2005-10-24 Handout re architecture in the community6
Your city attorney speaks the language of law.
Your traffic consultant speaks the language of statistics.
Your civil engineer speaks the language of gravity.
Your wetland engineer speaks the language of conservation.
Your code official speaks the language of life safety.
Your bond council speaks the language of finance.
so .............
Who speaks the language of architecture for your community ?
• Composition
Proportion
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• History
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• Technical details
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Cost
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MEDL£VAL CATHEDRALS
GELRUr • Construction techniques
CHAPE:-
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HIX,SE WELLS• Mechanical systems
HAPTEP
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After 19 years serving on our planning commission,
city council and the past eight years as mayor I've
learned the following 10 things:
1
No visitor came to our town to see our
legal documents, look in our manholes,
check the curb radii or picnic by the
holding ponds.
They all came to shop, meet at the
cafes, sit by the lake, stroll along the
sidewalks, smell the flowers and eat at
the restaurants.
2
The City Council is responsible for
the future of your community.
Substitute `Board of Director's
for `City Council'.
Finances
Infrastructure
Growth
Taxes
Character
The buck stops with you.
3
No where in this country can you find a
community that has developed a compelling
architectural character without active
involvement by the local governing body.
You don't design your house
from 5,000 feet, and you
don't design your community
from 5,000 feet.
4
Although our towns are planned from
5,000 feet, their character is
experienced at five feet.
In other words, since we don't have
wings what does your town look like
when you walk and drive by ?
5
Good design adds real value.
If you disagree consider this: General
Motors, once a revered symbol of
America's economic greatness, is in a
financial crisis because of bad design.
and..............
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6 1
Poorly designed buildings last just as Both buildings were
long as beautiful buildings. completed in 2002
We make decisions, within a very awkward
process, that last for generations.
8
Making decisions at 10:00 PM, at a
public hearing, is a lousy way to do
the business of your town.
It's also a lousy way to discuss
the design and vision of your town.
also.........
9
Some of our council persons and planning
commissioners have a difficult time discussing
design and some do not read drawings very well.
`It's too big' and `Let's add more trees'
are not helpful design critiques.
7� C,
10
Design Guidelines can only guarantee good
materials. They cannot guarantee good design.
There are lots of lousy
ways to use quality materials
like brick and stone that meet
the guideline rules.
Most authors of Design Guidelines
come from a planning background. They
rarely have the experience to speak
the same language as the developer's
architect. Thus you bought a
drop -and -run document
with no interpreter.
ouch
The problem
Designing your town, in a public hearing, at
10:00 at night does not work.
Design Standards or Form Based Zoning
rules cannot guarantee good design.
The solution
Consistently good architecture will only happen when
your community hires the talent to work with the
developer's architect via sketches and dialog, during
normal working hours, to protect your vision.
My name is Barry Petit.
For the past 23 years I was a partner with
Meyer, Scherer and Rockcastle, Architects one
of the regions premier architectural firms.
Over the past 19 years I also served on the
Wayzata Planning Commission, the City
Council and as Wayzata's Mayor from 1996 to
2004.
The redevelopment of Wayzata has been
dramatic. I learned a great deal and I'd like to
believe my skill -sets were crucial in making
Wayzata one of our regions most successful
communities.
On December 31, 2004 I retired from
architecture, gracefully faded from public
service and started a new career.
The mission and passion of my new career is to
use my unique experiences to help other
communities achieve better architecture within
their commercial and mixed use districts.
Throughout our region I see an inconsistent
and chaotic mix of franchise formulas,
California fashion and cartooned Disneyland
that will be with us for a long time.
I am marketing my skills to help calm down
the chaos and help to define your community's
vision. More importantly my mission is to help
defend your vision. My approach is borne
from 19 years of public service, hundreds of
public hearings and numerous discussions with
developers and their architects.
I have a very simple and inexpensive solution
to the universal question of how to
consistently achieve better architecture in your
community.
• The process can start immediately.
• My involvement is minimal.
• The start-up cost is minor.
• My fee can be shared.
• My experience is truly unique.
• You will get better architecture.
I'd love to help your community define and defend its design vision.
Please contact me at 612 . 750 . 0883 or winpet@aol.com
i c
B, Petit
Petit + Associates
the point is........
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If you don't define and control the architectural character
of your community, I can assure you these people will.
Welcome to Averageville. ['..5..1.