Quote:
Originally Posted by iheartphilly
I hear you loud and clear and share in the sentiments, especially when I've seen awesome designs in NYC, Shanghai, London, etc...it makes Philly pale in comparison. And, I'm not sure why local architects want to short change Philly in design as a major US city and a popular city with tourists from abroad. Maybe we skyscraper nerds are more critical and care more about appearances of a design, and it's not even our profession or namesake on the design.  |
From the little that I've heard consistently down through the years has been that clients in Philly have to be very gently walked through the design process with much hand holding every step of the way if the design is going to be anything other then the cut and paste stuff we're used to seeing. (Of course theres some clients like Comcast and Penn that will automatically go for the high priced spread)
If that's true then it must get very tiring to do that over and over when so many architects are successful and seem very content to have their work be cash for trash. I'd be the first to agree that a low to normal budget doesn't have to mean low to middling design, but its a lot of work to pull off a good design especially if the client doesn't care.
I doubt that outfits like PMC care very much about the design of their buildings, as long as its 'OK' and doesn't threaten potential renters and is generally cheap and easy to build. I doubt they would be willing to spend 1% more on design even if construction costs were the same but the end result looked great and won awards. And nobody else is pushing them to do differently.
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