Like Andrew said, it can be relatively easy to manipulate the community input process. It is done all the time. All it takes is a silver tongue and the following process.
1. If you are a dragon-blooded design warlock such as myself, you already know the design before you put pen to paper (I don’t need to do endless drawings to develop concepts after using my analysis process). You will always work towards that concept. This was evident in the early presentations in Field Operations’ presentations. They already knew what they were going to do.
2. You generate other “lesser” concepts or work backwards to derive alternates to your “preferred” plan. This way, you can take small bits and pieces as well as relevant community input to “massage” your design. BOOM, community input.
3. You include people in charettes and surveys and public presentation sessions to give them a sense of involvement so they will be less objectionable to what you are proposing. Mind you, you need to explore pretty much any option the group may come up with an intelligent reply to confirm or deny its inclusion in your design. Being able to think on your feet helps. The surveys are almost always skewed to have “subjective” content that public generally does not know about (hardscape quantification). Remember, they are not trained professionals, have no real sense of scale (especially with drawings), and the opinions of other design professionals end up diluted in the survey. As with political surveys, the questions can be contrived to result in the desired answer, and usually are. One plus for us, the public generally trusts the designer if they sound intelligent on the matter and are mostly willing to trust our opinion. (see Witold Rybczynski’s book Last Harvest for a great read on the process of development…having been in that part of the profession myself for many years, it is spot on)
4. You gradually reveal alterations based on some of the public feedback to your final concept that you intended to include all along.
While the public does indeed have some input, it is usually guided and minimal, at best. I find the most valuable input to actually to come from younger children (under 10) because they really have no preconceptions of what a design should be, and you can get some wild ideas out of that. Adults…not so much. “Make it like this” or “you really need that” or the always “that’s ugly” because they either don’t want the project (NIMBY) or their idea is dismissed. Mostly, this is because they really don’t know what they are looking at. The plans are all but indecipherable by most, and we all know how manipulated the sketches or renderings are to portray a “best case” scenario. Mostly, the finished project looks nothing like the drawings, especially if they are the overstylized renderings that seem to be popular nowandays. Remember, trees cover up mistakes (hand renderers will remember this one)!
In this case, If the community wanted REAL input on the design, then they would have input BEFORE the concept phase and before Corner was chosen. Because Field Operations was selected as the SOLE designer on the project and was the only firm to generate concepts, the City Council already knew what they wanted. Real input would have come before a firm was chosen, either a competition or the creation of one concept from several different firms. The City Council could have also put together a presentation of different design styles and gotten feedback before asking a firm to apply their design style.
Lastly, we all know that design by committee is designing for mediocrity, and I appreciate the bold design of Field Operations, that’s what they were hired to do. I don’t like it, but I do appreciate it. This WAS NOT community based design. While I applaud the large scale involvement of the community, its importance is oft overvalued and overhyped. Remember, we get PAID to design, that is our job, and for many, our life. Community involvement CAN inform if performed correctly (see Walter Hood), and the result can be something unique and quite wonderful. This particular design could be anywhere, it’s at least in TWO designs now on opposite coasts.
Great discussion with some good points everybody! This is why I keep coming here.
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