So, I just wanted to tell you that I've been reading everything that I could for the past
couple of days, seeing even watching CNN, which I hate, I'm sorry, Atlanta.
I liked it when Ted Turner was running it.
I can't stand the stuff that they're doing now.
But I've been watching CNN because I really want every word to seep in to what this new
phase of our political life is going to be.
So some of the things that I noticed, some of the phrases that I sort of glommed on
to, was that we are in a new era of responsibility, which is a really kind of a wonderful, challenging
ethical thing to be thinking about.
This versus entitlement and complacency.
Not that we were, I mean, these people will show how long they've been not complacent
and many of you haven't been complacent for a long time.
But I think we are a little bit entitled and I think we have to kind of think about that.
I think one of the other things that they were talking about, that we are about to tap
into the deep well of American optimism.
That's what brought immigrants like me here, the deep well of American optimism, that it
was possible to do things here.
This was a country that beckoned us those, I mean, we were your tire, your poor, your
huddled masses, literally.
And we came here and we tried to figure something out within the American system that is still
the dream of everyone on earth.
So there's also, there was also a very interesting word or phrase which is, there is work to
be done.
There's work to be done.
There's nothing more wonderfully challenging than for us to feel that we can do meaningful
work.
And this wonderful phrase called the spirit of service, it surrounds us, which is really
a beautiful, beautiful thing to think about.
So last week I was reading the newsletter from Public Architecture, which John Peterson,
the founder and president and part of the book, talked about, sends out every week,
every month rather.
And he says this, during downturns there is no less potential for innovative public
interest design than during the best of times.
And arguably it is during these challenging times when public interest design is needed
the most.
For firms with unexpected staff capacity that comes with project slowdowns, pro bono projects
can be good for business and great for morale.
Indeed, firm and non-profit registrations with the 1% program remained strong in December
showing both high supply and great demand, the 1% program.
The folks from Perkins and Will will talk about how they participate in that.
And I'm sure some of you in the audience do the same thing.
So volunteerism, public service, a heart of what we're going to be talking about.
So I hope that we are going to talk about that when our panelists come up.
And I'd like to introduce them one by one in no particular order.
I have always pronounced his name Steve Badanis, Bidane's, come on up Steve.
I have known Steve Bidane's work since the 1970s really when he started Jersey Devil
and did skilled craftsmen, architects, inventors, artists.
And he's been doing that kind of work ever since.
He represents tonight, he represents the educator segment of our audience.
And he teaches everywhere from Portland, the Pacific Northwest College of Art, ECOSA,
the rural studio, and he's done work in Seattle.
So Steve has been an activist and continues to be activist.
And he's not tired, he still gets a charge out of it.
So Steve, thank you for being here.
Eric Van Maelman, where are you Eric, please come up.
His work was and is, a lot of it is in single family housing.
But one of the things that in multi-family housing also and town home, so it goes through
all the income groups, but one of the things that caught our attention and the Brian and
Katie's attention for the book, is his work with Habitat for Humanity of Wake County.
And his design for projects in Raleigh, North Carolina for Habitat for Humanity, which
is from what I understand the largest home developers in the United States.
So there's a lot to be done there.
Brett Kincaid, Brett, where are you?
Brett Kincaid has a new title.
He is director of design for Steelcase North America, is that North America?
He and James Ludwig are the powerhouse of design thinking, the new powerhouse of design
thinking at Steelcase.
And what's interesting is that Brett's background, which also helps an industrial designer, which
he is, to think about products and think about people in a much more inclusive way.
He's lived in Switzerland, in Australia, and even in Freedom Wisconsin, which is a small
town.
So, and then Strasburg, France, so, and then now he's in Grand Rapids, so welcome, Brett.
And then we have Fasset J. Bill See, who many of you know.
He's also trained as an architect.
He's a planner, developer.
He's, I mean, this is what sort of was really interesting to me, that he studied at the
both arts in Paris, and then he studies French civilization and interior design and architecture,
and he becomes sort of a renovator of historic products, projects in Atlanta, and he's involved
in a lot of community groups here in Atlanta.
So this kind of wonderful education actually benefits all of us.
So welcome, Bill.
And David Green.
David Green is an architect with Perkins and Will.
And he focuses on large-scale planning, and what his bio calls entitlement projects, and
I hope we're never going to use that word again, because I think that's sort of a really
difficult word for us now to think about.
I think design activism is much more interesting than that, but he's also very much interested
in his own firm's education within the firm and the firm's compensations, so he's multi-faceted
in his involvement with Perkins and Will, and that's a fairly new job for you.
Yes.
Okay.
And then we have a set of three respondents who are here to add to the conversation and
become involved with us in the discussion, as you will.
We kind of stacked the talkers with Perkins and Will people because of this percent, 1%
for pro bono program that they have adopted, and they're doing some really interesting
things with, perhaps, because of that.
So Chris Chiron, where are you?
Chris, stand up and make your face no.
He's with Perkins and Will, and Ryan Gravel, Ryan Perkins and Will, and he's the grad
student with the Atlanta Green Belt Project, that he's the one blame it all on him when
the neighborhoods fight it out.
And then we have Valencia Core, please say hello to the folks, and she's actually the
executive director of the Community Design Center of Atlanta and is fairly new to Atlanta
herself, and she's looking at the needs of low-income neighborhoods and the application
of planning, research, and design skills to those needs.
And then she's obviously a very strong advocate for those people.
So we could use, certainly we could use all those skills.
So right now, what I'd like to do is I'd like to start with asking the panel in general
and maybe we'll first be kind and ask for volunteers on the panel or not, I'll just
call on them personally.
But one of the things that has happened, which is really interesting for me, and I think
for all of us, is that something changed on January 20th, and I think we need to recognize
that there may be new opportunity for us to think about expanding the role of architects
and architecture and all of us in the kind of new environment that's developing around
us.
So I'd like to ask, well, maybe I'll start with Steve, since I introduced Steve.
And to talk about education.
What has changed on January 28th in terms of education and how you, I mean, you have
the large, the broad perspective that probably very few of us have on this.
What is different now?
Well, it's only been a couple of days.
Yes.
But I mean, it's just the beginning.
You can say it's a lot more optimism everywhere you are in airports and in places like this.
As an educator, I think there's never been a shortage of interest on the part of the
students in doing socially responsible work.
Architecture students have great skills and they're giving a special gift and a way of
seeing, and I think they want to use those skills in the service of society.
And it just hasn't been really a lot of opportunities.
Mostly, they finish an exciting career at school and they find that there aren't firms
that do this kind of work and there really aren't the kind of opportunities and then
they, you know, pretty soon they get involved with the family and the job and the mortgage
and it never happens.
And we try and give them that kind of experience when they're in school and I think what can
happen now, and all the references you spoke to in President Obama, I love saying that,
President Obama's speech, is that there are going to be chances for this to happen.
And we think of the CCC, the WPA program, we think of the John F. Kennedy Peace Corps,
Mr. and I, hoping that there will be in this, you know, there's a great kind of confidence
in the building of infrastructure and public projects and the decline in private stuff is
bad for some of the architects, but there are opportunities there to contribute and I
think there's going to be no shortage of volunteers, so I'm hoping.
So, and you've been talking to your students or you've been lecturing, you've been here
talking to students?
I was at Southern Tech.
Southern Tech.
And we should give a boost for Georgia Tech tomorrow.
Georgia Tech.
So, and what was the mood of the room there among the students?
They really are.
They're always excited to see, well, I guess it's somebody that presents business not
as usual.
Somebody who talks about a different way of doing architecture.
Okay.
Because they're not that, you know, they love designing things and they love building things
and they love working for community groups, but they're not always so, the transition
to practice has been, we don't give, we don't prepare them to do that, but we should.
We try.
We try and deflect them.
Yeah, that's pretty bad, actually.
It's a challenge and it's fun.
And I get just as much out of it, I think, as they do.
Okay.
So maybe Eric, in terms of housing, what's, what's, what's possible here?
In the, what's possible today or tomorrow or the next year and the next few years?
What can start, what can we start thinking about in terms of the, those, your experience
with Habitat for Humanity, which is, which is a affordable housing for people who actually
really need it?
Well, there's such a huge resource out there in some of the nonprofits that do, that work
on affordable housing.
Hopefully there's an encouragement with that huge surge of, of thoughts on green and environmental
stability that have been out there and been gathering momentum and hopefully this will
happen.
I'd like to see some of the nonprofits picking up on that and actually leading a little bit
of the charge more.
So taking that under their wing and developing housing that can lead by example more than
just putting a roof over, over people's heads.
I think there's some improvement that could be there and I'd like to see some of that.
And I think it's, it's really important to remember that you, when you practice your
design skills, you're talking about, you know, great light, great, you know, energy performance
in these houses, really, really important things that people actually need and can use
and decrease their, their payments, their bills.
So I mean, I think what you're offering is a very straight on architectural solution.
It's also beautiful, but it's also incredibly useful.
If we can start, I mean, you know, you always want to start with some solar orientation
and that's one thing that's just gone from our entire housing market.
These are separate issues.
But if, once again, if non-profit agencies could, could design more effectively in that
mode with the general housing market, look at that and say, why can't we do that as well
as they're doing that?
Right, yes, solar orientation, thinking about just conserving energy resources and the
effectiveness of how you build.
I'd love to see small community centers developed within neighborhoods better than they are
now.
And if you lead that charge from the state standpoint of non-profits and small affordable
housing groups, I'd like to see that influence, see what we would say upward, but hopefully
just could flip the scale on this.
So let's, let's go to David Green who, who deals with large scale projects at Perkins
and well, what, what are you seeing here?
I mean, my experience with the big firm in recent months is that they are suffering.
There's a great deal of difficulty that they're facing and they'll be facing for the next
few months.
So how is this, this sort of new energy that has been infused in our psyche and in our thinking,
helping, helping you all at Perkins and Will.
Well, it's interesting because I just started working at Perkins and Will on December 1st,
so I really can't answer that question, but I do want to, and the reason I'm up here is
not really for Perkins and Will, although I love Perkins and Will, it's great.
But, but the reality is the question is how this has changed with Obama coming on and
what's really happened is we have somebody with intelligence in the office right now.
And, and seriously, and there, there are two words that really come to mind about this
and one of them is the nature of the sort of political element, not the politics of
the Democrats and Republicans, but the political structure that exists prior to each of us
as individuals, that thing that holds us collectively together, which we've kind of touched on today.
But what we tend to do as architects and designers is fall back on the notion of design is this
kind of interesting little thing that's going to solve these problems without understanding
these overarching issues that we've got to solve prior to these individual, individual
difficulties. And I would hate to see us squander this opportunity.
You know, Ryan's Project is a great example of Bill's going to talk about this.
I mean, good Lord, we've been working on this damn thing for five years that's
supposedly, we haven't gotten one thing built. In fact, they just bought it for a price
because we can't understand the sort of collective nature of this process.
I really think Obama is going to be able to come in and say, look, this is idiotic.
I mean, what we're doing doesn't make any sense and use reason and logic to create
an atmosphere within which, not a fearful atmosphere, but an atmosphere, as you say,
of sort of renewed passion, where we can start to see these things developed.
It is idiotic that we're not doing this right now. We are losing natural resources consistently
and we can't get one mile of track built, right? I mean, those are the sorts of questions that
we need to ask ourselves if we really want to make a difference in the world.
And that is expanding architecture. That's what we teach students.
That's what I've been teaching students for the last 17 years is don't take what people
say at face value, but make them explain why it works.
Because just because somebody says something does not make it so. You have to prove it works.
So I think we're talking about not just self-interest, but community interest mixed with self-interest,
with interest in the larger idea of what our relationship to the earth and each other is.
Well, what I'm saying is what's the one thing that's been sustainable, and two or three of you
in the audience have heard this before. What's the one thing that's sustainable in Savannah,
New York, Philadelphia? It's the projection of the public realm, right, on the previously
undifferentiated landscape. The thing that exists through time is not the individual project.
And as long as we fetishize the individual project, we're never going to get it right
because we're going to set these things up that are unsustainable.
But as architects and designers, we fail to ask ourselves those difficult questions.
It hasn't been in the curriculum since before 1910, right?
It's slowly reemerging in the curriculum. It's not an architectural process historically,
although it was prior to 1910. We've lost that. What we're trying to do is regain it.
The expansion of architecture is just getting back what we had 100 years ago,
1,000 years ago, and 2,000 years ago.
Well, it's also very interesting to me because most of you have been educated in modernism,
which was all about reaching out to a larger group of people and understanding the needs
of a larger society. And somehow, when we translated it here, it became something else.
So I think we have to go back to those first principles that you learned,
maybe learned in a faulty manner because it was about some star architect building,
modern buildings. But still, it is there. It is there.
And I'm very much interested in hitting the history books again and figuring out what to do about that.
And I think one of the things that actually I'd like to kind of jump to the industrial design,
because industrial design is about reaching more people.
A product can reach more people, can have more influence on an individual than a building.
A building takes a long time. It has a huge sort of expense attached to it.
Soon as product development, the product is more accessible.
So Brett, I mean, I think as a large manufacturer in the middle of the country
that is kind of looking out from your brand pyramid in the cornfields, literally this amazing place
at this world, what are you seeing? What are the manufacturers who are grouped together
in that small spot in Michigan that are the most influential American manufacturers?
What is the buzz? What is going on there?
I think the buzz in our industry is unique in some ways.
And I often tell people that I'm really lucky to work in an industry that serves architects and designers.
In that way, we've been able to react to pressure at times, to encouragement from the architect and design community
better and as a designer inside a company like that.
And I know many of my peers at other furniture manufacturers feel the same.
We're really quite fortunate to be able to make as much of an impact, not just on sustainability issues,
but on the social issues that surround work as well.
I know that the manufacturers do an awful lot of trying to understand how social groups have changed,
are changing, are becoming different work habits, different types of expectations.
You have this sort of amazing polyglot of people that you deal with today,
four generations in the workplace that you're dealing with.
So it's not about one luxury product, but it's many types of products dealing with many, many kinds of people.
Yeah, absolutely. And I think the key for industrial designers and architects alike
is understanding the context for the things that we make and the things that we do.
We try, I think designers often imagine that we can create a better world,
that we can create objects that change people's behavior.
And while I believe there have been some of those objects created over time,
I think the reality is that designers need to watch and understand and react to changing context
and react to changes. We can drive those to some extent,
but I don't think that objects necessarily change our world.
I think it's understanding that designers bring the problems that help change our world.
So as we look out globally at the things we design,
we try very hard not to export a North American understanding to the rest of the world
for what work should be like and, in fact, understand that regional context
and say smaller and smaller spaces all around the world
and people working closer and closer together,
there's a vast range of solutions that bring different types of humanity
into those work spaces, into that working environment.
So really focused on understanding first.
Well, that seems to be something new for American manufacturers
because we were putting stuff out there and this is the greatest stuff
and then you fit into it and now you're looking at needs and local communities
and local cultures, which shifts you in a very different direction as a manufacturer
because it's much more complex for US designers.
I mean, it's one size doesn't fit all.
More complex but a lot more interesting too.
Well, and that's the point I was trying to make here.
Okay, so why don't we do this.
I'd love to talk about the Belt Line with Bill Say,
but before I do that, I'd like to ask Ryan, the perpetrator of the Green line.
To explain what were you doing?
I mean, just sort of talk about the concept, the idea of why this is so important
to a city like Atlanta because I think we should talk about this place particularly
and get up and face the folk.
Can I stand back here? Is this on? Yes.
Well, I was in school at Georgetown doing a joint degree between architecture and city planning
and I was interested and had been studying how the design of infrastructure systems
influences urban development.
So the same way the old street cars extended out of downtown
and created neighborhoods like West End and Midtown and Grand Park,
the same way the interstate highway system created a different kind of urban growth pattern.
So the design and infrastructure system that accomplishes the revitalization
of these central city neighborhoods.
Atlanta is unique in this. It's a railroad town.
It's the origin of it. The reason for Atlanta is a railroad hub.
And so there's railroads everywhere.
And most of you know this because I'm recognizing a lot of faces out there.
But there's railroads everywhere you go.
But it's unique when you start to trace the lines that there's this loop of railroads
in downtown that almost connect. And using that as an opportunity for this new infrastructure
became really interesting.
That was the sort of, and the origin of it in an academic environment I think
relieved it of needing to fit budgets and politics and all of that kind of stuff
and things broadly and bigly about what Atlanta could be.
And then what happened was I went to work for an architecture firm
and we did a lot of urban infill mixed use projects.
Some of them happened to be on the development where we take big industrial properties
and redevelop them with mixed medium density.
And we were talking with my coworkers about it.
What do you do? Do you jam the parking deck up against this old abandoned railroad
or do you hope that one day it's something else?
So we, I was telling them about this idea and we just saw it as too good of an idea
and we did not put out there. We mailed out some letters and maps
and got a great response from Kathy Willard who's one of the city council representatives
and that's where the politics start to enter the picture
because we did have an important political person in politics who was a receptive ear
or somebody who could support the cause.
But I think it's important to point out that what happened next was
for the next three years we went out to communities all across the city
and it's the people of the city who saw a brighter future
who wanted something for themselves who bought into this idea
and transformed it into much more than it ever was in my thesis.
And it's the people who own this idea and then subsequently
the rest of the political leadership got on board
and we started to go down the road of implementation
but every time a sort of hiccup comes along with the project
and the political leaders wanted to do something different
they'd like not build a train, not include trains
or not do something else to the public
sort of comes up with their vision and say this is what we believed in
this is where we need to go
and just if I may just touch on that issue with Obama
I think what's important there is that we not sort of say
oh we're great Obama's in office now
we've got all these opportunities and sit back and wait for them
but the real opportunity is that all of us who have been out there working
as activists or other, we continue to work
but we've got that year in office
somebody who's receptive to these kinds of things
and that's where we start to really tap into the potential
but if we sit around and wait for him to answer all of our problems
he's got a lot of other issues.
I can't lay that on him.
Thank you so much.
I think what you point out though which is really interesting
is that academic research and sort of presentation
can really get the ball rolling in some of these issues
and I'm not sure enough schools are doing that kind of work
I mean you were in a master's program
there are a gazillion master's degrees being granted
and there's lots of room for this kind of expansion.
I'll just add to that that subsequent to all of this
Georgia Tech has been a real partner in this project
and sort of keeping the eye on the vision and what needs to happen
and then David has run several studios with students
and several of the students are here today
some of them even work at Perkins and Will
who started to tackle the subsequent set of problems
that come with creating this big project
and so there's this big idea, there's this big opportunity
but when you really start to get down to the nuts and bolts
and putting it together you've run into all kinds of challenges
and one of which is how you take these big giant industrial properties
and break them down into logical dimension
urban blocks that work within the life of the city
and create the kind of vibrancy that you want
in an urban kind of condition
and Georgia Tech was crucial and the studios were critical
in getting the Beltline Street framework plan
officially adopted through the city
and part of the process that a developer would have to go through
Georgia Tech has been a great partner
I'm sure that there's lots of schools all over that do that
so you were this army of nerds measuring everything
counting everything, drawing everything
there's great great great information available
so what I'd like is I'd like to ask Bill say about this Beltline
actually because he's also involved in that phase
in that part of Atlanta
and put it in some sort of context
in Atlanta context
and in your particular context
maybe as a developer
let's kind of talk about what that means to someone
who's done very well in Atlanta
bringing back historic buildings
and turning them into something that are useful and important
and saving as a result saving some of the old neighborhoods of Atlanta
which seems to be very...
some are left and many of them aren't
so what does this Beltline do for your thinking
as a developer in Atlanta?
Susan you gave me too much credit
I haven't done nearly what you just described
I'm going to put it wherever you are
It sounded really good when I read it
Thank you
but essentially I'd like to address the community issue
I think what the Beltline is doing for Atlanta
is bringing the city together
in a way that I think what I sense is always wanted
they couldn't quite get there
and Atlanta suffered from the white flight
as did many big cities back in the 60s and 70s
and the center city died
and then the movement back to the city
people got so far out and the traffic got so bad
they decided they needed to move back into the city
so the city began to regain the central city's population
and a good mix of all sorts of people
and the concept of the Beltline
the unit there's 445 neighborhoods
that will be linked by this Beltline
and that's to me what energized the city
people saw this as a way to
not just a transit system
but a way to link the city together
link the community together
Atlanta, in my opinion, I've been here 40 years
I think we're over the race issue
we have been for a long time
but as I said there was a yearning for unity
and the Beltline will give it to us
it links our neighborhoods
and the development process there
I haven't been involved in too much of that
related to the Beltline
I've been more involved in the community side
working with communities that I live in
or own properties in
developing master plans and so forth
and looking back on what I've been doing
when I was invited to sit on this panel
I was trying to figure out
how do I fit in here
and what I realized that I've been doing
is another aspect of this concept
design is activism
I've been using my architectural skills
my developer skills
and all of that to
in effect
educate whatever community I'm working with
as to the dynamic that's going on here
and the latest example
and probably one of the most interesting and traumatic
in fulfilling is the neighborhood of Lehman now
it's called Piedmont Heights
it's in the northern end of the Midtown area
and our entire southern border is the Beltline
I moved into the neighborhood
it's an old neighborhood of 50 years old
it's one of those invisible neighborhoods
that people just didn't know existed
it had a name but I lived
a half a mile away
and didn't even know this area had a name
and we moved into it and discovered
not only had a name, it had a 50 year old city association
and five years ago
they asked me to be on the board of directors
and so I joined the board of directors
and the first question I asked
was moving on the horizon
on our southern border
I said does the community have a master plan
and the board of directors says
what do you mean?
why?
and I kind of described
what the Beltline was the impact of
it would be on our neighborhood
and almost I felt like
they sort of decided to indulge me
and they said well if you want to start a planning committee go ahead
and so I did
and so what I've been doing in effect
through developing
master plans
and design schemes for infrastructure
and all sorts of other related
social and community issues
is to educate that board of directors
and bringing them along
to understand
the dynamic of all this
so it's that part of design
which is not the physical construction
but it's that middle process that we go through
the context
of our community
in this greater city
our community on the Beltline
and
we've got a mixed community
where we've got big
commercial property owners
we've got apartments
we've got single family houses
it's kind of a unique
neighborhood in that sense
it's not a pure residential neighborhood in other words
and at one point
the neighborhood was considering redrawing its lines
to exclude all non-residential properties
fortunately
that didn't happen
and when the idea of engaging
the commercial property owners
that was
just I'm not sure we want to do
that kind of attitude
and it turns out they have been
great supporters and funders financially
and otherwise
of our planning processes and all the rest of it
and we're developing
plans and concepts
and principles that
we are seeing integrated into the Beltline
design process overall
so now
you're part of
that community group and then the larger
Beltline project
in an ability
you have the ability to discuss these things
in a larger community throughout Atlanta
from your
home base which is the little
county or the little neighborhood that you're part of
yes exactly
and one of the aspects of the Beltline
is the legislation that created the Beltline
created a tax allocation district
which is a district that includes
the Beltline loop
and in which taxes
were generated to pay for it
and as a part of that they created an advisory committee
which I was
appointed to
which was a 40 member committee
that represented people all around this
loop
so I had a chance to communicate with all these people
and part of what I'm saying about
this unification in the city
and the Beltline is doing
comes from listening to these people talk
people of all walks of life
that are all on the same page
we want this to happen for all the right reasons
maybe we don't need to understand them sometimes
but one last comment
I would like to make is
I would like to see more architects involved
in neighborhood associations
and other groups that are dealing
with these social issues
and particularly affordable housing
and I can say a lot about that little one right now.
