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Ronald E. Bogle (moderator), American Architectural
Foundation
Robert A. Peck, Hon. AIA, Greater Washington Board of Trade
Edward A. Feiner, FAIA, Skidmore Owings & Merrill
Hugh Hardy, FAIA, H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture
Bogle: In addition to a panel discussion about
the lessons learned in the General Services Administration’s
(GSA) Design Excellence Program and their application to school
design, we have been asked to provide introductions to both that
program and Great Schools by Design. The American Architectural
Foundation (AAF) created Great Schools by Design as a resource
to clients, in an effort to help create more enlightened clients.
In focus groups with stakeholders, we have learned some important
things:
- There is a disconnect between architects and stakeholders.
- We are dealing with risk-averse clients who will select options
they feel they must advocate for in order to be successful
politically.
- There is a spirit of austerity: Schools shouldn't look too
expensive, whatever they cost.
- Design has been squeezed out; budget and schedule are
paramount. As a result, the role of the architect has
diminished.
- There is no effective method to communicate best practices
across communities.
- There is a need to create a more constructive dialogue between
architects and stakeholders.
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Feiner: When the Design Excellence Program first
started, we didn’t think of it as a government program. We
went to philosophy: What is the role of government? What are we
really trying to accomplish? What is the purpose of this building?
The GSA just told people, “We need so many square feet, make a
submittal.” We changed that. Now the GSA “announces an
opportunity for excellence in public architecture.”
The problem was that there were very few submittals for awards; we
had trouble finding live architects to give awards to. We wanted
quality design, and that meant making the case that design does
matter and it can reflect well on you as a public official. We
reduced the cost of competing for government work so small firms
could get in, and we depended greatly on the private sector to help
us select designers and evaluate designs.
Peck: I worked with Senator Daniel Patrick
Moynihan. At a GSA committee hearing, someone said, “We want
to put the poetry back into public architecture.” Moynihan
said, “You should try the prose first.” That was in
1985-86. We showed slides of 150 years of government architecture,
from the White House on. Then there was what we called “the
wall of shame”—buildings constructed since World War II.
The government used to be the hallmark of quality architecture in
this country. What are we doing to create the landmarks of the next
century, the buildings communities will fight to protect?
Look at this school (McKinley Technology High School) and what it
tells us about the intentions of the government people who built
it. The last new schools built in the District of look bad and
don’t work. As I see it, these are the issues in schools:
- With willing students, caring parents, and committed teachers,
you can provide a good education under a banyan tree. It’s not
just the building; there are other things wrong that won't get
fixed by fixing the building.
- There’s the notion that it shouldn't look good. There was
an idea in the architecture bureaucracy that if you stick out,
you’ll get struck down. But some GSA buildings built in the
1960s and 1970s stuck out like sore thumbs—and the same thing
is true of school buildings.
- You have to change how you choose designers. Some of the
opposition to the Design Excellence Program came from some of the
firms who dealt well with the GSA. And there was some skepticism at
first; some firms weren’t sure they liked being called
in.
- It’s important to have champions from the outside. It was
the federal judges who figured out they could get better architects
outside GSA.
Hardy: Design isn’t just aesthetics.
It’s also things like technology, especially in education.
It’s the activities that go on inside the places, and
they’re changing all the time. That’s why we hear the
familiar word “flexibility.” But at the core, what is the
purpose of education? What are we making these places for?
I was a skeptic when I went to a GSA award meeting, as a jury
member. We finally got up the courage to send a message: None of
these designs is good enough. Another jury did the same thing. Then
we had a discussion: Could we change the process so it isn’t
so expensive to submit? You had to submit this great big book,
listing all the consultants from here down to there, and somewhere,
buried in all that, was this thing called design. We had the idea
of reversing that and asking for the design up front; then if
it’s the right design, assemble the team.
We asked a peer group from the profession to review the designs. It
elevated the discussion, which led to the profession believing in
the program. The bureaucracy had to be made to work, but the
astonishing thing is that we got the profession to buy in.
Peck: The peer-review process was critical, and the
commitment of those outside peers to follow the design all the way
through was also critical. If you have peers on the advisory group,
it will be difficult for the bureaucrats to buck it.
Feiner: Whatever you do to try to effect change
will attract supporters and opponents, but there is also a large
group in the middle, people who wait to see which way the wind will
blow. One strategy is to try to neutralize them. Another is:
Don’t start by saying you’re going to change everything.
Start with prototypes, with demonstration projects—and make
sure those are very successful. And do those projects for people
who have influence. We elevated the profile of design within our
organization because senators and first ladies came in and said,
“Look at what happened in your agency—what a good use of
tax dollars.”
Peck: Competition can work for you. The judges all
wanted a courthouse that looked as good as the ones in other
cities.
Feiner: It’s good to have a respected
profession other than your own as advocates, like experts in the
education of young children who can talk about things like the
impact of natural light on learning. In the European tradition,
design is part of their entire life, part of the way they perceive
the world—and that only happens in the formative stages of
life.
It doesn’t have to be a law. It could be a finding; it could
be the National Education Association saying design has a tangible
impact on the formation of a child’s sensibility, on becoming
a civil adult. A statement of fact you can hang your hat on, to say
design matters in education and in the development of children into
good citizens, so school boards will choose an architect with the
understanding and potential do excellent design.
Hardy: The profession itself has to believe
it’s possible to design excellent schools. Competitions can
raise the profile of design, especially with an open process and
selection.
Feiner: The new schools going up look very
different. There’s a different sense, that the school building
is important and people want something to happen with it. Beware of
the stretch objective that becomes counterproductive, of looking
for elusive “design excellence.” If you try to achieve
the impossible, you will fail. It’s important to recognize the
accomplishments of the profession and of school boards.
Bogle: This is what I heard from our panelists:
- Language is important—how we talk about what we do and how
we talk with the client. Are we really communicating?
- The process is important—changing the process at GSA
enabled excellence.
- Peer involvement is important—something we should consider
in schools.
- Powerful prototypes are important, particularly in places where
they communicate to others.
- Recognizing the role of politics is important—enlist
others to speak for you.
- Harnessing competition is important—use it to inspire
excellence.
- Being smart enough to make the client look good, for having
made such good decisions, is important.
- And it’s important to have realistic expectations. Even if
it’s not perfect, when we achieve excellence, we should find
as many ways as possible to acknowledge and communicate it.
- The most important lesson is that change can happen. It
happened at GSA in such a remarkable way that it is now regarded as
the most powerful voice about design in communities all across our
nation.
—Ronald E. Bogle is the president and chief executive
officer of the American Architectural Foundation and founder of
Great Schools by Design.
—Robert A. Peck, Hon. AIA, is a former commissioner of
GSA’s Public Buildings Service and a former Washington, D.C.,
school board member. He is currently the president of the Greater
Washington Board of Trade and an AAF regent.
—Edward A. Feiner, FAIA, is the former chief
architect of the GSA and current works in Skidmore, Owings &
Merrill's Washington, D.C., office.
—Hugh Hardy, FAIA, The founder of H3HC, was involved in
the development of the GSA Design Excellence Program and served as
a member of the National Council on the Arts and of the Clinton
administration’s Transition Team Roundtable.
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