Special Supplement to the October 2001 issue: A
report on the proceedings of the Metropolis West Conference,
February 7+8, 2001, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San
Francisco, "Finding the Thread of Sustainability."
Ricardo Legorreta: In Mexico City I went to the bullfights. As I arrived
at the ring, which was built many years ago, I saw a man in a wheelchair.
When we got to the entrance, it took about ten seconds for six strong kids
to carry the man to his seat. I asked myself, "What is the right solution?"
The Mexican solution is not right-but the American one isn't either, because
you're losing the opportunity to help someone, an opportunity to make another
collaboration. In collaborating you start to understand people and to break
limits. Very often, because we are of a different culture, I am shocked
about the excess, codes, and regulations, and so on, that exist in the United
States. I'm not criticizing, I'm only comparing. In a Los Angeles project
I spent a whole day discussing how to solve the problem of the corner, the
curb, and the sidewalk in a way that would meet the needs of disabled people.
One whole day, there were ten people asking, "Shall we cross on 90
or 45 degrees? What kind of texture?"-all of which was valuable.
Susan Rockrise Think of guidelines as sheet music, and I'm the conductor
[of the Intel design team]. That sheet music has helped us promote a virtual
team of designers use our guidelines in creative ways. Don't think of guidelines
as right or wrong, or the logo cop kind of approach. Think of them as an
opportunity to get the basics.
I do not believe you can create a virtual team without real people touching
each other frequently on some level or another. In any relationship, personal
or professional, unless you have some kind of contact every 45 days with
the person you care about or work with, that person loses trust and the
relationship goes sour. It doesn't necessarily turn negative-it just doesn't
exist anymore and must be recreated. To build a brand we must build relationships
internally.
The team pulled together by John Igoe of Palm Inc. shares their thoughts
on collaboration as they began working on Palm's San Jose campus (now on
hold):
Mary Davidge, interior designer: Is it going to be a kind of team
where, if there's a problem, people are going to point fingers wondering
who's to blame? Or are they going to get past that and be solution oriented,
and put their heads together to figure out what to do about the problem?
Warren Byrd, landscape architect: In the end, the whole point of
collaboration is to blur the boundaries between professions. Looking at
the final diagram for the site plan, we can't say whose hand is there, there,
there, or there. Collaboration is a bit like improvisation-it's a constant
going back and forth.
Mary Davidge: Bill [McDonough] talks a lot about what's more effective
as opposed to being efficient. The collaborative process is not necessarily
efficient. You need to spend time together, but what comes from that are
very effective solutions.
Mark Otsea, planner-architect: Trusting one another is fundamental.
With that comes the ability to accept that maybe the structural engineer
has a good idea about the landscape, or the interior architect may have
a good idea about traffic. You need to be open to that. The client sets
the ground rules. And everyone checks egos at the door so we can focus on
the project, then move forward.
