February 20, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
Most homeless people would be happy to have a roof and four walls to shelter them. They might not much care if these structures bore the imprint of a high-profile architect.
But John Roberts, chief executive officer of PATH Partners, a charity aiding the homeless in Los Angeles, sees big-name architects as the latest allies in the war to end homelessness.
In his LA Homeless blog he links to an opinion piece in a local newspaper describing how a number of notable architects have worked on housing developments in Los Angeles’ Skid Row district.
For Mr. Roberts, who studied architecture himself, this is a good development for one simple reason: better-designed housing projects have a better chance of being accepted by their environs.
“Probably the biggest barrier to building affordable housing is finding neighborhoods that will accept these new developments,” Mr. Roberts writes. “The Not-In-My-Backyard sentiment is strong. Having top-notch architects design buildings that are better designed than even the housing around them helps confront NIMBY attitudes.”
Do you think high-profile architects working on otherwise low-profile projects for homeless people is a good idea, or could such designer projects be viewed as an extravagance in an age of increasing municipal and philanthropic belt-tightening?
