Architects and Beer

There's a reality TV show for everything, right? We've got chefs, fashion designers, personal trainers, hair stylists, and even "normal" people. But what about architects? Why aren't there any shows about them?

I guess the first problem is most things that architects design can't be designed, much less built in a day. Buildings are large, complex things. The second problem is architects are really teams of people. I know there are plenty that work alone, but it always takes more than one person to get something built (unless you are Dick Proenneke apparently).

I have held the job title of Information Architect in the past. I mostly work with physically intangible things (e.g. websites and applications), but it still takes a small army to build what I design (with the exception of the very small things I do for myself).

But here's something interesting I came across yesterday: A Duane Reade drugstore in Williamsburg Brooklyn is selling beer. And not just boring beer that you can get anywhere, but hard-to-find beers that even I'm willing to drink, like Chimay. This didn't happen because the residents of Williamsburg asked for it. It happened because Duane Reade looked at who lived there, what they were interested in, what they had available to them and where there was a gap.

This is important, because this is the foundation of good user experience design (the general uber name for information architecture, interaction design, etc). And I believe that before anyone, including myself, runs around saying the city of Lynn needs this and the city of Lynn needs that, we need to stop and ask "who lives here?"

I should note that I lived in Williamsburg for a few months almost 20 years ago, long before the hipsters arrived. There were Polish, Puerto Rican, Hasidic Jews and a handful of artists living there. There were few places to eat out. If you wanted a Sunday Times, you had to get up early to grab 1 of 3 issues that the newsstand had. No one would come out and visit. But the rent was cheap and it was a quick train ride into Manhattan. By the time I left, the secret was out and now it's a haven. The artists were priced out long ago. The Poles have been moving to Queens. You can't find a home that is not "luxury" and now Duane Reade sells beer.

Maybe there should be a reality tv show about gentrification...