Can a starchitect be a good urbanist?

But all is not lost.

Lest anyone believe that my discussion here of Terry Teachout's posts here and here suggests that there is no possibility that a cultural center per se or a even a starchitect-designed one is able to contribute to the revitalization of a district, I offer this earlier post about Daniel Libeskind's "Spiral Extension".

The gist of it is simple --- putting aside the other issue of whether it makes sense to group "culture" into districts ---what a strange manifestation of "Euclidian" Zoning that is!--- if you want to have a "culture building" activiate a neighborhood, then you must design the building so it activates the street.

And the only way to activate a streetfront is to have human activity at the sidewalk level. Period. You have to bring human activity --- and not a silly "open-space plaza" with a fountain --- to that sidewalk level. Then you can let loose above with whatever goofy design your starchitect Gehry or Libeskind or Koolhaas or Hadid design to express his or her artistic "genius."

The key is pedestrian-oriented (not architect-oriented!) design guidlines to lay out the basic program for the building which must at the outset include the fostering of a lively street-scape.