The Hudson Competition Entry that Opportunity Detroit Banned from Public Viewing

[anon-amos]

An Open Letter to Opportunity Detroit from a Majority Owner of an Architectural Firm

Dear Mr. Gilbert,

There is no question the Hudson’s site is a unique architectural opportunity thick with the prospects of becoming Detroit’s next iconic downtown building. I hope you do not view this entry as an act of cynicism regarding this opportunity, or that I am a non-believer in a stronger Detroit. On the contrary, I like many am spurred on by the kinds of interests you have taken in making Detroit’s downtown safer and more pleasant. So, in these regards, kudos. Keep doing this.

What I am concerned about is your respect for design as a commodity. You’re a businessman. You understand the importance of retaining the value of the services or products you offer. This is how you survive a fluctuating market and how you grow as a business. The success of a business, as you know, is based largely on the value of your product and a market that is willing to pay for it. I mean, this is Econ 101 kind of stuff, right?

Design is my product. It is how I am surviving in this comeback economy, and it is the root of my growing business. I do not question the value of my product, but the willingness for the market to pay for it, as aided by these kinds of design competitions, is diminishing.

This is an ideas-only competition without promise of work. What kind of shit do you think people will turn in? I’ll tell you, it won’t be good shit. It won’t be based off of an intricate understanding of the site, or the culture of the place, or the historic significance of Hudson’s. Hell, most of what you’ll get won’t really even be architecture, but rather attention-grabbing images that are rendered in such a way that the truly important details are never considered. I don’t see how my entry is much different.

On average, an architect will spend 100+ hours on each competition piece. For the typical working professional, this is a substantial amount of time added to his/her likely 60+ hr/wk workload. For what? There will be hundreds of entries. The jurors might spend 20 seconds on each one [[none of them will likely read this). The likelihood of being selected for a prize or receiving recognition of any kind is extremely low, so why do we continue to offer up our ideas – our only valuable trade item! – to be held as intellectual property by whoever decided to host a competition.

I’m not sure how we got to this point in architecture, but I for one would prefer a different future.

Mr. Gilbert, you hold a highly esteemed, historically selective role as architectural patron. You are a high profile example that my clients will look to in order to determine what the architect-client relationship should be. When you undervalue my design commodity, so too will my clients. You say you are for a stronger Detroit, but part of that is to ensuring the value of the creative industry is sustained. To me and the people in my industry, Detroit’s opportunity lies solely in that.

I wish you the best in the future development of the Hudson’s site, as well as with your other downtown buildings, but I want to make one statement to you in this letter:

“AN OPEN-IDEAS COMPETITION IS A SHIT ARCHITECTURAL PROCESS AND I CAN PERSONALLY GUARANTEE YOU WILL SOW ONLY SHIT ARCHITECTURE USING THIS METHOD.”

You can take that to the bank.



Sincerely,

Anonymous Architect