by
Thompson E. Penney, FAIA
“Design activity and political thought are indivisible.”—Thomas
Jefferson
The recent deaths of J. Carter Brown and Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan
have left huge shoes that need to be filled. Both made great contributions
to the quality of American life, especially in the arenas of urban design
and architecture.
Carter Brown’s intelligence, taste, and rare diplomatic skills
as the chair of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts ensured that design had
a powerful and persuasive voice at the table where decisions were made
about the look of our nation’s capital. He used his reputation as
a critical, discerning eye as a skilled surgeon wields a knife: decisively,
in a healing manner, and with a minimum of pain.
The “singular Moynihan,” as one columnist referred to him,
could look out the window of his apartment on Pennsylvania Avenue and
see a great national Main Street revived and beautiful in large part because
of his vision and his tenacity in pursuing that vision. But his passion
for design excellence extended far beyond Washington. It embraced and
promoted a belief that architecture commissioned by the federal government
should reflect this Republic’s highest ideals. His influential report,
“Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture,” reanimated
for our time the legacy of Washington and Jefferson, who understood that
government of the people should build in a way that reflects its most
cherished values.
Their achievement cannot be understood absent an appreciation of their
passion. They were lovers of the beautiful, of quality and craftsmanship.
Their love or passion was nothing short of nuclear. Both J. Carter Brown
and Senator Moynihan believed, as deeply as anyone can believe, that design
matters. Like Churchill, they
recognized that what we build not only reflects who we are, it in fact
shapes us.
What both men accomplished in shaping our buildings and cities is all
the more compelling, because neither Brown nor Moynihan were professional
city planners or architects. But both men were “pros” in knowing
how to work the political process on behalf of design excellence and the
broad public constituency each served.
Politics and design excellence may strike some as strange bedfellows.
Yet when a commitment to the democratic process is wedded to a keen understanding
of how that process is advanced by design, doors creak open in neighborhood
meetings, city hall, the state house, and on Capitol Hill. Excellence
finds a voice.
For the moment, the shoes each man filled are, sadly, empty. No one of
equal stature has yet emerged on the national scene to carry on a design
advocacy tradition as old as Jefferson and Washington. This is both a
cause of concern and a great opportunity.
There are no job descriptions as such. Nor do the positions both men
served offer financial rewards. The payoff is both more and less tangible.
It is beauty, delight, dignity, honor, and service to a reinvigorated
public realm. It is knowing that a sound investment into our physical
infrastructure has been made that those who come after us will inherit.
It is the confidence that the most cherished ideals of our country have
been affirmed and passed on to future generations through the most visible
reflection of a people’s culture.
In Christopher Wren’s great Cathedral of St. Paul, there is no
obvious monument to the architect. Instead, there is a simple inscription
in Latin: “Si monumentum requiris
circumspice.” (If you would see the man’s monument,
look around.) The achievement of J. Carter Brown and Senator Daniel Patrick
Moynihan is a more elevated and enriching public realm that benefits all
of us. The need for such extraordinary “lovers” of design
is great. Who among our elected or appointed officials will fill their
shoes?
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