Corpus Christi is situated to become a leader in environmental architecture

Copying other towns, focusing on the past can be obstacles to growth, development

By David Richter Fellow of the American Institute of Architects

I have often heard it said that what downtown (or North Beach or the marina) needs is a theme.

I have heard that this theme should be a fishing village, Spanish Colonial, like Bermuda, like Sausalito, like Miami and so on. It should even be like Santa Fe - well not exactly because of the mountains, but still somehow more like Santa Fe.

Above all, our downtown area should be "world class." Furthermore, in order to better know how to create such "world class-ism," we should hire a theming expert - someone who really knows how to create a destination, an image and pizzazz and sizzle.

As this city grows, what we build will speak for generations of how well we know ourselves today and how clearly we see our place in the future. At the moment, it is all a bit foggy. So let’s pause a moment and think about what architectural and urban styles and themes really mean.

Theme vs. style

First consider the difference between theme and style. A theme is a fabrication, a myth, an image born of the desire to import an experience or a look. It is Las Vegas or Walt Disney World or Kemah, and it has its place.

But people today are well traveled. They know and expect the genuine article. If a visitor is taken with the genuine rich patina of San Antonio’s Spanish colonial masterworks, can we expect to impress with newer, thinner imitations? What do such structures say of us?

People also love Mediterranean styles. Shouldn’t we want to look like them? No. The best places have learned how to be themselves. We are a place absolutely rich with unique qualities on which to build. A theme is not what we need.

Style, however, we could use. The trouble is that style isn’t something that you can consciously create.

Style is how historians retrospectively explain the architectural commonalities that result when cultures respond to environmental and physical challenges in a particularly creative or uplifting way.

If you are rummaging through the style book looking for a favorite, you are not making style. Style can be appreciated by those looking to the past, but it can only be created by those looking to the future.

Fortunately for us, our Corpus Christi forefathers either clearly understood this or didn’t waste much time thinking about it.

The irony is that today, while we look to other places for clues to our future, Corpus Christi is already better positioned than most cities to be a world leader in the coming century - not "world class" like a marketing slogan, but world leadership as in at the cutting edge.

Corpus Christi, you ask? How can this be? There are three reasons - elements of style - our culture, our urban infrastructure and our natural environment.

Culture

Often a culture seems strong because it is old. Not necessarily. History should be preserved and enjoyed, but a lot of great places are in a death grip of their past.

Even with vibrant modern economies, their cultures are entirely defined by the accomplishments of their ancestors. They may be warm and cozy and easy to understand, but they aren’t particularly relevant.

We, on the other hand, are among those very few places that sit right where the world is heading. We are young. We are multi-cultural. We are a seaport crossroads between north and south, east and west. We are Latino and Anglo and other. We need to express ourselves.

This is the stuff that diverse and energetic style is made of. But don’t expect it to look old - or necessarily like anything you’ve seen before.

Urban infrastructure

Slow growth has its benefits. While other cities have been madly building intractable urban problems, we’ve been on ice.

Our downtown is an extraordinary combination of incredible beauty and inexplicable emptiness. It is better than an empty canvas. It is a half-finished masterpiece.

Few cities anywhere are better positioned to become a living laboratory for new urbanism.

This is the stylistic element of public space - of great neighborhoods, pedestrian life and civic energy. But we need to rethink all our current planning models.

Natural environment

Through the centuries, major changes in architectural style have always marked epic cultural or technical advances. The last such change was at the advent of modernism precipitated by the industrial revolution.

I believe we are just beginning to enter a new era defined by environmentalism that will take most of this century to mature in architecture.

Rare places like Corpus Christi that reside in a special relationship with nature will have the opportunity to provide unique leadership in the development of this emerging style. The environmental component of our future is our most golden opportunity.

Our essence

It is at the essence of who we are and why people come here. It is our best chance to truly lead.

But it will take a renewed sensitivity to the beauty of coastal South Texas. And we need to rethink how we are planning and developing our island and coastal lands and estuaries.

So the Corpus Christi style that we all long to achieve is not really about style at all.

If we think about style at all, we will miss the opportunity. If, however, we can muster the vision and the fortitude to pursue creative responses to cultural, urban and environmental challenges for 20 or 30 years; an intrinsic style, beauty and sense of place will emerge that will truly amaze.

Not many places even have the chance. But it’s the only way it has ever happened. They didn’t build Rome in a day.