Toward a Handsome America

By Wolf Von Eckardt

The face of this nation is decisively shaped by the Federal Government. It is the country's largest single builder, printer and design client for objects as various as power dams, monuments and postage stamps. The looks and liveliness of Government buildings often determine the vitality of town squares and city centers. Federal highways and public works enhance or mar the American landscape. The appearance of Government signs, pamphlets and questionnaires can make life easy or irritating for citizens.

But although poorly designed public buildings, spaghetti-like freeway intersections and confusing graphic gobbledygook are wasteful and ugly, little attention has been paid to the problem. Says Architect Bill N. Lacy, president of the Cooper Union art, architecture and engineering school in New York City: "The U.S. is a Fourth World country when it comes to design awareness."

Fourteen years ago, as director of the Architecture and Environmental Arts Program of the National Endowment for the Arts, Lacy launched NEA's Federal Design Improvement Project. The late Nancy Hanks then chaired the NEA, and it took all of her considerable charm and political savvy plus Lacy's drive and enthusiasm to win over key Government officials. They included members of what seemed to be an uncomprehending General Services Administration, which is in charge of most federal buildings and furnishings. Good design, argued Lacy and Hanks, was not a frill but something that made economic sense.

Lacy and Hanks gradually won converts, including Presidents Nixon and Ford. Among the more conspicuous results of the continuing effort at NEA: two agencies, NASA and the Labor Department, now have a corporate identity with distinctive logotypes and uniform graphics; the U.S. Government occasionally holds design competitions for important civic works, a practice it generally has frowned on for almost two centuries. And, equally important, at the * instigation of the present NEA chairman, Frank Hodsoll, President Reagan elevated the prestige of the good-design movement in the Federal Government by establishing quadrennial presidential awards for design excellence.

Last week, in the Indian Treaty Room of the Executive Office Building, the President presented the first 13 awards to architects, engineers and graphic designers, as well as officials of several agencies, including the National Park Service and the Veterans Administration. Some of the outstanding winners:

-- The Linn Cove Viaduct, a segment of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, built by the National Park Service and the Federal Highway Administration. The jury calls it "an elegant curving ribbon that caresses the terrain without using it as a support. It gives the motorist the sensation of driving tantalizingly on air while the earth goes by."

-- The half-mile steel-truss Intercity Bridge across the Columbia River, connecting the cities of Pasco and Kennewick, Wash. The enthusiastic jury said, "Not just a great technical accomplishment; it is a work of art."

-- The Gardens, a 186-unit garden-apartment complex in San Mateo, Calif., subsidized by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. In addition to the wonderful overall ambience of this "apartment village," arranged along pedestrian parkways and courtyards, the project gives residents opportunities for creating their own special places in their private gardens.

Another design breakthrough that won presidential praise was the final acceptance by the U.S. Department of Transportation of the transportation- related symbols and pictograms that were refined and adapted by the American Institute of Graphic Arts. More than 50 signs are now being introduced along streets, at airports and at other facilities. They include visual commands for no parking and no smoking, as well as symbols for fire extinguisher and escalator.

Still another admired project was Franklin Court in Philadelphia. To recall the original Benjamin Franklin house and printing shop, the architects designed a full-size framework above the archaeological remains of the real house. Built for the Bicentennial celebrations in 1976, Franklin Court attracts some 500,000 visitors a year.

The jury was almost effusive in its praise of a Veterans Administration- sponso red prosthetic device called the Seattle Foot, the result of a collaboration among physicians, engineers and designers. The plastic device, which looks like a real foot, makes it possible for amputees to run or play ball.

The other winners are NASA's appropriately high-tech logo and graphic system; a coordinated National Park Service pamphlet design; the Historic Preservation Tax Incentives Program; the GSA program for placing artworks in public buildings; the Charles River flood control, navigation improvement and pollution abatement; a public housing project in Charleston, S.C.; and an urban redevelopment program in St. Paul.

The winners were selected from 630 entries by a jury of experts headed by Architect I.M. Pei, whose much praised designs include the East Building of the National Gallery of Art and the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston. The designers present smiled politely during the awards ceremony when President Reagan mispronounced Pei's name, calling him "Pie" instead of "Pay." But they laughed when Reagan said, "Good design can help us save money, and you know how much that warms my heart." The President's interest cannot fail to shake up the bureaucracy a little. And more attention to the quality of a product's appearance would not only improve the prestige of Government but might rub off on U.S. industry, which needs better design to improve its position in the world market.