Michael Kimmelman on the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act
Thirty years on, the A.D.A. has reshaped American architecture and the way designers and the public have come to think about civil rights and the built world. We take for granted the ubiquity of entry ramps, Braille signage, push buttons at front doors, lever handles in lieu of doorknobs, widened public toilets, and warning tiles on street corners and subway platforms. [...] The A.D.A. has baked a more egalitarian aesthetic of forms and spaces into the civic DNA.Michael Kimmelman, architecture critic for The New York Times highlights how public discourse surrounding designing for people with disabilities has changed in the three decades that have passed since the creation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Highlighting the tensions that exist between terms like "universal" and "inclusive" design, Kimmelman also revisits a recent glowing review he wrote last year of the Steven Holl Architects-designed Hunters Point Library in Queens, the design of which was highlighted by members of the community as being rather inaccessible in terms of its design.
Thirty years on, the A.D.A. has reshaped American architecture and the way designers and the public have come to think about civil rights and the built world. We take for granted the ubiquity of entry ramps, Braille signage, push buttons at front doors, lever handles in lieu of doorknobs, widened public toilets, and warning tiles on street corners and subway platforms. [...] The A.D.A. has baked a more egalitarian aesthetic of forms and spaces into the civic DNA.
Michael Kimmelman, architecture critic for The New York Times highlights how public discourse surrounding designing for people with disabilities has changed in the three decades that have passed since the creation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Highlighting the tensions that exist between terms like "universal" and "inclusive" design, Kimmelman also revisits a recent glowing review he wrote last year of the Steven Holl Architects-designed Hunters Point Library in Queens, the design of which was highlighted by members of the community as being rather inaccessible in terms of its design.
