America ByDesign: Architecture

 

The Elm, one of the projects featured on America ByDesign: Architecture (screenshot from the video).

America ByDesign: Architecture is a primetime television series viewable on the CBS News Streaming Network consisting of six episodes filled with “energy, creativity, and architectural design.” The series premise is a search for America’s best recent architectural design among numerous projects submitted for consideration by an international jury of award-winning designers, industry leaders, and esteemed educators. Each episode showcases a few of these projects and features interviews with their architects. Along the way, American ByDesign will also shine a spotlight on architectural luminaries Robert Stern, Francis Kéré, Lakisha Ann Woods, and Thomas Wong. The series will crown the season’s winner in the sixth and final installment.
 
Though broadcast on the CBS News Streaming Network, America ByDesign is a franchise of the Australian media company MWC Productions. The Australia ByDesign: Architecture series is in its fifth season, whereas this is the first for its U.S. counterpart. Additionally, MWC Productions includes separate series in its Australian lineup devoted to innovations, interiors, and landscapes.
 
I watched the first episode this morning, which premiered yesterday. It’s not clear if the network will release each episode on a weekly or another basis as part of its regular broadcast schedule. Regardless, you can watch the series on-demand as I did by simply visiting the America ByDesign website. The production values are high, with excellent videography documenting the submitted projects.
 
Episode 1 features the following projects:

• The Elm (Shalom Baranes Associates)
• Harbor Hideaway (Up Studio)
• The School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Sustainable Future (two projects by Cannon Design and Eastlake Studio, respectively).  

Based on their presentation by the architects and the series hosts, I personally find all the Episode 1 designs to be outstanding and worthy of recognition. Each presents valuable lessons for architects, architecture students, and the public alike. Regardless, I do have my reservations about the series.
 
Ostensibly, the goal of America ByDesign: Architecture is to reach out to a broader public and make it more aware of the built environment. To do so, its format capitalizes upon a hackneyed, albeit accessible, trope: the reality-based competition show. Though none of the projects are “voted off the island” at the end of each episode, the jury decides which projects advance to be one of the final ten entries. The implication is the season’s winning project will be the last one standing by virtue of its superiority over the others. This distorts what should be the overriding message (that good design comes in many forms) and fails to encourage a broader point of view.

 

The monochromatically attired members of the America ByDesign: Architecture jury (screenshot from the video).

Fourteen projects will be featured throughout the series. Of these, three are in New York and three more are in Chicago. Only one west coast project will be included. It would have been nice to see greater regional diversity among the projects. On the positive side of the ledger, the featured submissions do include a welcome variety and scale of project types.
 
The series “partners” include Marvin, Porcelanosa, Keim, Lendlease, and Lumion. While these companies undoubtedly helped underwrite the costs of production, I already sense the series will not fail to reciprocate by highlighting product placement in the featured projects.
 
Notwithstanding these misgivings, I do expect to take in the remaining America ByDesign: Architecture episodes. It’s never a bad thing to see good architecture take center stage in such an accessible and informative manner. If you can spare a half-hour each week, I suspect you’ll find watching the series to be well worth your valuable time.