You raise the right issues in discussing the planned new IIT campus center (“Beyond Mies,” Aug. 31). These are the issues of the urban context.
(But) it is unrealistic to expect that a single building or even a small group of buildings can address the issues that you raised.
Instead of expecting architecture to address a problem it cannot possibly hope to solve, why not ask about campus and community planning? Who is doing the thinking about this and what kind of resources are they directing to it? Surely they have the money. How are they understanding the intricate and important urban design relationships between the campus and the adjacent community–not just physically (although certainly that) but economically and socially as well. Isn’t that what the problem is and has been about?
Architecture has too long been burdened by the problems of the city and the city has been poorly served by architecture. Why not give each its due and each its role. Doesn’t the most brilliant architecture deserve the best setting? Personally, I like modernist architecture. I also think that any one of the competition finalists is capable of producing a dazzling piece of architecture (maybe some more delightful than others). But, of course, I don’t expect from it something it can’t possibly give.
