I'd like to bring Valencia Kaur in here into this discussion because as executive director
of the community design center of Atlanta, you are also going to be the beneficiary
and the participant of all this public discussion that's going to go on.
How do you feel about what's going on here for your community?
Come on, stand up and speak up.
I'm the person who comes into a group like this and reminds people that there's one community
or two communities that never has inclusion.
We don't get around to it.
We always talk about mixed income, but mixed income is a relative thing.
It's a buzzword for gentrification.
I have groups who are neighborhood activists.
Common try to explain to me gentrification is great.
We have an interesting dialogue where I explain that the belt line is probably great,
but there's no policy protection in place for homeowners.
Their property values are going up.
If they've lived in that community for 40 years, they may be pushed out by the new development
or just the term belt line being closing up to it to make your property values go up.
So I represent that community who is not necessarily a part of inclusion in Atlanta.
Because as we talk about people moving back in, yes, that's happening.
Neighborhoods are turning over, but what happens to the people who were there before?
How do we provide the same kinds of advocacy that he's describing?
If you happen to be an architect or a planner, you're a great asset.
But what happens if there's no architect or planner who lives there?
What happens if there's no one who understands the built environment or policy or law
or any of the things that are necessary for that 5% that we never addressed?
So what would you like to see happen?
I mean, you're talking exactly what we're talking about.
I'd like to see every one of you give me a business card or take money and call me.
Volunteer.
I'd like to see us look at neighborhoods and do some serious planning for inclusion.
I'd like to see us be serious about it and not just build in places where there's a disaster.
As I drive through parts of Atlanta, I say the disaster is now.
A neighborhood stabilization program and other acts that are being passed is a wonderful opportunity
to have some knowledge and expertise involved in the process for those who cannot afford it.
Because we cannot have a community, a city that is predominantly white and upper income.
At some point, we need a variety. We need inclusion.
Whether it's the workforce, the residents, or all of the above, we need inclusion.
And the only way it's going to happen is if people like you become volunteers,
and obviously I'm saying for the Community Design Center of Atlanta.
So you know the person to find here. That's really important.
So what I'd like to ask actually, and maybe Chris Chiron should get involved in all of this.
Because I think you're the representative at Perkins and Will with this 1% pro bono.
And what does that involvement actually bring to the firm?
Because I'd like to talk about not just, you know, taking the old white man's burden idea
and sort of jazzing it up, but really what does it mean to an architectural firm
to be involved with this kind of pro bono project?
Please stand up.
I would say, I guess the biggest challenge for us is learning how to be problem seekers again.
I mean, I love the proactive approach, the example that Brian showed with the mud puddle at the bus stop.
We're really good at designing buildings. We're urban designers, we're interior designers.
We do that stuff well. But you know, these guys have talked about objects
and have putting too much faith in the object.
And we also, I guess, we're trained to receive a set of challenges.
That's usually, I guess it's defined for us.
We're given a program. We're given a site.
We're given a set of things and we're told, okay, here you go.
Here's your fee and here's your project. So go design it.
And we're really good at that.
But we have to sort of reconnect with that idea of going out of the seeking the problem.
Just go without anyone telling us and just going out and looking around and taking that attitude
that these students have taken sometimes.
And so that's our challenge. That's what we're learning how to do.
We completed five projects last year through this commitment to the 1% solution.
We actually have seven on deck right now.
And these are, in addition to the Beltline, beyond what Perkins and Will and other folks are doing with the Beltline,
these are homeless centers, they're camps for terminally ill children, a community health clinic.
They're really significant projects that we expect will achieve the aims of this social responsibility initiative.
But still, most of those have come to us through connections, through friends and things like that.
So I would love to see us actually take that challenge and be learning again how to go out
and find out what those problems are and what can we commit to doing about them.
I think maybe I'll call on Brian for this one and you're still mic'd.
What is it? I mean, there's so much to learn for architects when they're involved with these pro bono projects
that it really enriches the practice.
Can you kind of stand up and talk about that a little bit?
Because I think it's really important that it's not about just doing good.
It's about learning something yourself.
Right. There have been a couple of skills mentioned that I'd like to bring up again.
The ability to understand and listen.
We think we're taught communication skills in architecture school.
That means we're very good at talking.
We are terrible at listening.
If you break down an architectural presentation, it's like 15 minutes of ta-da.
It's so overwhelming to people who aren't architects.
You basically shut them up.
Really, communication is about understanding what information the other person wants to know,
needs to know, and how do they receive it.
This skill set you're talking about is actually a skill set.
That's why we do these 36-hour projects.
It's amazing that we all have that skill set.
You just say, go do it. You've got it.
It's like a little light switch goes on and they find projects.
Just like we teach all architecture students, go out and look at the beautiful freezes
and the cornice.
We teach them that the first day of architecture school where we never say,
go find a need for design.
I do think, you go out and you might discover something,
but you need a little reality check.
You need people to say, like the guy with the rusty butt,
sometimes our great ideas have a little bit of a problem to them.
You need somebody who's a user, an end user, to give you feedback.
Say, that's a beautiful drawing and everything, but let me tell you what it's like to live here.
This invitation, I mean, your work is, I mean, this is a type of invitation you're lucky to get
because normally what I advise people who say, how do I do this?
I say, go find a nonprofit and try it on the board or just go there and listen.
Forget your designer for a long time and listen.
Once you understand about that group and about their needs,
little light bulbs will start going off.
Well, that's a design that, you know, we did a project that was about unemployment.
That was, like, do we walk away and say, oh, well, we're an architect.
We can't do employment.
But what the problem was was they had no childcare in the community
and they had an under-trained workforce.
So we proposed a job training facility in childcare.
Boom.
That's how they addressed, that was their critical employment.
So listening, problem-solving, experience, all of those things.
You've been very patient, so I want some hands up.
Anybody?
Anybody wants to add something to the discussion here?
Please speak into the mic.
We actually only have a public service announcement.
I'm Louise Shaw.
I'm the curator at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Museum.
We actually are hosting design for the other 90%.
It's opening February 17th.
And I want to let everybody know that it's happening as a target audience.
I'll please some cards out.
And it's a very, thank you.
And we already saw a couple of the images from the exhibit.
And in fact, there are many of the problems and issues that you posed
in our address in this exhibit.
And our very own, Atlanta's very own Mad Houses are also featured in the exhibit.
So please come and I'll leave cards around.
Thank you.
Okay, so anybody's taking issue with any of this?
Anybody saying, I want somebody to disagree with this?
Does anybody disagree and say, there's a person there?
Are you going to be the contrarian?
Hi.
I'm coming from an artist standpoint.
We're hearing a lot about sustainability and ideas of design and architecture.
And I think that we're not discussing as the role of the artist and the impact and the flexibility
that an artist can create instantaneously.
And I'm talking outside 1% for our programs.
I think that's a very important thing.
I think that there are so many skills all of you have, including artists and so many ideas
that should be included in this larger discussion that is absolutely key to this next phase
of our understanding of who we are.
Anybody else from small firms, large firms, students, some of you may be inspired.
Some of you may say, oh my God, where do I start?
What do I do?
You look really interesting to me.
Who are you?
I work at HOK.
Oh, you're not a kid.
Oh, it's looking for a kid.
There you are.
I'm still waiting for an answer.
Okay, Steve, Steve.
Mr. Stewart, did you want me to ask you something?
Yes, please.
Well, I don't know that being married to an artist, I understand that they're wired
slightly differently than an architect.
In fact, incredibly differently than an architect.
But I think the mission is the same, and art is certainly the most powerful voice
in the public realm.
And as an educator, I've done these design-build interventions in communities
with architecture students primarily, but I did some with art students.
I did one at the Atlantic Center for the Arts.
We had visual artists, poets, and composers, and the raw talent and hands-on skills
in the imagination with the architecture students in the dust.
And I don't see a reason why visual arts...
The 1% for art is a token, and it's great, and Stewart keeps me pretty busy.
Actually, it's the family business now.
If you're not a licensed architect, that's how you do public work.
But I think we can increase that 1% as a start.
It's sort of a small part of a building for the best part of it.
In a room full of architects that say that, that may be not such a good idea
to address the artist.
But I think there are equal opportunities for artists because art, particularly...
Art is too great to be kept up in a museum.
It's the place for artists in public and where it can influence.
And certainly, if you look at the Vietnam Memorial, those kind of statements
are potentially the strongest type of statements.
And the community art programs, art programs for kids, there are many opportunities.
Can I just add one?
Yes.
There's a website, change.work, where Obama is soliciting ideas.
And one of the ideas, one of the top ideas is about implementing a sustainable strategy.
It mentions engineers and artists.
I had to go and add a suggestion at the bottom, don't forget designers.
So you'll be happy to know that artists were included in the original proposal
and we had to try and get in at the bottom.
Yeah, you are probably better known than architects in the larger world.
So capitalize on it.
Yes.
We were hoping for a cabinet level position in the arts.
Many of us have signed the Quincy Jones petition.
No cabinet level position in design yet, in the arts.
Yes, there you go.
Here's a, okay, we have someone with a mic.
Can y'all hear me?
Yeah.
So, is that, my problem with architecture, and Felicia and I go way back,
we started out working for Perkins and Will in Chicago.
And so we've been planners.
We went to planning school.
We've been architect, construction manager, engineer, investor.
I'm at the end of the line right now.
I'm a developer.
And so, and my problem has always been that architects,
even when we worked for architects, always saw themselves in this silo.
And that, you know, I think which is why so many of us leave the practice
and go on to other things because we can't control our destiny.
And so, I know the practice is changing and we're instrumental in what we do.
We're sustainable developers.
And, you know, we really try to make it a more collaborative process
and the practice is changing to make it more collaborative.
And I haven't heard you guys talk at all about how necessary collaboration is.
Not only in who you're end user is because very often the way you get commissions,
the way you get your work has very little to do with the end user.
It has to do with whoever has the bucks to pay for what they think the end user needs
or whatever they're going to be, get profit from.
And we've done health care.
We've done it all.
We've done the institutional entitlement projects.
And I still, I still have to struggle with my architect in every single piece of work we do.
And I'm totally distressed when somebody talks about the opportunity in affordable housing.
And if anybody's worked in affordable and tax credit housing,
you can drive to any city in this country and you can say tax credit building, tax credit building, tax credit building.
So, you know, to me, there was an opportunity to change that
because there are some very rigid structures that they say about design.
But those are things that architects could have changed
and yet they continue to replicate that same kind of ugly tax credit building.
Okay, so let's get some real answers here.
Who wants to tackle it first?
You know, maybe it's safer to tackle this from the outside a little bit.
I don't feel the heat directed at the architects at the moment.
But, you know, one of the ways that industrial designers, I think, have been successful
is challenging the momentum of our industrial system.
And when I, you know, not just doing the things that businesses are programmed to do,
but saying, hey, let's stop and think about, you know, what are the right,
you know, what's the right chemistry for these things, literally, to make them safer for our world.
But it requires someone to put on the brakes and say something needs to change.
And when I look at architecture from the outside,
and I think there's some great exceptions sitting here at the table this evening,
but I often criticize architecture as processing things more than building things, right?
Working with the parts and pieces that already exist
and creating things based on the things that we've done over and over again.
I think there's an opportunity to challenge codes.
I mean, I don't know that our national codes are really set up to allow designers and architects
to solve problems creatively in the way that we've been able to do that in some industries.
Yeah, but who are, but see, this is so weird.
I mean, who's riding those codes?
People who ride the codes are the people that went to the City and Regional Planning Program.
They used to be architects, used to write these codes.
You're exactly right.
I mean, the question of affordable housing is no different than the question of art.
But again, what we're doing is we're privileging each of these individual elements within the city that makes the city rich.
What's the question we ask ourselves prior to that question?
It's what kind of city in an urban environment, what kind of city do we want to live in?
If we want to live in a banal suburban city, then we're doing exactly what we should be doing.
If we want to live in a great walkable urban city, we've got to figure out what works.
And you get these problems, and Bill's been involved in this with us,
and it only comes through education and analyzing these things without just saying, well, this is kind of cool.
Let's do this.
But if we really want transit, how many people do we have to live here?
Well, we're going to have to have a whole hell of a lot more people that live in these areas.
Well, what does that mean?
That means we're going to have some traffic problems for a while, right?
Well, people aren't willing to live with those problems for some point in time
so that those future generations can realize the benefits of those.
And the analogy I always use is gun control, right?
The reason we don't have gun control in this city, I mean, this country,
is because there's no single generation willing to give up their ability to own handguns for that future generation.
We've got to have a 20-year gap.
We've got to have 20 years of people that live in Atlanta that are going to say,
you know what, we're going to suffer through some of these traffic issues
so that our children and grandchildren can walk around.
Without that, nothing will ever get done, and they're doing it in Denver.
They're doing these things in different cities right now.
We can see it getting done, and we don't do it.
And it's because there are two things that make up a political structure.
It's our rights as individuals and our obligations to the collective.
And we are not sitting in this room because we're all great people and designers.
But the general population is all about rights.
We're not paying more taxes.
You know, why should we pay people taxes?
This has nothing to do with it.
But art and affordable housing, keeping elderly people in these neighborhoods,
we have an obligation to do that, and it comes through paying more taxes.
It comes down to that very simple issue.
And designers are not going to solve that problem.
There's no way, unless we understand the political language,
and we can go out and actively engage in these possibilities.
My students are never going to solve the affordable housing problem.
It is a political issue.
I don't want old people moving out who've lived there for 50 years.
Their taxes don't go up.
People that are moving in that are developers, their taxes go up.
And it's solved.
It's solved.
But we are not willing to do that right now.
Not the people in this room again, but the city as a political entity.
And hopefully, I hope that we see the reemergence of the notion
of us understanding our obligation to the collective.
It sounds to me like the people in this room have a lot of influence.
Because you can.
You can do some design activism here.
Yes.
I just wanted to make a comment to some of your comments about the tax credit project and this and that.
And let's see your points taken completely, and it's right.
And I live in Raleigh, and I worked as a consultant to the community development department of Raleigh for a long time.
And when I first had gotten out of school, I worked with a firm that did a lot of affordable housing.
And I'm proud to say that we really pushed hard with this to make it happen attitude with some of the projects that were going on in the downtown.
And they said, let's make these better projects.
And so I became kind of a poster child for Raleigh because I was just out of school and I moved into one of them.
And they said, well, who's the architect?
Not an architect at the time, but they like to say that.
They moved into the project there, and general contractors say, you can't move in.
You can't get tax credits.
And I said, I just got out of architecture school.
What do you think I make?
So that project, I think, was a great project, a great announcement. It's a very diverse community that's living down there.
There are people that have lived in that neighborhood forever that are still there, and there were interspersed new houses that are there.
And so I think there's a make it happen attitude that everybody that's on this panel and in the book takes on.
And it's how do you do better? But you're right about the political atmosphere of that.
Taking on that is going to take a collective of more people about how to do things right, how to allocate money properly, and how to take care of the people who really need it.
Well, there's also the other issue here, which is solvable more easily within this community, is that how do you all learn to collaborate better?
Which was one of the questions asked.
It isn't about somebody's ego. It is about pulling together all kinds of knowledge in order to do the very best that you can.
And so what sort of openings do we have about this idea of collaboration?
We talk about this all the time. Everybody says they're doing it.
Apparently not. Apparently in some cases we are not involved in this.
And that should be our last word here. Who's going to give us our last word before we go and have a drink?
On collaboration, Bill.
I'd like to comment a little bit. I think the whole key is education.
And that's what Brian was talking about. Go out and find a project. Atlanta is full of projects with the Belmont.
We've got 45 communities that need your help.
The big problem, Atlanta is blessed, first off, with having a neighborhood planning unit system.
We've got a system there. Some of them work well, some of them don't work so well.
But the gut line has created a need for that system to work a lot better than it is.
The designers get involved in that system to help neighborhoods to understand the dynamic of design, of community, of infrastructure, and all this sort of thing.
And the question of affordable housing. I just want to say one thing about that.
The Belmont has grandiose concepts and schemes and plans.
And one of the things that we were talking about, one of the groups I'm involved with, was some principles for affordable housing.
And the principle that's generally discussed is any new developer would have 15% of affordable housing.
Well, the neighborhood that I live in is in the northeast part of Atlanta, which is generally considered to be a very affluent and rightly so.
But my neighborhood happens to have hundreds of affordable apartments.
And so I said, what we need to do is have a zero net loss of affordable housing in addition to providing 15% of new housing.
But it's things like that, getting that information injected into design principles.
And then the people say to me, well, yeah, that's wonderful. What's the good of it?
Well, I said, if nothing else, the good of it is the neighborhood understands that that is important.
They understand why it's important. And they can argue for it in the political arena.
So there you go. You have opportunities here in Atlanta that are coming your way by the droves.
And you can get involved and you can get all of this great stuff done.
So you can be, you're all activists, I assume. You're going to be activists going away.
And you're going to get involved and not let the affordable housing go out of the neighborhood.
It is richer to be in a neighborhood where there are kids and grandmas and all kinds of faces.
European friends love to walk through Manhattan, for instance, because they come from these monocultures.
And they say, oh my God, look at this amazing variety of people and how exciting it is.
They'd rather be on the street than anywhere else because we have a culture that built this amazing mixtures of people.
And that's a richness. That's a richness that we all need to think about.
How do we celebrate that instead of trying to deny it?
So go forth, be activists and go and get a drink and buy some books.
