Dialogue

Contra Ban
FROM ANONYMOUS:
This article (“Shigeru Ban’s Soho Shoebox,” by Andrew Blum, March 2012, p. 78) proposes a lot of reasons why a completely soulless retail project is actually not terrible. Look, Ban is a fine architect, but it doesn’t seem like he has any interest in the project. It feels like an afterthought from a busy office that’s focused on other things—which, unfortunately for our urban spaces, is what retail usually ends up being. The missed opportunity is disappointing; it doesn’t feel like the architect took his job very seriously.

FROM ALYSSON:
This was a chance to enrich a lot of people’s lives, and all the architect came up with was a huge billboard. Our cities already have enough billboards. We hire architects to bring art and design to our cities, not increase banality by doing a corporation’s bidding and throwing up a huge “branding” gimmick. This project grosses me out on every level: very little complexity, very little composition, far too much marketing. I don’t want architects to act like ad agencies. That’s the worst possible scenario if architects are going to do retail projects.

Urbanism and Austin
FROM MARIA:
Very perceptive—I’d never unpacked the term “urban contemporary” before, but you’re quite right (“Say What?” by Karrie Jacobs, January 2012, p. 32). I believe that, for many suburbanites, this growing appreciation for the urban represents not a yearning to live in the city, but a desire to live in a place in between: a location with trees, fresh air, and detached homes, but also culture, hipness, and just a bit of thrum.
I know that’s my yen, and that I’m not alone, but it’s a difficult thing to create. The closest thing in my suburb is the awesome weekly farmers’ market.

FROM KEN ETHRIDGE, AIA:
You’re right about The Domain: it’s not a bad place at all. It is urban, in the best sense of the word, though you might have noticed that it’s pretty self-selecting in terms of its upper-crust visitors. The development is at its best on days when when the weather is warm and all sorts of parents bring their kids to jump around the plaza.We live about an hour north and find a reason to show up at least every couple of weeks, if only because the Apple Store is there. Austin makes every effort to maintain its uniqueness and human scale, but its outer suburbs are as deadly as those anywhere else. The Domain is a welcome change in approach.

CORRECTION
An image on p. 44 of our February issue was credited incorrectly. The illustration on the bottom half of that page is by Kyra Thomas, not Leigh Salem. We regret the error.