Stage III
Excerpt from the original CRV manual by Paul H. Smith:
As Stage II progresses the aperture opens dramatically wider than was the case with either Stages I or early Stage II. Dimensionals begin to emerge and the threshold is reached for the transition into Stage III. The shift into full Stage III is triggered by aesthetic impact (see below). It is after this point that the true dimensionality of the site may begin to be expressed.
This differs from dimensional elements encountered previously, in that Stage II dimensionals are individual aspects of the site, while Stage III dimensionality is a composite of inherent site aspects. The concept of “the viewer’s perspective” must, however, be avoided because in Stage III the viewer has not yet reached the point where complete comprehension and appreciation of the size, shape, and dimensional composition of the overall site can be ascertained. Generally, the viewer himself is not precisely aware of his own perspectual relationship to the site and therefore not consciously aware of the true relationship of all the dimensional components he is able to debrief from Stage III.
As is discussed in various sections below, he must rely on the various tools available in Stage III to obtain, and organize the increased information he is perceiving. Although Stage III can provide a great deal of information about any given site, the goal of Stage III is command of structure.
