Design + Civic Leadership | Reflections

Change is inevitable and change takes time.
An investment in long-term public dialogue
and education is necessary to establish
what a life of good quality looks like. This is
how parameters for good design can be set.
Design should evolve from process rather
than crisis.
MAURICE COX
Director of Design
National Endowment of the Arts

There has been more public engagement
in design and planning since 9.11. This
engagement has happened in real time
and space as well as in the virtual realm.
We need to better understand how digital
communication can promote engagement
and public participation.
DEBORAH MARTON
Executive Director
Design Trust for Public Spaces

Sustainability offers designers a hook to a
longer-term plan.
MARILYN JORDAN TAYLOR
Senior Partner
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

The answer lies in a more engaged and
informed public sector. We are experiencing
an evolution in America’s vision of itself,
from ‘a man’s home is his castle,’ toward
more interconnected societies. Americans
are coming to realize that we have to live
in sustainable, livable cities. Professional
planners will be critical participants in
longer-term visions of cities. Good design
should be recognized and will endure.
MARK HARARI
Co-Presidednt + Founder
phbcatalystgroup, Inc.

Public dialogue and engagement should
not dumb down design. How can we
institutionalize this?
TOM WRIGHT
Executive Director
Regional Plan Association

Struggling with the dialectic between
authority and democracy, and recognizing
where private forces have produced
extraordinary results, such as Rockefeller
Center, we should recognize when powerful
citizens understand civic responsibility.
Otherwise, we are fools to trust the private
sector. Planning implies shared civic values.
By nature, design is more private and
personal.
PAUL GOLDBERGER
Architecture Critic, The New Yorker
The National Trust for Historic Preservation

Younger citizens are part of a massive shift
from the public sector to private sector
leadership. They do not know ‘institutional
faith’ in civic leadership. How do you imbue
an inherently selfish private sector that public
good is good?

BEN KARLIN
Superego Industries
Former executive producer
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Colbert Report