| The first-ever Mayor’s Urban Design Awards were handed out on October 18, and the event was not without controversy. It was, however, without coverage. There was nothing to be found on any of the local media outlets I was able to monitor in the following days – nary a word in either daily newspaper or on CBC radio or television, which are the sources I tend to keep an eye or ear on. If the awards were covered by other outlets, I’d be interested to see or hear what was said in the reporting.
In any case, the silence in my own survey of media outlets was deafening and rather telling. Clearly the reporters and assignment editors at those outlets didn’t think the awards were a story worth covering. They presumably decided that there wouldn’t be sufficient interest among their readers, viewers and listeners to spend column inches or airtime on the awards. There are two possible conclusions to be drawn from this. The first is that the editors and reporters are all wrong – that they’re out of touch with what interests their audiences. The other is that they’re all absolutely right, and that people in Calgary – generally speaking – just don’t care that much (oh, the temptation to say "give a shit") about urban design.
Which of the two possibilities is more likely? Is urban design simply of such little interest to the average Calgarian that it’s just not worth covering the first-ever awards for such a thing in the city? Or are all the reporters and assignment editors hopelessly out of touch with an audience clamouring for more coverage of architecture and urbanism? Sadly, I’m drawn to the former as the more likely – and more depressing, to me at least – conclusion. Reporters and editors are supposed to know a story when they see one, know what their audience’s interests are, and know how to allocate staff resources and space on their pages or time on their airwaves. That’s why their employers pay them the big bucks. (As someone who worked full-time in radio journalism for more than 10 years, I understand something about editorial judgment.)
The Herald eventually ran a story, on page 18 of their New Homes section, on October 29, 11 days after the event. Good to see eventual coverage, but it’s still indicative that the event was not considered "news."
I guess Calgarians just don’t care that much about the built environment. Ah, but it’s not that simple. Apparently, they – and their media – care enough to be incensed and outraged when outsiders say anything bad about it. A few weeks before the awards, well-known urban critic James Howard Kunstler had a few choice (and definitely unkind) words to say about the city and its urban form. To refresh your memory, or in case you missed it, his exact words were, "Calgary is an archetypal city of immense glass boxes in a sterilized centre surrounded by an asteroid belt of beige residential subdivisions."
Saying less than flattering things about Calgary’s urban form not only makes front-page news but warrants a sidebar questioning the credentials – and therefore credibility – of the speaker of those words as well. (Kunstler has no formal training or education in architecture or urban design. On the other hand, he’s written for the New York Times and Rolling Stone and has published nine books.) Another criticism of Kunstler’s assessment was that he didn’t spend enough time in Calgary and summarized his impressions in a mere eight lines. All I will say to that is I suspect the word count and the volume of the rhetoric would both have gone up considerably – maybe even to a Spinal Tap-esque 11 – had Kunstler spent more time here. Be careful what you wish for!
Don’t get me wrong – I’m no Kunstler fan myself, but for different reasons (having to do with his advocacy of New Urbanism, about which my feelings are quite well known). What I find intriguing is the reflexive defensiveness his comments provoked – similar to a conversation I overheard the day after another urban critic, Michael Sorkin, made a passing comment about Calgary when he spoke to an audience here in May. I paraphrase, but I’m sure you know the gist of such a conversation: "How dare he? Who is he to say that about Calgary? He only spent a few hours here – he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. This is the greatest city in the world (unanimous agreement). Harrumph, harrumph. Pass the tea, would you please, Colonel Blimp." These persons doth protest too much, methinks.
In any event, criticism by outsiders – well credentialed or not – is newsworthy. Handing out awards for the best the city has to offer is, apparently, not. Ah, but again, it’s not that simple. You see, it turns out that the jury chose not to present awards in two of the seven categories. In their comments, the jurors (Allan Jacobs from the University of California at Berkeley, Ken Greenberg from Toronto, and Kathleen Petty from Calgary) said, "Good urban design is not translating into high quality architecture…. We were not impressed with the materiality of some of the projects. For these reasons, we decided not to choose award winners in some of the categories."
The categories which went without awards were Urban Architecture and Urban Fragments – the two specifically architectural categories. There were plenty of entries, but none the jury considered award-worthy. Since these were the inaugural Mayor’s Urban Design Awards, I’m sure the jurors felt considerable pressure to select winners in each category. Congratulations to them for having the courage to stick to their guns and refuse to give awards where they saw no deserving winners. Even though it may not have garnered widespread attention, that decision is an unmistakable challenge to the city and its design community to do better.
As for the actual awards, congratulations to Landplan Associates, who were the big winners. They won in two categories, for Shaw Millennium Park (Civic Design) and for the Cliffside Emily Follensbee School Outdoor Learning Centre (Community Improvement Projects).
The awards will be presented biennially from now on. Here’s hoping the jury in 2007 has difficulty choosing between multiple deserving potential winners in every category.
For the complete list of winning projects and teams, go to http://content.calgary.ca/CCA/City+Hall/Business+Units/
Development+and+Building+Approvals+and+Land+Use+Planning
+and+Policy/Mayors+Urban+Design+Awards/2005+Winners/2005+Winners.htm. |
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