Black and white tends to highlight shapes and patterns, so I can see how this one might work even better in monochrome. I like the perspective of this, but who knows - maybe the colors are distracting attention from some of the more interesting details. I'd at least try a conversion to see which one works better.
we all know this. Pretty sure he does too since he has been shooting for like forty years i gather.
But must we convert everything to bw to make it a "artistic" photo? ...blah blah blah...
Or is it just not artistic enough, we need it in bw.
I've already answered that. If you want to HIGHLIGHT the shapes and patterns, then black and white would be better to accomplish that goal. And this picture doesn't rely on colors - they are ancillary. There are, however, a lot of shapes and patterns. And hey, black and white might bring those elements out a little bit better and make this more visually interesting than it is in color.