Originally Posted by
Jason
An "eye catching" building that manages to seep into the general public's conscious is very hard to do and requires a perfect storm to happen. I don't think it's something worth chasing.
But you can get the same PR, tourism, and reputation benefits by appealing to the design world rather than the general public. It's a smaller group of people but they'll also remember you better and they're more likely to make travel plans, or talk about a city in a positive or negative light, based on the architecture of a city.
In Detroit, Lafayette Park is an easy example. LP has made millions of positive impressions of the city throughout the world, through various books, blogs, exhibitions, word of mouth, etc. and Elmwood Park hasn't. And unlike Pure Michigan ads, which target a generic audience with generic positives, this is specific positives about people specifically interested, and unlike the Pure Michigan ads which are ephemeral, these are physical buildings which will keep "giving" for decades. Look at the difference in home values between Lafayette Park and Elmwood Park. But LP didn't cost any more money. All of this value wasn't added by increasing the budget, it was added by simply hiring a good architect.
So aside from making those of us who care about these things happier, good architecture adds a lot of value and improves the city's overall reputation, without costing any extra money.