I think people care. If not, why do so many people spend money going on vacations to see architecture? They go to the Parthenon, to Chartres, to the Sydney Opera House. They go to Bilbao... Something compels them, and yet we live surrounded by everything but great architecture.

Architecture and any art can transform a person, even save someone. It can for children - for anyone. It still does for me.

I never said I was opposed to the LEED program or to green building - I'm not.

Here we are surrounded by material that's being manufactured in unimaginable quantities worldwide and is used everywhere. I don't like it, no one likes it, and yet it's pervasive. We don't even see it.

We deny our nature to build and create and then wonder why there is so much alienation and dissatisfaction.

We should celebrate variety rather than conformity and allow people to express themselves. That we don't is more of our denial.

Chicago's one of the rare places where architecture is more visible.