An unexpected pleasure

I wanted to post this picture just because I love it. Last night I was web surfing for art nouveau paintings and found architecture instead. I don't know what the name of the building is, but it's in Riga, Latvia. Isn't it wonderful? You know in a heart beat that it's European. Now, granted my knowledge of architecture wouldn't fill a thimble, but I just can't see an American putting a face that large on a building. Even though the expression is somber, I think the architect had to have had a wonderful sense of humor, whimsy and play to have included it. I just feel like an American, even of the same era, would have been more practical and exchanged beauty for more functionality. I think that if I walked by a building that looked like that every day, I'd usually smile. Then again, it might eventually play on on my subterranean paranoia. I think it would always make me feel something.