You don't need to spend the better part of a decade in architecture school to notice something's strange about the Rio House Apartments, a 45-unit multifamily building rising four floors at the northeast corner of West 17th and Rio Grande Streets. It's not often you'll see a structure with a four-story perforated metal screen surrounding its southern wall -- a screen through which you can glimpse, if the sun hits it just right, an elegant limestone-trimmed portico, its pediment topped with a finely carved lantern.
A current . . .
