagined back then how it would influence the rest of my life. Today, travel has become a vital part of my creative process—not to mention my understanding of other cultures and traditions. Seeing and photographing things firsthand and learning the history of places from the people who live there stimulates a deep curiosity—about art, music, theater, dance, and, of course, architecture.

My work at Shelton, Mindel & Associates takes me all over the world, and I’ve tried to use this column to share some of the design treasures of the places I’ve had the good fortune to visit. Looking back at the sites featured in 2015—from Daniel Liebskind’s evocative Jewish Museum Berlin to Renzo Piano’s new headquarters for the Whitney Museum in New York to Paris’s historic École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts—I realize that we are always students and that the more we see, the more we realize we don’t know.

Join me in a look back at year full of discoveries.