Did you know the architect who did Glen Park BART was famous?

Ernest Born’s final building was the Glen Park BART Station, a subterranean temple of transportation with a platform illuminated by radiant shafts filtered through skylights high above.

Now look at him another way — as a talented designer whose career showed how smart people who love cities can get things wrong.

Born and his wife, Esther, are the subjects of an evocative twin biography published this fall by the Book Club of California. But as I leafed through “Architects and Artists: the Work of Ernest and Esther Born,” by Nicholas Olsberg, what stood out was how they embodied two aspects of mid-20th century America that still shape our lives— well-meaning hubris and the shift in urban values from one generation to the next.

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