Regional and Urban Design Committee

 View Only

Community HTML

pexels-photo-443383.jpeg

Quick Links

Who we are

The Regional and Urban Design Committee (RUDC) aims to improve the quality of the regional and urban environment by promoting excellence in design, planning, and public policy in the built environment. This will be achieved through its member and public education, in concert with allied community and professional groups. Join us!

2024 Symposium

The 2024 symposium will be held in Indianapolis, IN in November. Stay tuned for dates and location. Registration will open in July.

2023 RUDC Symposium

The RUDC Symposium, held in Washington, DC October 19-20, covered emerging trends, theories, and technologies that are shaping the future of regional and urban design. Watch the engaging highlight and speaker videos >.

Expand all | Collapse all

Matter for Discussion

  • 1.  Matter for Discussion

    Posted 03-29-2017 06:18 PM
    At a time when the entire planet has to deal with settlement patterns, depletion of resources, and half the world's population will shortly have to deal with staying above water, what in heck is one of the world's leading architectural organization doing going off into a tangent about contracting terms and regulatory impact on public works projects?  A more relevant subject today might be:
    what is the responsibility of central governments in fostering  public works projects that have been judged by the consensus of experts to be vital to the survival of settlements (our built environment)? From that, one might wish to study whether the approval process is unnecessarily long.

    Richard Rosen, emeritus


  • 2.  RE: Matter for Discussion

    Posted 03-31-2017 10:22 AM

    Agreed. Architecture must expand its vision to encompass much more than buildings moving forward. We have to consider all the components of our constructed and natural environments to design space that meets humanity’s needs. We need to get back in the business of city making. We have the spatial design capacities, and we need to apply that thinking to land-use policy and broader planning issues which guide and control urbanism. The profession has been too concerned with object form, and has nearly missed the bus as developers and contractors are controlling much of building and design process.

    Keller Easterling has a great quote that addresses this pretty spot on:

    “Architecture’s relationship to money is symptomatic. The discipline seems not to know how to capitalize projects independently or garner the resources necessary to be a leader in any powerful platform or market, be it social, political, or commercial. In this way architecture is distinct among the intellectual and professional endeavors to which it is usually compared. Architects primarily offer a service to moneyed players and to the powers that be. To avoid the taint of this subservient position, the profession creates a narrative of artistic autonomy, one ironically overlaid with internal hierarchies and ateliers to which the youngest architects are beholden. Even the most powerful and influential player in this hierarchy, the star architect, like a Hollywood star, is still a contract player.

    “Meanwhile some of the most significant changes in the globalizing world are being written in the language of architecture and urbanism. Space is potentially a powerful instrument of ingenuity and problem solving in the world. Yet architects are rarely asked to lead in decision making processes of any consequence beyond client relationships. The profession does not encourage an entrepreneurialism that would address the unfortunate and unnecessary fact that it is decoupled from its own relevance in the world.” (Yale Perspecta 47, 2014. p. 228)



    ------------------------------
    Sam Friesema Assoc. AIA
    Urbanist
    CSNA Architects
    COLORADO SPRINGS CO
    ------------------------------



  • 3.  RE: Matter for Discussion

    Posted 04-04-2017 10:55 AM
    I don't know how much support you'll get for this position, Mr. Rosen, but add me to the list. It is a profession-related comment that is not directly related to short term practice revenue, but one that can have long term benefit to profession and practice when considered more abstractly. It is pro-actively related to the public interest, rather than a restraint on design that attempts to limit an investor threat to the public health, safety, and welfare.

    ------------------------------
    Walter Hosack
    Dublin, OH
    ------------------------------



  • 4.  RE: Matter for Discussion

    Posted 04-05-2017 06:03 PM
    Today I gave a talk to a business group about what Bucky Fuller (my dissertation supervisor) said about the human prospect: "The 21st century is when we sill find out if the human race is a failed experiment."

    We have designed a world where many fail to have access to food, housing, health care or education.  And we have heard various political replies to this, none of which has made a dent in the disaster.  Architects could use our design process skills to identify the critical activities needed to avert the sad collapse of life as we know it.  Here are some:
    • Publish a dymaxion map poster showing that Antartica (a mile thick chunk of ice) is almost as large as all of North America.  We know it is melting, breaking up, and cracking.
    • Each of us make clear that global warming is settled science.  Politicians? Mother Nature votes last.
    • Encourage looking at the Facebook on cia.gov.  Tab to energy.  Make two spread sheets of what all the countries and territories have in fossil fuel reserves, and what each uses.  We have 46 years left.
    • Stop designing building that use more energy than they produce.
    • Help everyone understand the science of design and building.
    • Share your knowledge that the world is presently producing four babies per second, while two human deaths per second result in a net population gain of two per second. (That's 63 million/year more people)

    Yes, the business of architecture is a challenge, but without addressing the larger issues, "We re just rearranging chairs on a ship that's going down."


    Nick Peckham, FAIA
    Peckham Architecture, LLC
    2009 North Country Club Drive
    Columbia, MO 65201

    573-777-4444 (o)
    573-489-0901 (m)








  • 5.  RE: Matter for Discussion

    Posted 04-05-2017 07:33 PM
    Well said, Mr. Peckham. I hope you find wide support.

    ------------------------------
    Walter Hosack
    Dublin, OH
    ------------------------------



  • 6.  RE: Matter for Discussion

    Posted 04-07-2017 12:07 PM

    I like Nicholas Peckham's remarks. But I see the world a little differently, the world is not one "we have designed". The world "happened" and largely continues to without qualified design or planning input. There have been architects and town plans of importance throughout the history of civilization, but on any scale, cities and buildings were developed by leaders and those with the means to so. They either achieved the economic goals of the era, or, failed to sustain, without regard to the imperatives of current beliefs. That said, as we move forward, there is a chance that we can design a sustainable world. Still, we design within the contexts prescribed by developers and political leaders, who really never needed an outspoken design professional. Their intent, it must be argued, may not be sustainable nor socially progressive. While we refuse to admit it, the architect and planner take their marching orders, as before.  We pray for enlightened leaders; we are ignored when we try to correct leadership, however flawed. But we can't stop talking, and shouldn't.

     ALLEN E NEYMAN, AIA     O 301-251-1412   C 301-351-7264   

    FOOTER_EMAIL

     

     






  • 7.  RE: Matter for Discussion

    Posted 04-10-2017 05:37 PM

    OH Yes and we should start leading the way, too!

     

     

    ALLEN E NEYMAN, AIA     O 301-251-1412   C 301-351-7264   

    FOOTER_EMAIL

     

     






  • 8.  RE: Matter for Discussion

    Posted 04-10-2017 05:57 PM
    Bottom line is that as professionals we have lost our seat at the table.  It is my belief that we need to step up and be counted, and that we have nobody to blame but ourselves if the built environment happens around us and without us.    We live in a country driven by economics and law, and as such we have to learn to play with the same tools as do the clients who hire us.   We have been taught in school that the way is star architecture, and unfortunately , for the majority, that can come across as arrogance and disconnectedness.   Ultimately, our education needs to change to understand that architects, urban designers and landscape architects must first and foremost exhibit leadership and collaboration as a way to make ourselves a relevant part of the decision making process.   This is not selling out design; rather it is the way design is heard and how it becomes a relevant part of the discussion.   At my point of career, having taught professional practice for 11 years, I believe fundamentally that we have a lot more power than we care to use.  We would rather sit in our offices and dream ideally about what might be, or worse, what might have been.   Instead of getting in there and working from the power of leadership, we become righteous and say "its the other guys problem."    If we don't like the built environment, then it is incumbent upon us to fix it.    That is the ultimate responsibility of the profession.

    ------------------------------
    Richard von Luhrte FAIA
    President
    RNL Design
    Denver CO
    ------------------------------



  • 9.  RE: Matter for Discussion

    Posted 04-11-2017 11:42 AM
    I like the phrase, "...this is the way design is heard." It will take a new language to build the knowledge needed to lead a population.

    ------------------------------
    Walter Hosack
    Dublin, OH
    ------------------------------



  • 10.  RE: Matter for Discussion

    Posted 04-05-2017 07:40 PM
    Years ago I was with a public agency that needed to expand a major airport. We came up with a plan that doubled airside capacity for a reasonable amount of money. The agency head took the plan to the governor of the state and was asked how long to get it done. When he replied that the EIS process was roughly seven years, the governor threw him out for the obvious reason that the governor would take the heat and get no reward. The airport, twenty years later, is still plagued with airside delays. Our EIS process is absurd. Seven years is ridiculous. We have to shorten the time and simplify the process. Major transportation projects such as railroad tunnels, where the only impact is the construction -trucks and laydown areas should be reviewed in weeks. A determined group can stall a major project for years. This is not acceptable.

    Admittedly not all major projects are beneficial, but it should not take seven years and endless lawsuits to determine this.




  • 11.  RE: Matter for Discussion

    Posted 04-05-2017 07:59 PM
    Mr. Hosack and I need to hear from others on this committee! That is the "open mike" way that we can steer the direction of the Institute. 





  • 12.  RE: Matter for Discussion

    Posted 04-07-2017 03:40 PM
    I'm with Nick Peckham (whom I haven't seen in many years) on the need to focus on climate change.

    I believe it is quite simply the biggest challenge facing humanity. It's fair to say that climate change is qualitatively different from the chronic troubles that humanity has always faced – war, poverty, injustice, disease, plutocracy, crime, corruption, bankruptcy, etc. And at its accelerating pace, climate change is also becoming quantitatively bigger than these other perennial problems.

    The good news for our profession and this group is that architecture and urban design have the chops to help mitigate it and adapt to it, both of which climatologists now realize is more urgent than they thought only a few years ago.

    Nick is also right about overpopulation, but that's a bit out of our wheelhouse.

    Doug




    Doug Kelbaugh FAIA
    Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning
    and former Dean
    Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning
    University of Michigan
    2000 Bonisteel Blvd., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2069
    Mobile: 734 358-9587 Home: 734 827-2259
    kelbaugh@umich.edu





  • 13.  RE: Matter for Discussion

    Posted 04-10-2017 04:48 PM
    I am assuming that the thread is originally started in reply to my article about the lengthy process of public works projects. While I agree that on a scale of 1-10 nuclear war threats and climate change are both a ten and everything else is less important, the discourse in the profession cannot limit itself to #10 issues.

    Especially when there is a direct connection between public works and resilience and climate change. More transit would be a major contributor towards better settlement patterns and fewer greenhouse gases, for example. Desalination plants, large scale wind-power or solar plants are no less impacted by the procedures of today's review process.

    It may look like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, but the role of the public sector and its efficiency is increasingly important; the comment poses a false dichotomy and choice.

    ------------------------------
    Klaus Philipsen FAIA
    Archplan Inc. Philipsen Architects
    Baltimore MD
    ------------------------------