When people condemn me for designing iconic buildings in cities and not having an idea what a city is, they haven't done their homework. I started in urban design and city planning. It's just that when I got out of school there wasn't much of a market for that. There still isn't.
It's a metaphor for what we're being told: "Just stay in the box, kid, don't muddy the water." Parents say it to their kids. Teachers say it. Schools do. And so people become immune to the sameness.
It should begin much earlier with arts education in the American school system, which is sadly deficient.
Generally in our world, whether in architecture or almost anywhere else, we devalue the artist, and schools at whatever level shut people down.
