DESIGN STANDARDS

New York tried design standards many years ago. The result was numerous buildings that, from a distance, looked like a collection of stairways not quite up to heaven. New Yorkers tired of this and repealed the design rules. New York Times critic Ada Louise Huxtable said “Alas, good zoning doth not great architecture make.”

As in New York, design standards here will probably result in cookie cutter buildings downtown. Few if any developers will sue. It costs too much and takes too long. Instead they will design to copy some other building recently approved. Is this what we really want?

The promoters of these standards say they are “flexible”. Isn’t flexible a euphemism for arbitrary, or subjective? Should planning commissioners and city council members determine the shape, color and texture of future buildings? Perhaps it would be better to leave this to trained professional architects. Are we so afraid of an occasional goof that we must stifle creativity?