@L-i-am said in new use for an old building:
why you think it is a Science not an Art
I think the end result is art. But the setup is science. Understanding material properties, lighting properties and even the render engine itself is science. Especially if the end goal is photo realism.
You need to know about lenses, turbidity, rayleigh etc to fully get astounding results. When you get to the point where you are looking up how to get the N and K values from a IOR and convert that to RGB values its fair to say that's not artistic. The result of your attention to detail is artistic but also physically correct.