By Request: Architecture Policy
Minderbender asks:
It strikes me that, at least in my own experience, not all urban areas are the same. Downtown Chicago and parts of lower Manhattan have gorgeous, interesting buildings, and I don’t find them oppressive or ugly, even though there aren’t that many trees.
Meanwhile a lot of the new towers I see going up are hideous, and midtown Manhattan makes me hate the city/myself/everyone. Which leads me to ask: how important is aesthetics in urban policy? Should we be willing to subject new development to aesthetic review, even though that might threaten to make dense development more expensive? Is there a good way to go about doing this so that the review boards don’t get taken over by people with an agenda (probably an anti-density one)? Is it worth paying extra for public buildings so that people find them attractive, or are other needs simply more urgent?
I think this is an important issue, since I certainly agree with the premise that not all “urban areas full of tall buildings” are the same from an aesthetic point of view, and having a viable aesthetic is important to making density politically viable. This is arguably an externality situation, since living in an ugly building doesn’t cause you to suffer the full effects of its ugliness, and residents or tenants of an attractive building don’t capture the full benefit. But this is one of these cases where the existence of a real market failure doesn’t mean that there’s a good regulatory solution. Aesthetic issues do come up through existing processes for neighborhood airing of grievances, so it’s not as if this hasn’t occurred to anyone—there’s just only so much that can be done.
One regulatory issue that does need to be considered, however, is whether you’re making it economically viable to do interesting architecture. In downtown DC we have a very strict limit on the height of buildings. Under the circumstances, to build anything other than a pretty basic box structure would represent an enormous economic loss to the developer. Consequently, the buildings are uninspired as individual works and collectively they’re extremely monotonous. Even if we held the currently permitted level of density constant but allowed for more variation in heights we might see more interesting buildings getting made as architects could work with a greater variety of shapes without costing the client enormous sums of money.
And last, I do think this is a reason for public agencies and non-profit institutions to commit to aesthetic excellence in their own structures. The public sector probably shouldn’t try to get too imaginative or cutting-edge, but ensuring a high-level of classic style should be a priority. Non-profits—museums, universities, etc.—can handle the innovation. That said, there are often clashes between architects’ ideas of what buildings should look like and the ideas of people who want to see livable urban areas. Aesthetics matters, but it matters insofar as it contributes to livability, not as a totally independent consideration.
60 Responses to “By Request: Architecture Policy”
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January 25th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
It’s a tricky proposition: often-times the most popular buildings now were considered eyesores when they were first constructed. Placing aesthetic limitations on new construction can just end up producing a bunch of cookie-cutter neoclassical buildings that are as ugly in their own way as any crazy high-concept building.
January 25th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
Placing aesthetic limitations on new construction can just end up producing a bunch of cookie-cutter neoclassical buildings that are as ugly in their own way as any crazy high-concept building.
In theory, maybe, but I can’t think of any examples where people still complain about and lament the existence of such “cookie-cutter” neoclassical (or otherwise aesthetically consistent) buildings. By contrast, Boston City Hall and the new Penn Station are still, to this day, considered the ugly eyesores that they were considered when they were first put up.
January 25th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
I want to see Minarets, lots of em. I loves me some Minarets, and they’d make the wingnuts fear their local Courthouse, in addition to their own shadows.
January 25th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
I like Midtown Manhattan.
January 25th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
“ensuring a high-level of classic style should be a priority”
you want to mandate, what, doric columns? or ionian?
January 25th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
There have certainly been regulations in the past that have served aesthetic goals. New York for many years regulated setbacks by (I think) changing floor-area ratios for higher stories. This is why the Chrysler and Empire State buildings have setbacks.
When the Back Bay was being developed in Boston, zoning mandated that properties be set back 15 feet from the property line, except for a stretch of no more than 15 feet or something like that which could protrude further forward. This is why all the brownstones in Back Bay have bay windows.
So, sure, there are things you can do, but of course you’re mandating a specific style of architecture, which can make for somewhat of a monoculture. But in both of the cases above, the mandated features ended up making for a better environment, both aesthetically and environmentally (setbacks on high rises reduce the wind gusts that come off the building, and the extra open space in the Back Bay means a lot of the brownstones have small gardens in front, adding some green to the streetscape).
January 25th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Mr. X, Radiant City, psychetecture, be very afraid!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_X_(Vortex)
January 25th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
“classic,” kid b, not Classical.
I’d like to think that Matt knows the difference, anyway.
There’s no reason whatsoever to think that “review boards [might] get taken over by people with an agenda (probably an anti-density one)” – as long as the criteria for being on the board include a design/development/real estate background, the board will be much more pro-density than the average citizen.
I’m on a long-standing Design Review Committee in an extremely successful, historic neighborhood in Pittsburgh. No one on the Committee has ever suggested reducing density or increasing parking – it’s always developers who want to pull the facade back from the building line, or include 2 spaces per condo (more marketable, don’t you know).
As for the quality design component, a lot of developers pick architects based on existing relationships or professional networking, not judgement about capability. Having the designs come before a group that includes a half dozen architects, plus others with design backgrounds, does enormous good to the quality of design, whether it’s a matter of improving the historic appropriateness of preservation jobs or pushing for better materials and detailing in new construction.
The carrot for developers is the Local Development Corporation’s letter of approval, which isn’t strictly necessary for most projects, but notably smooths the process Downtown – any project big enough to worry about its aesthetic impact will want some sort of modifications to the letter of the law*, and community support is critical to winning that.
* For certain zoning conditions, something like parking requirements are entirely ad hoc, so community response is critical.
January 25th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
I can’t think of any examples where people still complain about and lament the existence of such “cookie-cutter” neoclassical (or otherwise aesthetically consistent) buildings
The Reagan Office Building in DC is an abomination.
Neoclassical worked pretty well 100 years ago, when architects and builders knew what they were doing. Nowadays, you tend to get stripped-down nonsense that doesn’t work as contemporary and is woefully ill-designed as Neoclassical.
January 25th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
Didn’t the article make a case for government non-intervention in aesthetic matters? The government orders a height requirement, we get ugly buildings. I’m no libertarian, but I think we’ll do better letting the market take care of this.
January 25th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
I’m not really clear what alternatives Minderbender hopes for. You can’t legislate esthetics, and lower density or height isn’t the same thing as architectural quality. Indeed, pretty much all histories of architecture traditionally singled out urban developments, from the ancient world through the Renaissance in Florence through the great skyscrapers of New York. One speaks of exuburbia with rather less appreciation, although new histories are broadening the definition of “architecture” to vernacular styles, ordinary habitations, and ritual settings even apart from buildings.
But I can see one role for regulation. More often than not, the eyesores amount to people cashing in on something. New Yorkers might point to the growth of monster coops along, say, Sixth Avenue in the upper 20s just in time for the worst excesses of market speculation. Regulation of capitalism’s excesses in booms and busts would pay off not just in esthetics, but in sound policy, and that’s the real topic for conversation these days.
January 25th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Think Midtown is a wreck?
Come out here to Denver. We have the world’s fugliest collection of buildings in America.
January 25th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
Let me add this – the mountains often hide the hideousness of downtown Denver. So most people do not recognize that. But if you look at Downtown without the Mountains in the background, you get a pretty good idea as to how awful skyscraper construction was in the late 70’s and early 1980’s.
January 25th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
The value of trees and/or green space in residential areas is higher than commercial areas. You LIVE disconnected from nature if your neighborhood has no green space. Lots of people WORK disconnected from nature and do just fine.
January 25th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Another classical-ish abomination: The Harold Washington Library in Chicago. Let’s not do that again, shall we?
Sticking exclusively with historical styles is not an ideal situation, typically. The classic materials and techniques (plastering, terra cotta, stenciling, ornamental brickwork) are either completely unavailable or extraordinarily expensive, so you end up with ‘imitation’ materials that disappoint. Also, things like sustainability and ADA accessibility are hard to shoehorn in.
(And this is not even considering that these classic forms may or may not be appropriate for modern usage. Think of a library from 100 years ago vs. a new library today.)
Long-lived, efficient, upgradeable, and ultimately recyclable buildings should be a priority for public buildings, and yes, this will add quite a bit to the price tag… up front at least. Stylistic preferences and regional materials will be a factor as well.
(As an architect, I may be slightly biased…)
January 25th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
i was in dc for the first time this past week, and i have to say that i was shocked and appalled by the sheer ugliness of almost every building i saw. i shrink when i imagine how beautiful it must have been pre-1950. honestly, large stretches look like moscow.
also, dc’s unique low/mid-rise zoning laws should (and sort of have) encouraged deep underground development in the downtown area, but really, it’s all so shabby.
January 25th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
The Harold Washington Library in Chicago
ah yes–with the harry potter owls perched on it.
thanks, jroth, i was pretty sure that matt didn’t mean ‘classical’ in the precise sense.
but then what does ‘classic’ mean in any looser sense, other than ’stuff i like’?
with maybe a hint of ’stuff not too dissimilar from stuff that has worked before’.
or is matt y really laying down a prohibition on the exploration of new styles? so gehry’s millenium bandshell and the bilboa museum are out?
i’m thinking not, but then ‘classic’ just seemed like an empty modifier, uncharacteristic of matt.
January 25th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
right, and to address the folks who think we can’t do better – try looking at san francisco or vancouver’s urban design panels for a nice model. basically, some wellknown architects vote on whether tel ou tel project proceeds.
January 25th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
The Harold Washington Library in Chicago is funny. It’s 3 sides of ‘architecture’ and one side ‘plain’ in order to save money.
One unwelcome trend in architecture is the inclusion of dual use cocktail spaces as a central function of museum spaces. When kowtowing to wealthy donors becomes integral to the very physical space that houses your enterprise maybe it’s time to rethink things.
January 25th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
On the other hand, how about some love for the Battery Park City/World Financial Center in lower Manhattan? Sure it’s corporate 80’s, but it’s pretty good corporate 80’s; I jog down that way all the time along the river and I always appreciate its scale, detail and materials. I think this is not a bad model for what classic can be, especially compared to the much of the rest of what’s going on in NYC at the moment…
January 25th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
I agree completely. In fact, if the 19 hi-jackers had only waited until after work so as to minimise loss of life, we might be hailing them as radical urban planners instead of terrorists!
January 25th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
When kowtowing to wealthy donors becomes integral to the very physical space that houses your enterprise maybe it’s time to rethink things.
FYI: Kowtowing to wealthy donors has been integral to the very physical space that houses the enterprise for as long as art museums have existed.
I can’t help but recommend a book here: Rem Koolhaas’s wry and insightful discussion/case study of the battle between zoning and “esthetics,” Delirious New York—in my opinion the most fun-to-read book ever written on architecture and urban planning.
January 25th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Didn’t the article make a case for government non-intervention in aesthetic matters? The government orders a height requirement, we get ugly buildings. I’m no libertarian, but I think we’ll do better letting the market take care of this.
Except that the article also mentions the positive effects of setback requirements on aesthetics. The examples given exclusively deal with more-or-less incidental effects of gov’t regulation – neither NYC nor DC regs deal with the actual appearance, just envelope. There are ugly setback buildings and gorgeous, uniform-height buildings (see 19C Paris, on which DC was consciously modeled).
Anyway it’s absurd to think that “the market will take care of it.” The market gives us cinderblock Wal-Mart and McMansions. There’s no correlation between economics, governance, and architecture – authoritarian Louis XIV gave us Versailles, authoritarian Stalin gave us Soviet Moscow, democratic, capitalist America gave us Houston.
January 25th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
Having some committee of aesthetics is a horrible idea. (Note: To James Gary above. Rem Koolhaas won a design competition for the new construction/integration of the old structures into the new structures of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art that was truly revolutionary and mind boggling in its conception. However, after all the rich folk created their own ad hoc committee of aesthetics, the design (which beat all comers) was scrapped. Then Eli Broad meddled with Renzo Piano’s design on the new modern art wing and it resulted in something mediocre. The French have the right idea: here’s the money. Knock yourself out. Some of it sucks. Some of it is great. But they get out of the way.
January 25th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Rem Koolhaas won a design competition for the new construction/integration of the old structures into the new structures of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art that was truly revolutionary…
Yeah. Koolhaas’s thesis in Delirious NY (to summarize it very clumsily) is that New York became a great city because developers compensated creatively for severe limitations (skyscraper setback laws, extremely high cost of land, Procrustean street layout, etc.—a combination of “here’s the money” and “here are the ironclad rules within which you need to work.”
January 25th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
In fact, if the 19 hi-jackers had only waited until after work so as to minimise loss of life, we might be hailing them as radical urban planners instead of terrorists!
Actually, Mohammed Atta was an urban planner, and had studied the effects of skyscrapers on Islamic cities.
Rem Koolhaas won a design competition for the new construction/integration of the old structures into the new structures of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art that was truly revolutionary…
Meh. It basically involved demolishing most of the current buildings for the crime of being boring. I’d rather LACMA spent their money on acquisitions, which is what they decided, too.
January 25th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
I’m not sure what Yglesias means when he says:
How does this follow? Surely adding a little inspiration to a building wouldn’t cause any more of an economic loss to a height-restricted building than to a non-height-restricted one? There’s more to architecture than little tower things.
January 26th, 2009 at 12:36 am
Surely adding a little inspiration to a building wouldn’t cause any more of an economic loss to a height-restricted building than to a non-height-restricted one? There’s more to architecture than little tower things.
Well, you see, we live in an era where “maximum profit” is the sacred goal at all times, world without end, amen. Now then: since “architecture” impedes “profit” by placing “esthetics” over such maximum-profit-impeding concerns as “absolute maximum square footage” and “absolute minimum construction cost” (a situation described by some as “enormous economic loss”) those “little tower things” are about as close to “architecture” as any city-dweller’s likely to see for the foreseeable future.
It gets even more insulting when you consider that developers are often given tax breaks to put little tower things atop their square-foot-maximizing basic boxes. Welcome to America.
January 26th, 2009 at 1:21 am
Come out here to Denver. We have the world’s fugliest collection of buildings in America.
Maybe I’ve been on Capitol Hill too long, but the midrises around where I work are gorgeous.
(And seriously, no Denver isn’t Chicago — but the skyline is better than Cleveland or Austin or Kansas City or any number of comparable-sized cities. A city of 600,000 isn’t going to look as cosmopolitan as a city of 2,000,000+, unless it is surrounded by water on three sides like SF or Boston.)
January 26th, 2009 at 3:15 am
I’ve lost track – has the “city” = “scary black folks” (to white folks) equation ever been addressed?
You’ve got the mother of all “aethetics” issues right there. Truly beauty is in the eye of the beholder, eh?
January 26th, 2009 at 6:23 am
My experience of an Urban Design Commission was not a salutary one: I had a public art commission (fiber hangings for a city Recreation Center) in Atlanta, and had to appear before the Commission. As is my habit,I got there early, and was treated to a great deal of niggling: a woman’s plan to move the entry on an undistinguished a 40’s house in a historic neighborhood (it was on a major thoroughfare) to the rear because her chosen windows didn’t reflect the era. One of the other public art artists before me, a ceramics guy, who had a great plan for a mosaic wall, made the mistake of saying ’some of the faces will be black’ and having an architect go on about if it were totally black no one will see it. They tore the dude apart; he was a competent artist and craftsman, just not prepared for the sort of critical revue they were enjoying…
As I have acted and taken Public speaking in college, I was able to make my presentation last 20 minutes (over the scheduled 15), and was droning on about fiber characteristics when they stopped me, and approved it..All the other public artists I talked to
And here is a link to Skyscraperpage “Diagram of World Skyscraper construction 2009″..The real action in terms of innovative building has moved to Dubai or China. Most of the few US large skyscrapers are timid boxy things: even the Freedom Tower looks a bit timid (and uncomfortable, as if it were pulling it’s shoulders in..)..
http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?25002165
This a great resource, as you can break it down by city (in diagrams or pictures)…Try looking at the first hundred skyscrapers in process, and see if it doesn’t seem to indicate an American Decline.
January 26th, 2009 at 6:27 am
OOps, dropped a line: “all the other public artists I talked too regarded it as a sort of hazing, and a few were forced to make minor changes that cost them without any obvious benefit.”
January 26th, 2009 at 6:51 am
Dang, another: “a woman’s plan to move the entry on an undistinguished a 40’s house in a historic neighborhood (it was on a major thoroughfare) to the rear was not approved because her chosen windows didn’t reflect the era.”
January 26th, 2009 at 8:20 am
Wow! this is a post straight out of “The Fountainhead”.
January 26th, 2009 at 8:37 am
Maybe we need a “Prince Charles” of architecture.
January 26th, 2009 at 8:42 am
Seems to me the gorgeous buildings you see in downtown Manhattan result from a unique and non-repeatable historical situation where you have lots of immigrants who are skilled in stonework and metalwork and who are willing to work for pennies under ridiculously dangerous conditions.
January 26th, 2009 at 8:49 am
1/2 the people will always hate the look of something. It it were designed so all the people liked it (the lowest common denomenator) — it probably wouldn’t look to interesting. One can not set a mandate on aesthetics. We can, however, educated the populace in good taste and let them decide for themselves.
January 26th, 2009 at 8:50 am
Parden the poor grammar.
January 26th, 2009 at 8:51 am
Several points:
Most of the cities that are hailed as the most successful/wonderful places have insanely rigid architectural standards and homogeneous design. Think Paris. Think Rome. These were cities that were ‘reinvented’ at several points in their histories and the building stock is almost entirely from one style. When new things are added there is an enormous amount of pushback – think Centre Pompidou in Paris. I lived in a relatively new suburb of Rome for a while, filled with mile after mile of awful 6 story residential blocks, each alone an architectural eyesore, but taken together AND infilled with all the things one needs for a quality life (markets, bakeries,etc) and you got very livable neighborhoods. It has almost nothing to do with the individual architecture of buildings and has everything to do with the cohesion and SCALE of the places.
This is why Denver is such a catastrophe. There is no organization, no cohesion, and no sense of scale. You can have a 1 story gas station next to a 25 story residential or office tower. Denver appears to have absolutely no zoning regulations.
Scale is far more important than any architectural style, quality of materials, or innovation. And we’ve sacrificed scale to the automobile.
January 26th, 2009 at 9:10 am
Setbacks, popular regulation in New York in recent decades (although less in the last few years), are most definitely not a solution. They’re an unhelpful sop to developers (and maybe drug dealers at night).
The developer gets to build an eyesore in return for a plaza that actually makes the city even more lifeless. Passers-by shun it, it breaks up the architectural line that actually helps create a visual fabric in classic cities, and leaves an eerie dead zone, especially in off hours.
January 26th, 2009 at 9:16 am
Height limitations are of tangential concern at best, that’s just Matt grinding a favorite axe on whatever stone is handy: the developers putting up boxy, lowest-common denominator buildings under height restrictions would just be building taller boxy, lowest-common denominator abominations if they had the opportunity. And public construction has always played a key role in iconic architecture (think of the Brooklyn Bridge or the Paris Metro).
January 26th, 2009 at 10:12 am
Setbacks, popular regulation in New York in recent decades (although less in the last few years), are most definitely not a solution.
The setback laws I meant are the ones governing how much space the higher stories of a building can occupy relative to its lot space—the goal being to prevent tall buildings from blocking light reaching the street. (I’m not an urban planner and maybe got my terms confused.) I agree that those tax-break plazas are lifeless and ghastly.
January 26th, 2009 at 10:15 am
Is there really no aesthetic component to planning permission in US cities? It seems bizarre given that planning/zoning seems to be so intrusively regulated otherwise. Aesthetic restrictions are pretty common elsewhere. Buildings have to be made from/clad in local materials, buildings should be in character with their surroundings – things like that. Even when there aren’t explicit rules, proposed developments get rejected all the time for aesthetic reasons. I’d be very surprised if there weren’t similar rules in most large cities in the US.
January 26th, 2009 at 10:22 am
Is there really no aesthetic component to planning permission in US cities?… Buildings have to be made from/clad in local materials, buildings should be in character with their surroundings – things like that.
The two examples you cite aren’t really “planning—” they sound more like the restrictive esthetic covenants imposed on many subdivisions with the intent of keeping property values up. Land-use policy at the local and state level in America is written by local and state legislators—who are bought and paid for by real-estate interests—and contains no esthetic component whatsoever.
January 26th, 2009 at 10:28 am
I think that we tend to dislike the recent past of architecture because it hasn’t had time to be demolished. 100 years ago NYC was full of Beaux Arts buildings. By the 1950s these were largely demolished. The ones that survived are “gems” because there are few of them. So perhaps over time cities that go through the different phases of building, like downtown NY, cull their stylistic periods and remove the wretches, leaving only the “good” representations.
Or maybe architecture schools are letting in too many hacks and visionless engineers, and too few designers with taste. And maybe that is a result of big building companies making cookie cutter designs; one Walmart design for every store means only 1 walmart architect instead of one for every store.
January 26th, 2009 at 11:20 am
Unfortunately for Boston, it’s best skyline view is coming in from the harbor islands by boat. People around here fight development all the time, including blocking a Renzo Piano-designed harvard art museum in Cambridge.
January 26th, 2009 at 11:35 am
Let’s not forget that for the past 50 years or so, the architecture schools have worked hard to inculcate students with nothing but contempt for traditional concepts of beauty and ordinary folks’ aesthetic tastes.
January 26th, 2009 at 11:47 am
including blocking a Renzo Piano-designed harvard art museum in Cambridge.
Maybe they’re just trying to engage in some righteous revenge on Harvard for the One Western Avenue monstrosity that they built.
architecture schools have worked hard to inculcate students with nothing but contempt for traditional concepts of beauty and ordinary folks’ aesthetic tastes.
Which wouldn’t be a complete tragedy were it not for the fact that non-architects who fund new development seem to feel that the best way to act knowledgeable and sophisticated about architecture is to imitate and internalize the tastes of architecture schools. I’m sure a bit of creative tension would produce great results, maybe with someone who signs the checks telling Gehry to his face that some of his designs and ideas are complete and utter shite. Instead, too many people in charge of planning and funding think that their job is to lick the asses of starchitects to help them “achieve their vision”.
January 26th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
“The government orders a height requirement, we get ugly buildings.”
Sorry Matt, the one doesn’t follow the other; height has nothing in and of itself to do with architectural aesthetics. You’ve been singing the “height-restriction blues” for a long time, but David M., above, is right: DC WAS a lot more diverse, interesting, and human-scale in the fifties, and height had nothing to do with it. You’re complaining about massive, squatting, brutal, square-block-long monstrosities in DC that obliterate everything but their own massiveness? Surprise, we got’em in Times Square too, only OURS are 48 stories high.
January 27th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
I wasn’t really thinking about subdivisions, but individual buildings in urban centres. You get those sorts of restriction all over Europe and they have very little to do with property values as far as I can tell, and everything to do with aesthetic conservatism. Keeping Vienna Viennese, if you see what I mean.
January 27th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
Big, boxy buildings – whether 12 stories in DC or 50 stories in NY – are made possible by modern air conditioning and air handling technology. HVAC, not regulation, is what makes the modern city so ugly.
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