Architecture Here and There

2,339 votes to 1,984 votes [as of 12:07 a.m. Tuesday]. Now Dwell magazine's editors will pick a first, second and third place winner according to the lights of their own judgment. I assume that the editors and most of their readership are stolidly modernist, as most of the entries suggest. Be that as it may, the people have spoken.

[Late votes trickling in have made the count 2,348 to 1,987 as of 7:50 a.m. Tuesday.]

The winning team, from the DPZ planning shop, was led by Galina Tahchieva (left). Congratulations to her and her mates! It is an unexpected victory of beauty and substance over a rather stale cleverness.

Both the leading entries had many, many more comments and many, many more votes (the latter by a factor of about ten) than the other entries. But most of the "T-Tree" comments were negative, which raises the question of where it was getting enough votes to keep pace with "Repair Kit." Hmm.

My guess is that at some point the people supporting the range of clever entries figured that they'd better band together in support of "T-Tree" or face the humiliation of being overwhelmed by the sole traditional entry. At an earlier point in the voting, "Repair Kit" led but still only had about a sixth of the total vote. By the end, "Repair Kit" had amassed a quarter of the total, the top two entries having by the end garnered almost half the total vote. That means that, however you characterize the nature of the late voting, "Repair Kit" gained strength even as the clevers were ganging up against it.

I wonder how many of Galina's supporters had (like myself) never cracked the cover of Dwell magazine, and what the figure would be for the "T-Tree" supporters. Either way, Dwell's editors dodged a bullet. A victory by the supremely unserious "T-Tree" would have soiled the reputation of the journal. The victory of "Repair Kit" is a splash of cold water in the face of its editors and, just as important, their readership. Whether the editors recognize that fact may be judged by who they choose to anoint as winners of the non-vote part of the contest.

 Tags  architecture DPZ Dwell Galina Tahchieva Repair Kit suburbs T-Tree

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