Authority

The Thornburg Campus, with Ricardo Legorreta and D/P/SWho designed that?

Design is an iterative process; it happens through time, in layers of decision and reflection. If a building can be said to have an author (and not all buildings can), it is the one who narrates the building's story. While others may spend more hours, the author inscribes the project with an identity by describing it in words and images to others, who than carry out that vision and, hopefully, enhance it. The success of the project is often dependant on how persistently that initial vision is described by its author and his successors. 

Working with Ricardo Legorreta and his team, there was an unimpeachable will to clarify the vision, and there was always room for improvement. This is how a project succeeds, and  how you get a great architectural moment with real authority,  like the one shown here.

Update on Sunday, October 30, 2011 at 2:53PM by Brett Frauenglass

An interesting discussion on Authority:

http://places.designobserver.com/feature/on-architecture-and-authorship/30118/

"....I think one has to understand that the question of architectural authorship is related to questions of authority and value. Since the rise of connoisseurship in the 19th century, authentication, or the establishment of the author, has been the primary mode of assigning economic value to works of art. Realtors can price buildings by the square foot and by location, but the qualities that make a building architecture are very difficult to price." Jorge Otero-Pailos