March 2006

Perspective. It flavors our view of the world and it influences our ability to design creatively and to interact with each other. Several recent trips have reminded me of the value of seeing different places and looking at our physical environment with a different perspective.

San Diego and the Southern California coast were warm and sunny every day of a week long visit. Maybe it was the sun, green palms and a Mustang convertible instead of clouds, cold and brown grass that had an effect. California is different. The coast is very densely developed with expensive housing on small lots, there are numerous parks with access to beaches, “The 5" with its eight or more lanes is the main North-South traffic corridor, and my generation still seemed to be surfing instead of working during the day. Old Town San Diego with its working historical village, Point Loma with its military base abutting million dollar plus homes on tiny lots (actually rather plain ranches), La Jolla with its inspiring architecture of the Salk Institute by Louis Kahn and the unusual snake sidewalk winding up the hill to the unusual Geisel Library (Dr. Seuss) at the University of California San Diego, to Laguna Beach with its Mediterranean style houses growing out of the rock ledges along the beach, its homes packed together winding up the mountainsides, and its 1920's bungalows built in the Craftsmen style. The architecture and the feel are different.

Traveling East away from the coast the houses dwindle in number and the landscape changes to a drier climate. The contrast is extreme as we tour the Joshua Tree National Park. Located at the junction of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts, the habitat changes from an unusual mixture of massive rounded rock outcroppings framed by Joshua trees to a more arid landscape with a forest of cactus and jackrabbits. The only Roadrunner we found, though, was at the San Diego Zoo Animal Park. The environment makes you think about the differences in the buildings, except that McDonalds was still McDonalds.

The following week it was AIA Grassroots in Washington, DC. We went to lobby our federal legislators (actually their staff) on issues important to AIA, but the threat of a snowstorm panics the city. Rather than our lobbying effort, it was two other personal observations that had a greater impact on my perceptions. One was that the interaction and knowledge gained from colleagues from other states on how they are influencing their state governments provides an important perspective on what we are or could be doing. The other observation, although fairly common for anyone who flies on planes, has a greater impact on the perspective related to architecture. My flight from Manchester was on a superbly clear day. The plane circled over Portsmouth, flew down the coast over Boston and New York City with Long Island looking small in the background, continued over the Delaware River and then on to Baltimore. The view from 30,000 feet provides a perspective on our built environment that encourages a global view. The patterns of circulation, the density of urban areas, the openness of rural areas, the influence of topography and rivers and the coast, the patterns of land use, all take on an importance that we don’t always recognize or see when we are focused on our individual client’s projects. I wonder how our designs are affected by the surrounding context and how we might in turn influence these broader patterns for the better. I haven’t yet had the opportunity (or the money) to view our world from space, but that perspective is even grander. Consider these quotes from astronauts who have seen the Earth from a grand view:

“When I orbited Earth in a spaceship, I saw for the first time how beautiful our planet is. Mankind, let us preserve and increase this beauty, and not destroy it!” Yuri Gagarin, Cosmonaut, 1961, First human in Space.

“For those who have seen the Earth from space, and for the hundreds and perhaps thousands more who will, the experience most certainly changes your perspective. The things that we share in our world are far more valuable than those which divide us.” Donald Williams, Pilot/Commander STS Atlantis and Discovery.

My personal favorite, though, shows perspective and relates to Grassroots:

“ In outer space you develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, “Look at that, you son of a bitch.”“ Edgar Mitchell, Lunar Module Pilot Apollo 14, Third Lunar Landing.