Design is an Act of Hope

what does design

say about us why should you care

i would offer that design is an act

of hope i’m an architect

i design buildings for a living i was a

part of the team

that worked on the martin luther king

library just down the street from many

of you here tonight

in the king lincoln brownsville

neighborhood this neighborhood has such

a rich

history and legacy in the black

community

right now we the broad community are

struggling

with acknowledging our history of

failure

designers have failed you designers have

been complicit

in allowing systemic challenges to be

introduced

when you look at specifically at the

history of redlining

and when it’s met in real estate and

wealth creation

we failed it’s led to distrust

but that distrust is really not about

the design or the buildings it’s about

us

it’s about what we value before we

designed anything

on the martin luther king branch we

could feel that distrust

when columbus metropolitan library

unveiled their new design principles

and around town new library branches

began to pop

up designed with those principles there

was a lot of concern about whether or

not that would work in this neighborhood

whether or not it could stand up to that

legacy there’s a lot of distrust

not a lot of people know this but the

old east side branch

was the first library in the country

named after dr martin luther king jr

about 50 years ago martin luther king

senior

came to this neighborhood to dedicate

the eastside branch to his son

just after his passing now i always

struggled personally to directly relate

to that history

until i read tigerland by will haygood

in that book he gives context to this

neighborhood

through the lens of east high school’s

back to back state winning basketball

titles and baseball teams

during the civil rights movement what i

could put myself

in the mindset of what it was like to be

in high school think about prom

think about homecoming think about just

playing a basketball game or a baseball

game

and thinking about the recent

assassination of dr martin luther king

i could begin to understand the weight

of that legacy

this neighborhood has a strong legacy

and you should hold designers

accountable you deserve design that

stands up to that legacy and reflects

the heritage and power of this community

i do know one thing for sure about us

we the broad community you the broad

community

you deserve better design

now great design looks forward

when we started our early design ideas

we had little sketches and little models

and we gave them names like dream

mountaintop and hope

when dr keem gave the dream speech he

went off script

if you listen closely to the audio files

you could hear faintly in the background

right the moment when he does it

you can hear mahalia jackson saying tell

them about the dream martin

designing is kind of like dreaming it

literally means to draw

and long long ago when things like

perspective drawing were invented

people were afraid of it they were

afraid of the idea that if you could

take a blank canvas

and construct a dream or reality that

didn’t exist

you were giving people the power of

being the creator

now the problem with that thinking is

we’re all designers we all do it

whether we know it or not if you were to

dream with me just for a minute

i like to dream about buildings so if

you were to dream

about building a new home might take you

two or three months to find the right

piece of land

might take you a month or two to figure

out things like the carpet

the paint the bathrooms the tile

probably figure out all the paperwork in

a month or two

you could probably build that house in

about six months

statistically speaking you’re likely to

live in that house for at least five to

ten years

can you see it that reality that you’re

dreaming about right now

exists in a future that’s six to eight

years from now

great design is ahead of its time and

often

when we’re taught about the history of

design we’re taught so from a very

specific western eurocentric perspective

and that perspective ignores its stolen

legacy

from africa where designers from places

like egypt and zimbabwe

were so far ahead of their time they

don’t get credit for their design

innovation

i also believe it should be an act of

hope when dr king

specifically in his writings talks about

buildings he mentions buildings like

training centers and libraries as places

where you can connect people

to resources to build a better future

where we have

a collective wisdom now i’m just one of

the

ultimate believers that building is one

of the the truest things that we can do

when people are willing to invest time

effort and resources

and so much an effort that it becomes a

physical manifestation manifestation

it is ultimately an expression an act of

what we value

so when you when you think about

something like the internet

and most of you tonight this whole event

is possible because of the internet

we have seen that access to the internet

is not just a luxury

it is a part of critical infrastructure

but

here in the king lincoln brownsville

neighborhood 39

of residents have no access to reliable

fixed internet

eleven percent of residents have no

access to internet at all

building a computer area where people

can connect to the internet and do

things like

search for a job is an act for those

residents

when you think about parents who might

be struggling to find affordable child

care

which is also pretty likely because here

in franklin county

we live based on our population and

density in a child care desert

and 30 of black residents live below the

poverty line

so building a team space where kids can

go and play video games

get help with their homework and find

age-appropriate resources

until their parents get home from that

job is an act for those parents

and looking at kids here in franklin

county

23 percent of our pre-k students are not

ready for kindergarten

22 percent of k-3 students are not

meeting their reading goals

building a children’s space that’s

supported by

kindergarten readiness and third grade

reading programs

is an act of hope for those kids future

but why hope hope is

protest before every demonstration

before every peaceful protester

martin luther king and peaceful

protesters they’d come to a site

and they’d kneel to pray and then they’d

link arms and connect

and go out and demonstrate hope

is defined as an outward expression of

our belief in good

expression is action protest

is simply defined as an expression of

disapproval

the hope that we had for this library is

if that we could physically

build a building that brought together

the components

of children library staff community in a

space where they were connecting to

resource and demonstrating their desire

to improve themselves

that this could be a space of protest

right now so many people are struggling

with how to express

their disapproval and they’re saying

things like

we want to go to normal we want normal i

don’t ever want to go back to normal

normal is ordinary average

uneventful unexceptional what we are

saying that’s so clear

we don’t want normal we want better

i have to remind myself as an architect

over and

over again it is not about the building

directly from the dream speech it’s time

for us to cash

our check the architects of our republic

wrote

a promissory note for every american

50 years later martin luther king iii

came back to this same neighborhood and

dedicated the new building to his father

on the same site there was hardly a

place where you could stand

there were people who went into the

building and they were in tears saying i

can’t believe this is for me

not excited about the building excited

about the promise

about its hope we gave this library a

porch

to continue the legacy of this

neighborhood where every resident

has the opportunity to engage and

participate

in their neighborhood from their space

we know that what you see from that

porch the background won’t always be the

same

i mean it took 400 years to construct it

it’ll take little efforts

every day to dismantle that history but

this is a space where you can see and be

a part

of what it takes to make those changes

we are all designers we all do it we all

do things that signify we want to create

a better future

every one of those acts we are designing

with acts of hope

whether we know it or not so when you do

things

like vote for a levy to build a new

school or library

or go to a community meeting and say to

a designer who you’re holding

accountable i want this for my kid’s

future

when you actively engage and participate

in your street from your balcony from

your stoop

from your porch for your community

those are acts of hope

so i ask these questions and i hope you

hear them a little different this time

what does design say about us

why should you care

what are the acts you’re doing each day

to make a difference

what do you hope for thank you