NO TIME FOR UGLINESS

[music] [music] [music] [music] The city or near it. Any anywhere, one size or another. We flee from it [music] and are drawn to it. Oppressed, excited, frustrated, [music] enthralled, appalled by it. [music] [music] [music] [music] The city or near it. This incredible collection of things, people, pathways, [music] habits, history, problems and possibilities. [music] What do we want in a city? Everything we have ever wanted to fill our needs and meet our wishes. [music] Out of our needs and wishes we make our cities and the lives we [music] lead in them. How have we managed? All you have to do is wake up in the morning and look around. [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] Somehow it happened. By accident, perhaps. By compromise, surely. By things done and undone. Disorder [music] and disproportion. Deterioration. Monotony. Ugliness amid affluence. Who did it? Who does it still? All these did it or failed to stop it. [music] [music] In the end, all the people who didn't see or had learned not to see. We all share the consequences. But there are opportunities to share as well. What can we do? Any number of things. [music] The planting of a tree, the design and construction of a building [music] that graces its surroundings. [music] The redevelopment of a great downtown area. [music] The center of the city revived and embellished. Whatever the [music] act, whatever its scope, the common element is design and always an urgent will to make things [music] better than they are now. Where do you start? Just look around. It could be here as you approach the city. From what you see along the way, what kind of city would you expect to find when you arrive? Urban sprawl. The careless misuse of land, unregulated and unrestrained. The big, loud sell on [music] the march. Clutter. [bell and music] As you move toward the city, what visions of it are raised by this? And what by this? As much as anything else, the city is an experience and the approach foretells what it will [music] be like. [music] The landscape suddenly opens up, allows the city to be discovered. [music] The capital of the nation at the far end of a road that respects the beauty of nature. [music] [music] Surrounded by possibilities, often we seem determined to kill them off. [music] The waterfront, potentially a prod to land-bound imaginations, [music] a place for people to enjoy. Yet here in Detroit and in other cities, the river becomes a magnet for industrial debris. In [music] Washington, the Potomac lies unfulfilled. Half hidden, vulnerable to the leavings of litter bugs, unpledged to lively human use. And yet the alternatives are there, loud and clear. [music] Why not bring river and people together? Let the river grace the city and the lives of its people. [music] [music] San Antonio, Texas did this with the stream that winds through its very center. [music] [music] [music] [music] A wandering walk, Paseo del Rio, for the pleasure of citizens in the heart of the city. [music] [music] But what happens when downtown runs [music] down? It's hard to believe that this part of Hartford, Connecticut did. Today the eye scans the center of commerce built to human scale, Constitution Plaza, where the eye meets the variety it demands, the surprises it savors, the gentle peace of growing things. There is a place for automobiles [music] and a place for people. They are not the same place. Traffic goes under and around the plaza. Cars park underground. People go about their business safely in an area designed for people. It is pleasant to discover places [music] to get lost in, yet reassuring to find landmarks to go by. [music] [bell] [music] What you see around you is important, whether the view is from the office, from the home, [music] anywhere. Public and private resources will combine to renew much of downtown America. Sometimes a short look backward is the way to a special kind of progress. Jackson Square in San Francisco chose to restore and preserve its Victorian past. Out of run-down older buildings, it has made a prosperous and attractive home for downtown business. [music] A place to work. A place to live. For many slums, nothing can be done. They are too far gone. They must be [music] uprooted and replaced. But housing for low-income families need not be low-grade housing. Evidence? St. Francis Square in San Francisco. A housing development sponsored in this case by [music] a union. Designed with concern, with attention. [music] Nor does publicly sponsored housing have to be mean and ugly. More evidence? The municipal low-cost housing program [music] in Mount Clemens, Michigan. Designed for livability. For the sensibilities of people. But what about run-down urban areas that are not well used? That could be used to attract people with higher incomes, to expand the tax base, and breathe new life into the city. One answer? Detroit style. At Lafayette Park, near the heart of the city, the residents drive their cars into an underground parking area. They are home in the city. But with the gift of space, order, and good design. Not too long ago [music] in the southwest section of Washington, D.C., the capital looked down with shame on its surroundings. Today, another and quite different story. [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] There are times when only complete renewal can answer [music] the need. But there are structures and areas that deserve further life. That remind us of what our community has been and can be again. Continuity, preservation of early values. [music] The touches and details that say we care for our own sensibilities and those of our children. This is the story of the Georgetown section of Washington. A story of care, concern, and time taken to set things right. [music] Yet nostalgia is not [music] enough. Searching for betterment, expanding America keeps moving outward for peace, space, privacy, and then [music] somehow manages to box itself in again. Deadening in its regularity, saddening in its misuse of natural features. Too often the suburban tract seems to have come out of a mimeograph machine. Yet there are ways to break up suburban uniformity, even in the medium-cost ranges. Just north of San Francisco, in Marin [music] County, these houses planned for economy retain a sense of privacy and individuality. [music] In Virginia, a happy meeting of good design, land use, and landscaping. A matter of money? By no means exclusively. For there are expensive suburban homes that misuse the land and abuse the eye. [music] [music] Just as there are others that respect the landscape and delight the senses. The houses well sited, the trees preserved, wires underground [music] where they belong. [music] Life in the suburbs increasingly is life behind the wheel. To stop and shop, a chance to buy. Once he has left his car, let the buyer beware. Too many of the new shopping centers are obstacle courses [music] for people. [music] Concrete and cars. [music] No place for a tree. Very little for human beings. It needn't be that grim. Detroit's Northland Shopping Center can also accommodate the car, 10,000 of them at [music] once. Cars are separated from people and stores. The shopper walks free of auto traffic in malls designed for civilized [music] browsing and buying. [music] Even for the accidental meeting of friends. Beyond trade and merchandise, a concern for the small things that are big. The amenities, the grace notes of sculpture, vegetation, [music] the play of water, a shaded path. The fun of shopping enhanced [music] by touches of taste, color, and form. What suburbia [music] can do, downtown can do equally well. The successful mixing of business and pleasure, commerce and comfort. The [music] special attractions of Rockefeller Plaza in New York City bring people to play, to watch, to pause. These extra touches also draw business into the nearby shops. [music] [music] For big cities only? Hardly. In winter, in all seasons, Canton, Ohio offers the same benefits and pleasures for its 115,000 citizens at Central Plaza. [music] It's not a matter of size or scope. Small things have a large place. A well-designed trash container, trees and flowers [music] to brighten the city, a place to sit, a place to walk that interests [music] the eye. All the details that say beauty and concern. All part of the America we see, the America we can have [music] if we want it. What can we do? What can you do in your community? Look around. Become aware of what's wrong and why. [music] Make a visual survey of your community. Urge your local government and civic leaders to prepare a long-range program for good community design. Demand [music] community tree planting programs, effective ordinances to regulate signs and billboards, to place utility lines underground. Local government cannot do it alone. Business leadership is vital to get these programs moving and to keep them alive. Call on architects and other design professionals to translate human needs and wishes into a harmony of structures and spaces. It takes all three forces: [music] design professionals, government, business leaders, and always [music] a knowledgeable and demanding public. [music] The city or near it. What will it be like 5, 10, 50 years from now? [music] Some things we know. Pop- [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music]