America`s architects have long served the public selflessly by campaigning for everything from landmark preservation and zoning reform to nuclear disarmament and the protection of threatened wildlife. Still, they could do even better if they exercised a bit more gumption.
That is the view of Donald J. Hackl, this year`s president of the 50,000- member American Institute of Architects (AIA) and head of the Chicago firm of Loebl, Schlossman & Hackl. His one-year presidential term carries considerable power and the opportunity to steer the AIA in new directions. One of the things about which he feels strongly is aggressiveness in public affairs.
On a recent afternoon at his office in Water Tower Place, which his firm designed, Hackl began talking about the subject by recalling the civic leadership exercised by Chicago architects in the past.
”It goes back at least to the time of Daniel Burnham,” said Hackl.
”The part he played in the life of Chicago as a planner, a visionary and an architect was incalculably important. People forget that Burnham also served two terms as national president of the AIA.”
In more recent times, Hackl noted, the Chicago chapter of the AIA helped kill the proposal to build an ugly, elevated north-south expressway across Chicago, campaigned for the saving of such buildings as the old North Western Railroad terminal and critiqued the original master plan for the construction of Illinois Center on railroad air rights.
Still more recently, Chicago AIA members were in the forefront of planning for the proposed 1992 lakefront world`s fair and have vigorously supported a ”theater row” as an integral element in the North Loop urban renewal area.
Less dramatic but equally important work is performed by Chicago`s not-for-profit Architectural Assistance Center, whose volunteers provide design and planning services to community groups and individuals.
Individual Chicago architects acting on their own have made major contribitions, Hackl pointed out. Harry Weese has long acted as a one-man urban design conscience for the city and devised plans for marinas and other lakefront recreational facilities. Bruce Graham has led private-sector planning efforts for the central area.
Veteran architect Walter Netsch, a member of the Chicago Park District board, is trying to restore the parks to the lush beauty and usefulness of their halcyon days. Other architects have sat on the boards of groups including Friends of the Parks and the River North Association.
Hackl`s own firm has pitched in with such pro bono work as restoration of the historic Water Tower, which now houses offices of the Chicago Tourism Council.
”Our firm also follows the national AIA`s policy of encouraging architects to seek elective and appointive offices,” said Hackl. ”Cal Tobin, one of our principal partners, has been a member of the Highland Park City Council for 16 years. We`ve had to decline opportunities to do business in Highland Park to avoid anything resembling a conflict of interest, but we view that kind of sacrifice as a civic contribution.”
On the West Coast, Hackl said, AIA members have engaged in such nonarchitectural crusades as protecting the California condor from extinction. Architects acting as individuals have also taken strong stands on highly politicized issues, including nuclear disarmament.
Hackl believes the AIA`s most important public accomplishment at the national level in recent years has been the preservation of the Capitol`s west front, which was threatened with disfiguration under a remodeling proposal. The AIA is particularly attuned to Washington`s historic design integrity because it is headquartered there.
The esthetic sensitivities and technical expertise of architects make them particularly important participants in public processes where those qualities are needed. Yet in some instances, Hackl concedes, architectural lobbying for the public good also yields direct benefits to the profession.
Architects have campaigned in favor of retaining federal tax credits that go to developers who renovate and recycle historic buildings, for example. This has enriched the fabric of cities, including Chicago, where many historic buildings would otherwise be turned into parking lots. It has also created a lot of business for designers.
Another AIA activity that has enjoyed success is the Regional Urban Design Assistance Team program, under which architectural task forces help cities analyze the potentials of their built environments and reshape them. This is strictly a pro bono service, and its architect-participants are not allowed to accept commissions for any work that spins off from their analyses. Despite their civic successes, however, too many American architects are timid about asserting themselves, Hackl believes.
”European architects enjoy far more appreciation than we do, and the public there has greater respect for their opinions on important issues,”
said Hackl. ”In the U.S., people place a great deal of trust in architects
–which is fine but not exactly the same thing.”
Hackl believes some of his peers` timidity ”may be attributable partly to the kinds of people who are attracted to architecture in the first place. They tend to be humanists, not antagonistic types. They love to be loved. Even some of the big superstar architects who may appear arrogant are actually shy or insecure.”
Bigness and fame are also deceptively minor characteristics of the architecture business. Most people do not realize that almost 80 percent of American architecture firms employ fewer than 10 workers, Hackl observed. Yet the size of even small firms need not diminish their potential for public service.
”I was invited to speak to a group of architects in Pocatello, Idaho, last year, and only 25 persons, including spouses, turned out to hear me,”
Hackl recalled with a grin. ”But I told them there was plenty they could do to benefit their community and increase public understanding of their profession.”
Hackl suggested that the Pocatellans get their TV station to broadcast
”America by Design,” a highly touted architecture series debuting this fall. He exhorted them to get involved with their school and zoning boards and to join such local service organizations as Rotary and Kiwanis. The power elite in Pocatello may not be as dynamic as the ones in Chicago or New York, but it can be just as responsive to fresh ideas coming from architects.
”You know, architects are hard to organize because they don`t function like, say, doctors,” said Hackl. ”You go to a doctor with a problem and he gives you a set of codified statistics, a prescription. You go to an architect and he may begin by simply illuminating a subject, perhaps with abstract ideas. We require both kinds of people in society, but architects more than ever before are needed to apply both their conceptual and precision skills in the broadest way for the good of everybody. We owe the public a quid pro quo for the faith they put in us.”
