Why and how we build matters -- more for people and community than for impressions
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J. Irwin Miller in his Columbus, Indiana, backyard.
Photo by John Loengard, LIFE, 1967 |
ARCHITECTURAL
GIANT. Indiana lost a great mind and
spirit when J. Irwin Miller died in 2004. Miller used his influence to shape Columbus,
Indiana into an “architectural capital." Miller's influence is not just in buildings, but in ways of seeing and thinking and caring about people and places and organizations. The following excerpts are from a speech he
gave in Indianapolis about twenty years ago.
This is rich food for thought for community builders.
MAKE THE
MOST OF SMALL OPPORTUNITIES. “Your
chance is to be found in a continuing succession of small, manageable events -
little opportunities as well as the great ones.
Every time any public building is built, that building is a statement to
anyone who uses it, anyone who passes by, as to what this city thinks about
itself, what standards it sets for itself, what it aims to be.”
WHAT
STATEMENTS DO OUR BUILDINGS MAKE? “It
matters not whether the building be a city hall, a museum, a school, a jail, a
fire station, a parking garage, a park, or for that matter, new signage laws,
exposed power lines, or the design of benches at bus stops. Each, for good or ill, makes a statement.”
CREATE
ENDURING MESSAGES. “If the design and
construction is clearly aimed to be the best it can be, that message is sent
out every day, as long as the building or the park, or the ordinance
stands. If the design is ugly or routine
and the construction shoddy, the message is that nobody really cares. Nothing you do or build is too small or too
insignificant not to do well.”
AIM FOR
THE BEST EVERY DAY. “The opportunity to
aim for the best we know how to do comes up every year, every month. The cumulative impact of caring enough to
seize each opportunity, great and small, year after year, can change any city
for the better within a generation.”
EXCELLENCE
IS CONTAGIOUS. “It does something else
too. It generates among others a desire
to aim for the best: Churches build better.
Merchants build better. The sights
of builders of private homes are raised.
Interest in fine parks arises.
Streets become more attractive.
People plant more trees.”
INCIPIENT
INFLUENCES. “And in the invisible
-- which maybe is more important in the
long run -- determination for better education, for the elimination of crime,
and drugs, and poverty, and teen pregnancy is nourished. Young people aim higher in their own
education and life goals.”
THE POWER
OF EXAMPLE. “You may, of course, not see
convincing proof in your lifetime. But,
if you believe in the power of example, then you must believe that such an
example, begun in many small ways, in deprived even more than in affluent
areas, steadily pursued, handed on to succeeding generations, will over time
make this a most remarkable city indeed.
You will have made a difference.”
AVOID
MANYNESS. “A few cautions now. And this
comes out of my own local experience.
Avoid some of today's common reasons given for support of good design,
support of the arts, support of humane projects, many of the ‘good things’
Euripides was thinking of.”
PEOPLE
COME FIRST. “Your concern will fail if
it arises primarily because you are convinced it will be ‘good for business.’ It will be good for business, but people come
first. Business exists to serve people,
not the other way around. If ‘good for
business’ is your reason, then the first down year in the economy will turn
your attention away from such things. They
will be treated as ornaments easily foregone in bad times.”
HANG
BEING “NUMBER ONE.” “Your concern will
also fail if it arises primarily because ‘We want to be No. 1.’ When the going gets tough, there is always
the temptation to proclaim ‘We ARE No. 1.’
And to turn to matters that require less staying power.”
AVOID
COMPARISON-MOTIVATED ACTION. “Your
concern will fail if it arises primarily because you want to say ‘We've got
culture too.’ This is operating with
your eyes enviously focused on some other fellow - not on the job at hand.”
GOOD FOR
EVERYONE. “Finally -- some
encouragement. Don't look over your
shoulder at anyone. Set your eyes on
beginning to make your city a good city for all its members, a "home"
for the least as well as for the greatest.
Realize that this goal will not be reached in your lifetime.”
LAY
FOUNDATIONS. “Don't try for instant
‘image.’ Instead emulate the cathedral
builders of the 12th Century who were content simply to make great plans and to
lay in their lifetimes no more than the footings and foundations.”
CONTINUOUSLY
IMPROVE EVERYTHING. “Next -- never miss
an opportunity, however small, in respect to something that is going to be done
anyway. Try to see that it is done
better than it would have been done, had you not stepped in.”
ATTACK
INJUSTICE. “Finally, never miss an
opportunity to correct an obvious evil, an obvious injustice, great or
small. We approach justice in this world
by attacking injustice. We achieve
beauty by attacking ugliness.”
John Franklin Hay
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
www.indybikehiker.com
www.twitter.com/indybikehiker
indybikehiker@gmail.com
