Tim Enthoven

Readers respond to a letter by Peggy Deamer, an architect, calling for less arrogance and more collaboration in architecture.

To the Editor:

Several high-profile architects in the media recently perpetuate an image of architects as ethically insensitive, competitively destructive and socially tone-deaf.

Among the recent examples: Santiago Calatrava for his overdue and overbudget World Trade Center transportation hub; Zaha Hadid for her dismissive comments about construction deathsat her Qatar soccer stadium; Diller Scofidio + Renfro for its American Folk Art Museum-eatingMuseum of Modern Art expansion; and SHoP Architects for its Domino Sugar Factory 55-story development extravaganza in Brooklyn.

Frank Gehry once said that if we didn’t havestarchitects, architects (and architecture) wouldn’t be in the media at all. But this kind of coverage, even when positive, we don’t need. It perpetuates a Howard Roarkian image that makes most of us architects cringe — not the least because of the uber-capitalist, Ayn Rand alignment — and also deflates a more productive optimism within the profession that sees these arrogant acts as old school.....Continue Reading

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