Carmel Mayor Brainard on Building Great Cities

At this morning's kickoff of the 2011 ULI Breakfast Series, Mayor Jim Brainard explained his perspective of city planning simply as “architecture is meant to inspire people.” Much of what he has done in his 4 terms as Mayor can be summed up in that statement. If you are familiar with Carmel, then you know what I am talking about. His vision for the city has created myriad overlay districts, design standards, infrastructure improvements, new public buildings, and a strict system for design review. While I would argue the result is not always great architecture in each and every building in the city, the long term impact of this planning over time is creating a city that more and more people want to live and move their businesses. That's the goal of every city and Carmel seems to continuously excel at it. There are a lot of lessons there for planning and development. Over time, great architecture will occur in a city as more people come to appreciate it. In Carmel, the biggest test of this comes this week as the Palladium opens up. At $126M cost, Brainard stated it is a building that is designed to last forever. It's something the residents of Carmel will appreciate more in 4011 than they do in 2011. That takes some vision.