Though I appreciate the City’s continued efforts to improve the quality of the built environment of downtown Fort Wayne, I’m not happy with the release of the survey results because I wasn’t happy with the survey itself. I strongly believe the surveys methodology was fundamentally flawed, which in turn invalidates any data gathered from it. I further question the survey being part of a process the intent of which I believe is to mandate not just a pedestrian-friendly downtown form, which would be good, but also a decidedly “historic” architectural style, which would be bad. I’ve argued this point already (here and here) and will continue to do so even though I have little faith it will change the inevitable outcome.

You might respond by saying the press release suggests the exact opposite, that the Mayor himself seems to appreciate and even hopes to encourage a diversity of architectural styles. But I believe the mayor is either being disingenuous, or he is unaware of what the planners – and ultimately the City Council – are intending. I’ll get back to that in a minute.

Being familiar with the existing guidelines, and having met with those responsible for drafting the revised ones, I am convinced that what they intend to propose – based on what they believe is being requested of them by Council – is nothing short of an homogenization of architectural style and an effective elimination of design creativity. As an example, here’s a quote from the current Downtown Design Guidelines: “Desirable facade materials for new or renovated facades include red brick and dressed limestone, granite, and marble.” Notwithstanding the obvious problems with this recommendation, when I asked Pat Feahy, Senior Planner for Allen County, whether the word “desirable” would remain in the revised guidelines, he honestly and rather bluntly replied, “probably not, but it would rather change to include some form of the word ‘required’”.

Whoa!

And even if that’s not their intent, that will be the outcome if certain materials and styles are encouraged or required while other forms of creativity are discouraged or even prohibited.

Now back to my earlier point about a possible misunderstanding between the mayor and the planners. In his comments today, the mayor included One Summit Square and the Grand Wayne Center as examples of the kind of varied architectural styles that make downtown Fort Wayne an interesting place. But is the mayor aware that these two buildings have styles – or at least materials and compositions – that are explicitly discouraged in the very guidelines the revisions of which his comments are intended show support? On page 6 under the section “Architectural Design”, paragraph 1(a)(i) states that, “buildings should be designed to be small-scale and pedestrian- oriented at the street level,” and “blank walls on the ground floor of street frontages should be discouraged…” and on page 7, paragraph 2(a) states that, “the monolithic use of a single building material especially concrete, stucco or stone should be discouraged”. Can you say One Summit and the Grand Wayne? Anyone will tell you that the existence of these two buildings – among others – is precisely the reason this current recommendation exists, and precisely the reason it is likely to become more than a recommendation in the revised guidelines. Was the mayor aware this? That two of the buildings he praised shouldn’t exist according to our current guidelines, and most likely won’t be able to exist again under revised ones.

How does all this relate to the survey? It relates because the planners will use the survey results as evidence of a community desire to see more of a certain type, material, and style of building downtown, and will use the revised guidelines to make it happen. But I maintain that because the survey itself was flawed, and data resulting from it is flawed, too, and should have no part in determining what design elements are or are not appropriate for downtown Fort Wayne.