Click here for a printable version

Alexander Garvin
THEN: Architect-Planner, New York Urban Coalition and Assistant Professor of City Planning, Yale University
Design as a conscious aesthetic element in architecture is slowly disappearing. The advent of industrialized building components is beginning to produce architecture geared to the economics of fabrication. The advent of community planning is beginning to produce an architecture geared to the realities of the  political process. Evermore, cumbersome building regulations are producing an architecture  geared to the problems of bureaucratic processing. In such an environment, aesthetic training for the designer seems irrelevant. The future of design will be in the hands of businessmen, bureaucrats and politicians.

NOW: Commissioner, New York City Planning Commission and Director of Planning, Design, and Development for NYC2012
In 1970, building regulations were becoming ever more cumbersome. Industrialization was replacing custom fabrication. Communities were increasingly involved in planning. Realities of the political process were determining the future of our cities. It seemed natural to predict that the role of design as a conscious aesthetic element in architecture would decrease. In fact, regulation, industrialization, community power, and politics did become ever more important. But my prediction for the future of design was clearly wrong; the importance of design has increased.

At that time most of what was built or manufactured in the U.S. was “in the hands of businessmen, bureaucrats and politicians.” The only difference today is that the word “businessman” flashes like a neon sign recalling pre-21st-century sexism. What has changed is the relative power of business, bureaucracy, and politicians. Building codes, zoning laws, and labor restrictions have become more stringent and sophisticated, thereby increasing the power of the bureaucrats.

The advent of community planning did “produce an architecture geared to the realities of the  political process.” What I failed to anticipate was that this would increase the importance of aesthetics. Places like Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Santa Barbara, California, now require the appearance of an imagined heritage in all buildings. Elsewhere, communities are protecting threatened natural features and preserving animal habitats. Consequently, there is a growing need for designers who can respond to the demands of increasingly detailed regulations, community planning, and local politics. Such designers still require aesthetic training.

Today visual literacy is so commonplace that parents are calling for it to become and integral part of primary, secondary, and university education. Thus, while the future of design remains very much in the hands of businessmen, bureaucrats, and politicians, aesthetic training for the  designer has become even more important in order to meet the demands of a more visible public eye.