Green Humor: "In our lexicon, 'as-phalt' is two words assigning blame."

I'VE BEEN WATCHING some of the TED Talks online at TED.com. I've yet to see a really good one, good from beginning to end. Bill McDonough's TED Talk starts slowly but gets better. I got particularly interested when he got to his explanation of the 12 Chinese cities his office is designing. It struck me that he has some good ideas that probably aren't written down in detail anywhere - but should be.

I'm not convinced by the public realm he makes, and that will make or break the sustainability. If we don't make great places that people love, they won't last. And a large part of sustainability is long-lasting durability. But New Urbanism and Smart Growth would benefit from more of his techniques and technologies.

It's unfortunate that the word "humility" and the word "architect" have not appeared in the same sentence since The Fountainhead. So if anybody here as trouble with the concept of design humility, reflect on this: It took us 5,000 years to put wheels on our luggage.

William McDonough