I've heard the expression: "People get the government they deserve" more than a few times. I think it's wrong. People often don't have influence over the power structures that shape their lives. Representative democracy is the exception in world history, and its tenure is in most cases a function of prosperity.
Civic engagement for an architect often requires a more refined sense of compromise. Budgets and public opinions can have an outsize effect and lead to mediocre design. Despots are probably easier to work for, unless they decide to shoot the architect to prove a point.
I'm going to try to do something architectural and civic for this building. Not simply as a memorial, or as a civic gesture, but as an intellectual challenge. I'm not optimistic about anything I design being realized in any capacity, but why should that deter me?
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