As of late, Kansas city is the first to receive the first google fiber. The lines will be installed between Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri, creating a solid backbone which later will branch out to all Kansas City consumers on both sides of the state line, providing download speeds more than 100 times faster than current broadband solutions.

I just returned from a week long trip to D.C. and it once again brought home the identical thoughts to yours. As an architect, I have tried to find a good explanation for the banality in general of Madison architecture.

One explanation is the rent rates that a commercial building owner can get in the local market. With Manhattan or D.C. rental rates, paying more for architectural design and building features is easier and in fact necessitated by the competition. The extra amount borrowed up front can be justified over the long run financially to a skeptical bank or other investors who are putting up the money for design and construction. There are also a few local architects that tend to be preferred by developers due to cost, recommendation by their peers, and other factors, and often the resulting designs are iterations of the same building and features.

One other Madison factor (that is not exclusive to Madison) is that architectural design is often viewed as an elitist activity. Conformance and visual relation to neighboring buildings is more important than making great architecture. I do not believe this is true in all areas of the city, but have discussed this point with political leaders and some residents who agree that it is an undercurrent of Madison development politics. We as architects must change this attitude. The fact that we are now considered “lobbyists” in Madison does not help this perception.

Third, but by no means last, there are codes and constraints at the level of the city government that tend to inhibit great architecture and implicitly encourage conformity. The often-used PUD (Planned Unit Development) process is an extraordinarily flawed zoning tool subject to the whims of individual committee members, city staff, and individual residents. It also sets vague standards for approval that were meant to be flexible for developers but are equally as flexible for those who evaluate and approve projects. It is subject to abuse by all, and often the end product suffers for it visually. In addition, many of our “historic” districts would not fit into any of the D.C. districts that carry such designations. Georgetown for example- so completely charming that no one in their right mind would question the extraordinary value it has. I do not see any districts in Madison that rise to the level of a D.C. area historic district. Individual buildings, yes, but not entire districts. The presence of broad-brush districts inhibits creativity and innovative design.

Conformity with mediocrity = more mediocrity. The mold must be broken.

How do other cities deal with the genuine public purpose of good urban design and the just-as-genuine risk of “design by committee” producing poor results?

Alas,you are correct about the banality of design in Madison. I think this is decades-old problem, though there are exceptions even today. Part of the problem is the expectations set by city policy and rules. That explains the student high-rises that look pretty much the same with only slight variations in massing and a detail here and there

The building at 434 W. Gorham (which you show) is as prime example of how awarding bonus floors for “extraordinary design” goes wrong. The brick-clad part of the building is pretty good, actually, with interesting patterns to the brick (which is real brick, by the way, not the panelized faux-brick on U-Square). The upper floors are a mess: unrelated to the rest of the design, clumsily scaled and cheaply covered in EIFS.

Not on your list is the building directly across Gorham Street from this one, perhaps the most unimaginative apartment building to go up in recent years. Fact is, it meets some stated city requirements: build fours floors, do a setback and add two more. There are a handful of similar building in the neighborhood, though none that looks quite so much like stacked shoeboxes.

I’d like to believe we can do better. Most like to think of Madison is a special place, but the stuff we’re building these days is far from special.

And yes I probably do need to stop saying I’ll post more tomorrow because generally I never get around to it. Adam and Brandon are doing a good job with their blog though! Thanks for doing the re-cap.