Does good design have to cost more?

New Mexico Business Journal, August, 1995

No, Not Really.

A panel of prominent New Mexico architects expound on building design, long-term costs and other verities.

Master Builder: Why isn't there more good design seen around here?

Dale Dekker: I would argue that there is a lot of good design around. For the area, the climate, and budgets that we have to work under, I think there are some good examples of architecture. There could always be more and better, but I would also offer that just because you spend more money doesn't necessarily guarantee that you will get better design. Design is a total process. It's more than just skin deep. It includes the infrastructure, mechanical, electrical and structural systems, the response to a program. I think that in the next 10 to 15 years, we're going to see a lot more good examples of architecture because there are some major public works projects presently underway by people in this room both for the city of Albuquerque and for Sandia National Labs.

Edith Cherry: One of my old bosses used to say it takes three to make a good building. It takes a good architect, a good client, and a good contractor; and that's still true. I agree with much of what Dale said. There is good design in Albuquerque. I won't go so far as to say there's a lot of good design. But I think there has to be a will to do good design both on the part of the architect and on the part of the owner and on the part of the contractor. And that will often comes from competition - the owner's competitors having something that's deemed good design and therefore in order to keep abreast one has to get whatever good design is. It is in the eye of the beholder in some ways. I think that it can't only be focused on a single individual project. A good design would then involve issues of urban design, public issues that go across property lines.

Van Gilbert: I think we ought to restate the question as a positive. Good design costs less, and I think an example of that would be that buildings around for a number of years, good quality, well designed buildings will in the long run cost much less than a poorly designed building that's been built poorly; in the life cycle of the building it will be substantially less. I think it's one thing for us to sit here and judge design on a daily basis, which we all do, but it's another to look in the larger perspective - long term. And it's extremely important to note that in the life of a building that the building costs are very slight compared to the operational costs, the maintenance costs and so on. I believe strongly that good design costs less and that the owner of the building, whether it's public or private sector, will gain tremendously in the long run from good design.

MB: Do you find your clients agree with you?

Gilbert: When we educate them properly, and that's one of the roles of the individuals in this room. That's part of our responsibility to our community to explain that and to try to get that across to our clients and to be teaching it in the schools and so on. And it has a lot to do with natural resources. It has a lot to do with direction we are going in the world. I mean there are many more implications than just design as an entity.

MB: We're talking about good design here, but what do we mean by good design? Do you think there would be unanimity among the people at this table in defining it?

Gilbert: I think so, and I think it starts with site design and it emanates from how a building is placed on a site to every detail of a building, every material. There are over 100,000 decisions that are made on each building; if one has a consistent thought process, then that is going to evolve into a high-quality building that will last the owner a long time, which in the long run is cost effective.

Cherry: I'm not sure that innovative design and good design are the same thing, although it's often seen that way if one thinks of design as a matter of style and that somehow good design is whatever the next style coming down the pike is. I think that is maybe helpful to the archeologist digging in a place to be able to figure out when things are done, but it doesn't necessarily mean that the next style is also good design. Students ask me a lot, what do you mean by good design? The answer I have for that came from not an architecture professor but from an English professor who described good poetry as something that is the minimal amount of material that does the job: And he gave as an example, Ogden Nash's poem "Please" which is "Adam had 'em." He says that's a good poem but it's not a great poem, and the reason it's not a great poem is because it doesn't aspire to do enough. So somewhere in this business of definition of good or great design is this notion of intention. If you have an owner and an architect who intend to meet their functional requirements, do a good quality building that's going to look good for a long time, and is willing to give something back to the community in that project, I'd say that can be a great building.