So much of where we live work and play is the result of separate decisions, by separate people or groups, who don't talk to each other enough, much less think about what impact of their actions will be... in the broad view; Impacts on safety, impacts on the beauty of a place, impacts on the financial value of a new community, a new neighborhood, a home, a business, a pool shelter building... thoughts on the impacts of upkeep costs.

OPPORTUNITY COST: And the prices and gains most often overlooked, are the
costs of lost opportunities:

• the cost of alternatives not considered,

• the cost of chances for improvement... discarded before they saw the light of day,

• the cost of convention, dictating waste, in the presence of better choices

• the cost of the innovation declined, that could find greater appreciation of dollar value.
  
  

Much of our decision processes that create our home designs, our business building designs, the road and lot layouts for them, our neighborhood and community layouts, our streets, our parks, are the result of professionals of specialized focus... engineers, architects, surveyors. Government approval bodies, with separate authorities, understandably driven by government staff's concern over reducing work, limiting complaints, minimizing city expenses often have a jurisdictionally imposed, narrow focus, to their decisions.

This is much of our world today... sequential attentions by bright, informed, educated, experienced people, who mean and do well. But, who could do so much more, if they could team with the broad view, with other talents and professions... to see and build with an eye on their part of the detail, but with a broad sense and feel, a reverence for "The Place" they are impacting, are creating... intentionally or unintentionally, by their actions, or by their inactions.

Even private professional planners and landscape architects can pull back from the broad view, opting for conventional, standard plans and designs... they are simpler to accomplish and less work to design/draw/advocate/approve/cost out/build. This is not to pursue innovation or design alternates for that reason only, new for new's sake. No. Nor is it to advocate different, only because it is different. Nor, is it to compromise the efficient, the proven, the "practical", for the trendy.

But every once in a while, there is a chance to do something that will last a long time... that will affect many people...that can be a "step up", that can be better, that can be a "signature example" of doing a better job. A chance to combine old with new, proven with innovative, and end up with much more than the sum of the parts.

We are passionate about helping people with that kind of vision, with that kind of energy.


Marc Putman, and the team at Putman Planning and Design/Development Directions