The Art of Urbanism
New York Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman on making cities better
Dallasites are known for our ability to reinvent. We continually revise our backgrounds, our closets — even our neighborhoods. As our city grows, evolves and renews, there’s no one better than Michael Kimmelman to lend some insight into what the future could hold.
Ahead of his May 5 keynote address at the 2013 Dallas Design Symposium, the New York Times chief architecture critic has plenty to say about what makes a successful metropolis in the 21st century. And it’s a crucial time for us to hear it.
For every headline-grabbing building added to our LED light-enhanced downtown, there seems to be an inevitable backlash; just witness the visceral reaction the Los Angeles Times had toward Perot Museum, calling it a “thoroughly cynical piece of work” and a “windowless crypt.”
“The concentration on art as sculpture has impoverished the field, neglecting what good, sustaining architecture is,” Kimmelman says.
But how to push the design envelope without annoying the pundits? What should we celebrate, and what should we avoid?
“I think there’s an attractiveness to creating a striking object that can get attention and press and become a magnet for a city, but I think an increasing generation wants to see how the building improves their lives,” Kimmelman says.
“Striking-looking things do improve lives, but the concentration on art as sculpture has impoverished the field, neglecting what good, sustaining architecture is. It has to deal with a range of issues, functions and uses, and that seems to me to make the architect’s job a profound and complicated one.”
Kimmelman discusses this very issue at the symposium before signing copies of his most recent book, The Accidental Masterpiece: On the Art of Life and Vice Versa. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Kimmelman has been called “the most acute art critic of his generation.”
He covered both music and art for the Times before launching his successful “Abroad” column at the paper in 2007. Returning to the U.S. in 2011, his move into the coverage of urbanism and architectural criticism seemed a natural one for paper and critic alike.
“It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, I wrote about Richard Serra, now I’ll write about Frank Gehry,’” Kimmelman says. “I fell into art criticism without intending to become a news arts critic and spent time learning in public how to do the job.
“‘Abroad’ used Kulture with a capital K as a prism to talk about different issues in different places, like what’s life in Gaza like under Hamas. The prospect of coming back to write about architecture in this broader context is a great opportunity to shape a conversation.”
Kimmelman calls his agenda “very conscious and explicit,” and he has honed in on the subjects of public spaces, sustainability and affordable housing. He admits they “may not sound as sexy, but they’re about good community and making the places we live in better.”
Predicting that the population will explode by billions in the next 30 to 40 years, Kimmelman says it’s more crucial than ever that cities across the globe become clean, walkable (or bikeable) environments that answer both our economic and social needs.
“This is going to be the first urban century, and cities are going to have enormous challenges to deal with the growth. There’s no question the ones that survive and thrive will answer the needs of the people who are going to be living there.”
Kimmelman says he could “hardly claim to give Dallas any advice,” but nonetheless he counsels that the success of New York, Los Angeles, London, Shanghai — and yes, even Dallas — will lie in the reshaping of how we live, not the next great landmark building.
“American cities aren’t magically going to become cities of mass transit, but future generations are going to think more about creating downtown areas that work” he says. “It’s not just the shops or cafes but the connections that are made. You can sit at bar in San Francisco and a guy from Google can sit next to a guy doing an app, and suddenly you have a new product.”
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The Nasher Sculpture Center and Dallas Architecture Forum present Michael Kimmelman at Nasher Hall on May 5, 2 pm. There is a VIP reception honoring Kimmelman at The Warehouse on May 4. Visit the Nasher Sculpture Center website for tickets and information.