The recent announcement by the Webb Companies that they have terminated their relationship with Studio Gang Architects (SGA) for work on the CentrePointe block has hurt Lexington in several ways.
First, the quality of the design for this project, on a lot that is arguably the most important in our city, will be compromised. EOP Architects and the Webb Companies have said that they plan to follow the concepts set out by SGA in their work so far. But this would surely best be done by SGA themselves, the originators of the concepts, in concert with the team of local architects announced this summer. The loss of SGA from the project really hurts Lexington by depriving us of the chance to get a building from one of America’s top architects. Their principal, Jeanne Gang, recently received a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” award, perhaps the most prestigious award in any field available in this country and one seldom awarded to architects. As too often happens, Lexington fails again to reach for the very top. As the saying goes, it takes a fool to fire a genius.
Why did the Webb Companies dismiss SGA? In the Herald-Leader article by Beverly Fortune, they give the reason that the Marriott Company demands a firm with experience building Marriott hotels. This is a transparent excuse to hide the real reason(s) for the SGA dismissal. A quick check of the EOP website shows no Marriott projects. Jeanne Gang, in the same article, said that she would gladly work with Marriott. Given this comparison, how can one choose EOP over Studio Gang? A more likely reason for SGA’s dismissal may be cost. Rumor has it that SGA proposed a fee higher than that suggested by EOP. But surely on this block– of all spaces in Lexington– the higher cost is justified. My own hunch is that the Webb Companies were never comfortable with the inclusive, community-oriented approach that Mayor Gray and SGA brought to this project. The Webbs want total control, which they are far more likely to get with EOP as the sole architect. The danger is that EOP will find it hard to insist on a great design, and will be forced to follow the Webb Companies lead. In doing so, EOP will become the latest victim in the list of well-meaning groups who have aspired to collaborate with the Webb Companies on this project and have gotten steamrolled in the process.
This point brings me to the second reason why the dismissal of SGA moves Lexington backwards. Since I moved to Lexington in 1974, the prevailing philosophy of our city has been to let developers determine our urban design by building pretty much whatever they pleased. In the mayoral election, Jim Gray enunciated a better philosophy, that the city and the developer should work together to arrive at the best possible design for every lot in our precious downtown. This new approach seemed to have worked miraculously well in the CentrePointe case. A community that was previously bitterly divided came together to support a brilliant design concept by SGA, brought in at the suggestion of Mayor Gray. Instead of the divisions of the past, all players—the Mayor, the developer, and the community—were united in support of a great project. As an historian, I valued SGA’s research on Lexington history, and particularly their discussion of the architects who created the buildings on the opposite side of Main Street from the CentrePointe block. The dismissal of SGA moves us back to the old model of the all-powerful developer. The mayor is surely disappointed, if not angry, at the dismissal of the firm he suggested, and may well be disinclined to work further with the Webb Companies. The old divisions over the project may well reappear. In other words, the alliance so inspiringly established earlier this summer is in danger of falling apart.
But how much damage has the Webb Companies done to Mayor Gray’s new model of urban development? My hope is that the exciting, even heady, experience of this summer has bolstered public support for good design, and the power of good design to improve our community. Even if Jeanne Gang is gone from this project for good, Lexington still needs to insist on the positive urban qualities already established for this project: an active streetscape, dynamic public spaces, careful integration of this project with Lexington’s history, and with the rest of downtown, including the area around Rupp. And Mayor Gray needs to continue to insist on a vibrant collaboration between developers and the city, and not permit a return to the bad old ways of developing our city’s downtown.
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