EDITOR’S NOTE PROVOCATIONS
VALUING THE PUBLIC REALM
A
rchitecture, by many accounts, is seen as a privilege. That’s not a statement that we want to believe, but one that we are grappling with as a profession nonetheless. It’s also one of the reasons why the AIA has launched a public relations campaign to remind the world that we have value. I have continued hope that the general population believes in our skillset and that they can realize a gain by contracting our services, be it financial, functional, monumental or otherwise. My mission in this month’s issue, however, is not to trumpet the value of individual pieces of architecture; It’s to discuss the merits of the public realm. Access to great public space is seen as a right and an entitlement to citizens around the country and the globe. Collectively, we pay taxes into the system and we expect shared benefits to be paid in return. Yet, despite who design is meant for - the personal or the shared - and how their access is perceived - privilege vs. right - the two start to sing the same tune when it comes to project realization and how much value is placed on designers’ involvement. The hard issue that both public and private development runs into the same wall: who pays for it. Large and small municipalities are facing cuts and/or smaller operating budgets, state funded projects are often based on fixed fees or RFPs are put out only to be retracted later based on needing a larger allocation. Whatever the case may be, more has to be done with less, despite the value that design professionals bring to any built environment problem. Ironically, the professionals who should command the highest fee are those who can do the most with the least and who are the most creative at solving these types of problems. Because when it comes to public space, the community demands it, the community deserves it and it is seen as a fundamental freedom of the human condition.
One of our greatest hopes is in the burgeoning field of Public Interest Design or PID. As a movement, it aims to harness the energy of engaged citizens and focuses it on solutions for the public realm. But it is still in its adolescence, if not infancy, and there is still a gap to close in order to make it a viable, sustainable business model. In the August issue of CONNECTION, we explored a number of structures for pursuing PID as a clear career path. In our October issue, we feature a number of young firms or individual emerging professionals who are advancing the public realm in fantastic ways. However, it is clear there is no consensus on how to create sustained income streams from designing for the public good as an everyday proposition. Pro bono or volunteer efforts are options for public space design, but requires that practitioners make a living doing something else in order to donate their time and resources to efforts they are passionate about. As a profession, we will continue to engage in initiatives that we care about. Many efforts will be pro bono and/or on small budgets, but sustained impact requires funding from somewhere in order to maintain scale. In the public realm, this requires that the political class understand the effort required to realize great public space and the value that comes with our services. When we are empowered to create, great things happen and the dollars make sense. So, it may always be a choice and a privilege to engage with an architect, but well designed public space should be a fundamental way of life for all citizens.
All too often, the task of designing our public spaces falls onto the hard work of the community stewards, urban planners, and architects who are unwilling to give in to the pressures of a budget that is less than zero. Projects (great projects) get done, but it’s only a fraction of what we are capable of. This brings us back to the value proposition dilemma and who funds the involvement of professionals. We can probably all agree that community supported planning initiatives have the highest rate of success, but they still require the input of a design professional to maximize the potential output. Sounds like value added to me, but value doesn’t create dollars. Jeff Pastva, AIA Jeff is the 2015-2016 Communications Director of the Young Architects National Advisory Committee of the AIA, the Editor-in-Chief of YAF CONNECTION and a Project Architect with JDavis in Philadelphia.
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CONNECTION
THE ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN JOURNAL OF THE YOUNG ARCHITECTS FORUM