For as long as I can remember, I have gone on the annual Home Builders’ Association of Lexington’s Grand Tour of Homes.  It really is one of the highlights of my year.  I love wondering through houses that I could never in my wildest dreams afford and complaining about how the people that own them decorate like a Kirkland’s threw up all over the interior.  Which brings me to my point: Lexington needs to step it up in the architecture department.

It’s no secret that the CentrePointe project has become one of the most controversial subjects in Lexington.  Let’s leave the “will this thing ever even be built” aside for this post and concentrate on the larger issue: the proposed building is hideous.  It’s like a 1998 SimCity casino.

For some reason, the architecture of Lexington has been stuck in some bizarre, boring time warp.  Yes, I realize that we are not Los Angeles, London, or Hong Kong, but we owe it to our citizens to build modern, aesthetically pleasing buildings.  What we build today will endure, hopefully, for several hundred years; let’s make it a reflection of our city’s future, not its past.

One year ago, several universities (UK, Southern Illinois, and a few others) held a design competition to develop alternatives to the proposed building.  While some of these went too modern to fit into our current skyline, it really highlighted the fact that we could support a more modern design. (Note: I tried to find a link to photos of these alternative designs, but couldn’t locate one.  If anyone has a copy of these or knows where I could find them, please let me know.)

Setting CentrePointe aside for the time being, we also need more modern and affordable housing.  This was one of the things that struck me most about the HBAL Grand Tour of Homes: none of the houses brought anything new to the table. There was very little in any of these houses that couldn’t have been done fifty or sixty years ago. Yes, they may have no-slam kitchen drawers, granite counters, and flat panel TVs, but they are essentially 1950s suburban architecture.  With so much of modern architecture and construction concentrating on sustainable, environmentally neutral, and functional design, why are we not incorporating these principles into the way we live in everyday life?  One reason… price.

The two most obvious examples of sustainable home design in Lexington are the Resonance House on Old Georgetown Street, and the Newpast townhouses on West Main Street.  Both of these projects used modern, sustainable design to create gorgeous houses that could be the norm in Lexington.  However, with a price tag at over $200,000 for an entry price, it’s not hard to see why there aren’t more of these houses popping up around the Bluegrass.

So, what can we do to fix this?

In 2008, the Sundance Channel premiered a six-part documentary series called Architecture School.  It focused on the Tulane University School of Architecture and their URBANbuild initiative.  URBANbuild focused on rebuilding the city of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina using modern, environmentally friendly, and affordable housing.  The goal was to give architecture students experience in design and construction, and provide low-income families with affordable housing.  Students were challenged to design a 1,200 square foot home with three bedrooms that could be purchased by a family earning less than $50,000 per year.  So far, the program has built four houses and is currently planning two more.  Lexington also happens to have a university with a strong architecture program, there is no reason the school, local architecture firms, and local builders couldn’t partner for a similar program.

Lexington is a great city that has done a wonderful job of preserving its past and is starting to drag itself into the twenty-first century.  Since I moved here nine years ago, I have seen many changes to our landscape.  Some of these changes have been much needed improvements and some have caused me to rant so much my friends became afraid of me.  I have great hope that the people of Lexington are starting to rise up and demand better lives by trying to create better jobs, better government, and better homes.  We want to be a world class city.  Let’s literally build a world class city.