I came across this idea while reading an excellent book, Carbon: The Book of Life, by Paul Hawken, an environmentalist, entrepreneur, and significant influence on me and my work.
Paul writes about Buckminster Fuller, the historically renowned architect, designer, and inventor of the 20th century. He suggests that "Bucky," as many called him, had an unabashed childlike curiosity as he worked—he asked clever questions, investigated them voraciously, and when searching for answers, refused to compromise.
“...If the solution is not beautiful, I know that it is wrong,” he was apparently known for saying.
Fuller understood this instinctively - beautiful solutions solve multiple problems at once. A tree isn't just shade; it reduces ground temperatures, slows stormwater, cleans air, and research shows its presence reduces neighborhood crime rates. One intervention, cascading benefits.
Do not compromise.
A project done beautifully once might achieve a sense of immortality. A project compromised on, perhaps like South Alamo’s road construction, or North St. Mary’s, might forever remain in a purgatory.
We and the stakeholders wait for an eternity for it to be finished. And when it’s done, we aren’t sure to bless it and those who finally got the job done or damn it all to hell because ‘done’ looks almost like it did at the beginning.
Commit to taking our breath away. Give us butterflies. Build something that demands we want to know more about it. Make something that becomes a story.
Do not stop until we’ve made something beautiful.
A little while ago, the San Antonio River Authority announced its completion of the San Pedro Creek Culture Park, a linear park stretching through downtown San Antonio, with the unveiling of a final piece of public art: Falling Water.
Falling Water is the result of art becoming infrastructure, or infrastructure becoming art.
The piece is a large sculptural hand that captures contaminated water draining from the I-35 overpass above, channeling it through an internal pipe system into a bioretention pond that naturally filters out motor oils and debris before the clean water returns to the San Pedro Creek below.
It’s just a simple, elegant solution to a dirty problem. But it’s also a symbol.
When we take a messy problem and find a solution that’s not just practical, but also beautiful, our spirits sing. And frankly, so should our self-esteem as a city. The problem isn’t just solved; it becomes a story. A story of how we, as a community, were smarter, more imaginative, and more committed to not just doing a job, but doing a service. Making something special. Not because we had to. But, because we could.
Don’t just do the job. Both believe and see that the job, whatever it may be, could be so much more.
There are always plenty of ways to solve the same problem. But the right way? The right way is beautiful.
Many of our city’s and other cities’ infrastructure and public works projects are already behind schedule, over budget, and underwhelming once done.
If we already can’t get the cost and time right, why not at least make it worth all our while?
Public works and infrastructure projects are often described as unsexy, yet uncontroversial. No matter who you are, your political or spiritual affiliation, you’ll celebrate that pothole you continue to avoid along your daily commute getting fixed.
However, while public works can literally and figuratively build bridges, we often grossly undersell ourselves, our inventiveness, our imagination, as well as our communities, with mundane, grey execution. With every project that is conceived without substantive creativity, we miss an invaluable opportunity to delight.
In every parking lot, there’s the potential for permeable pavement. On every shade structure, there’s the potential to capture clean energy. Along every sidewalk, there’s the potential to cut the curb and water a newly planted native pollinator garden. In every abandoned lot, there’s a green space or garden just waiting to host a weekend farmer’s market.
Public works done right can be a reason to bring the public together. Build the bridges, bike trails, & fix the roads, break ground on the parks, plazas, and playgrounds.
Instead of treating each project as an isolated task to complete, let's see each as an opportunity to create a place well worth the investment.
And so, before we define what anything might look like when it’s done, let’s first ask ourselves, what would this look like if it were beautiful?