William McDonough on Mobius

We stopped off at the celebration for the fund raising milestone set by for the Mobius Science Center.  On his way to speak at Boise State University's Distinguished Lecture Series, William McDonough dropped by the celebration to say a few words about our center.  Mostly he delivered on his message of sustainability and the current state of the environment and world economy; an abridged version of a presentation he gave at TED some time back.  We could go on, but for a better understanding of his message (you'll better understand the correlation to the Mobius Science Center) watch the edited and abridged version of his TED presentation on YouTube above.  It's worth it.

Comments

[rob]

sure wish I would have been able to make that! Truly a brilliant mind!

[METROSPOKANE]

The TED video above is much better. At today's event he seemed a little tired (jetlag?) and distracted, and the presentation was not as detailed as others he's done.

[rob]

I heard that the science center project has been scaled down a little, did you seen any indication of that? And if so, are they going to keep the same design that he first constructed?

[METROSPOKANE]

They didn't get into design much at all (no images, pictures, etc), aside from some vague reference of 'acknowledging the basalt and geography'. That last design was likely just a study of what could be and not based on intention. There was no mention of scale, size, or changes to the end product.

[Parker]

Plans have been scaled down. The Spokesman-Review reported in 2006 that, "Cost concerns raised during development of the plan led to a downsizing of the proposed center by 22,000 square feet." In 2005, the paper reported Mobius planned a 75,000-square-foot, fish-shaped building. It sounds like designs have changed as well.

[15/31]

I think Mr. McDonough should stick to designing buildings and dispense with the legal, political and social commentary. Watching that video doesn't motivate me to donate more money to Mobius.

[Silent Bahb]

If all you took away from this is a desire for money (donations) - you may have missed the point.

[15/31]

For as "idealistic" and "progressive" as Mr. McDonough no doubt believes himself to be...I doubt he gives his services away for charity. Mobius needs to raise $ to pay for it's project: the building fairy isn't making a stop in Spokane. I have little desire to line the pockets of someone like Mr. McDonough. I'm probably not alone. Therefore the pool of potential donors is reduced. I didn't miss the point at all...which is why I commented as I did. It's fine to "be true to thyself"...in fact it's admirable, so long as it doesn't damage your client.

[Jim]

The type of lack of vision offered by 15/31 is what kills opportunity to create and enhance the livibility of our community. Yes, projects such as Mobius require funding as do the upfront planning efforts. Lack of vision is why Spokane is mired in the past, lacks a multiplicity of cultural and educational venues particularly for youth, while dominated by architectural blandness. Go ahead and criticize efforts like this and enjoy a bleak cityscape of strip malls and parking lots which only empowers developers and slumlords awaitng land values to increase.