Extinction? Unlikely. Irrelevance? Possibly.
Although I still love design of buildings, such is no longer the focus of my interest. Rather, I hope to live to see a new collaborative era of city-building, and a revitalization of our profession in the field of urban design rather than largely intramural excitement over the next great stylistic theory or emergent class of starchitects. We clearly need to rethink not only the bones and sinew of cities, and their sustainability, but the rationale or raison d'etre for their being in terms of family life and our economic future. Such a revitalization of the urban fabric, and a committment to true new town development, may provide a major economic engine for the future which might supplement the declining relative position of the U.S. in the world economy, and be thereby America's "great new thing" and a model for the developing world. In my view, the surficial gloss of a Dubai, Shanghai or Singapore ain't it. The question for us is "What is it?"
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Gary Collins AIA
Principal
G.R. Collins Plus Associates
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