IS IT TIME TO MOVE ON?

I do love some of Frank Gehry's work. But I just gotta say that his success and that of other "signature" designers is wearing thin. The image above is a new project designed for Santa Monica, California. I am sure somewhere there is a white paper at the firm describing how this form was generated by its context and program. And I am equally sure that doesn't matter.

This design, like so many, is the result of an architect "branding" themselves with a signature style. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing until it becomes the only determinant factor "informing" their design work. What should drive, or inform, the design process is context, program, and the needs of the client. I also love Richard Meier's work. But there is a building he designed located in a very poor community in Barcelona. It is so oblivious to the context of the community and its physical environment... in the furtherance of his "brand"... as to be insulting.

The right of clients to "buy" signature designs by famous architects is without challenge. And good for these clients for supporting a higher level of design. But as the premier architects of our time, they have a professional responsibility to deliver their clients' expectations... including their signature style... but also deliver on the additional planning and design burden of creating buildings and places that respond to unique and local characteristics of site, context, culture, and program. Yes, it's an old idea we all learned at university that has been supplanted by mere "branding". But that doesn't make it right. Architecture should not be reduced to expensive trinkets. And these good folks can, and should, hold themselves to a higher, more inclusive standard.