How Design Competitions Can Reinvent Downtown

Richard Weinstein, a professor of architecture and urban design at UCLA, and dean from 1985-94, comments on the role design competitions can play in building a better downtown.

1 minute read

November 20, 2006, 10:00 AM PST

By Abhijeet Chavan @http://twitter.com/legalaidtech

"Competitions can energize the conversation about who we uniquely are as a city. This was the case with Disney Hall, the Orange County Great Park and Millennium Park in Chicago.

Granted, sometimes the contests backfire, such as when a designer proposes an idea outside the rules...The best way to run competitions for large-scale projects is in two stages. The first, an ideas competition, would identify overlooked potentials.... At that point, political, civic and community leaders would decide which of the proposals, if any, should influence a second stage. We then could be confident that all options had been explored, that no good idea was lost to punish us with regret later.

FULL STORY: Build a better downtown

Saturday, November 18, 2006 in The Los Angeles Times

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