By Aaron Koch, Vice President, Mayors' Institute on City Design
June 27, 2005

The Mayors' Institute on City Design (MICD) hosted a breakfast June 13 at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Conference of Mayors to inform mayors about the value that great city design can bring to their cities. Throughout the Annual Meeting, mayors experienced how great architecture and city planning made Chicago a vibrant and successful city. This session explained how public action can better serve citizens and generate economic activity by creating successful parks, streets, infrastructure, and housing.

Sponsored by the American Architectural Foundation (AAF), the breakfast featured remarks from Ronald Bogle, AAF's President and CEO, about the role of the MICD in helping mayors tackle their most challenging city design and redevelopment challenges. "The Mayors' Institute holds at least six sessions a year throughout the country where mayors can interact with leading design and development experts," stated Bogle before he introduced Miami Mayor Manuel Diaz. Diaz gave a testimonial about the value of his experience attending the MICD last year as he worked on the proposed redesign of a major freeway that divides his downtown.

The session's keynote speaker was Alex Garvin, a leading city planner in New York City. In addition to leading his own practice, Alex Garvin & Associates, he has taught at Yale for 38 years, served as the Managing Director of Planning and Design for New York City's 2012 Olympic bid, and worked as the Director of Planning, Design and Development for the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation on the reconstruction of Ground Zero.

Garvin's talk was modeled after his book, The American City: What Works, What Doesn't. He illustrated how successful city planning has led to city revitalization. "We know what works and what doesn't and we should only demand those projects that are financially, entrepreneurially, and politically feasible," stated Garvin. To demonstrate his point, he discussed numerous successful projects, including the creation of the Minneapolis park system, the development of San Antonio's Riverwalk, historic preservation efforts in Charleston, and the planning of Lincoln Center in New York City.

His talk emphasized that there is a difference between project success and planning success. While some significant new building projects may add value to a city, they should be measured on whether they help enhance their surrounding area. Garvin explained, "I think that we ought to redefine planning. Planning, in my opinion, is public action that generates a widespread and sustained private market reaction. There are three ways the government can do that, through strategic public investments, through regulation, and through incentives."

Garvin closed by urging mayors to carefully evaluate redevelopment projects when they are in the planning process, "We can no longer just proceed with projects that are independent of their surroundings. The only public action we should take are those actions that do more then create that successful project."

The Mayors' Institute on City Design is a program of the National Endowment of the Arts in partnership with the American Architectural Foundation and the U.S. Conference of Mayors. For more information on the MICD, call Aaron Koch at 202-463-1390 or send email to akoch@micd.org.