Each of them could do a splendid job, says Bennington, but we were trying to identify those that related to us in a special way. Each of the five concepts submitted was very different from the others, another benefit of a competition. Competitions, Bennington says, stretch not only the prospective client s thinking but the architects as well, forcing them to go beyond their previous work and come up with innovations that they can then draw on in future projects. On top of that, competitions keep the public interested. This is one more opportunity for the Science Center to educate.
Contemporary architecture is always controversial, like contemporary art, Bennington says.
A degree of controversy is always a component, because it stretches the conventional. It can lead some people to opposition, but the more we can turn that to open interest, the more we re doing our job. The public was invited to give its opinions of the designs through the Science Center web site, and many people accepted the invitation with gusto. While some comments were succinct, others went on for pages. The advisory committee is reading all of the comments, Bennington says.