With an excess supply and insufficient demand we just have to wait before new construction moves are made. While waiting, use The Great Depression as inspiration — just because we can’t build new, doesn’t mean we can’t improve. This point becomes clear with the prevalence of recent green retrofits for iconic skyscrapers ranging from the Empire State Building to the Sears Tower to the Transamerica Building. Focusing on improving current conditions may bring on a sustainable future with less waste and more substance, creating more jobs and infinite possibilities.
A thought-provoking essay. Value … economic and aesthetic … arises increasingly from design rather than materials. Designs that have enduring value often have elegance of form, symmetry and functionality, as well as efficiency of energy, space, and materials. Buckminster Fuller, of geodesic dome fame, forecast the trend toward ephemeralization (less material required for greater benefit). Huge SUV’s and MacMansions run against this necessity to do more with less and make it have more enduring value. Ms. Bernick’s essay points out the opportunity and challenge for designers to transmute things that were not designed according to these values to well-designed things… aesthetic, efficient, useful, and enduring. Thanks for the ideas in your essay.