Getting away with it

Getting away with it: privileges of eminent architects 

Reasonable doubts do not seem to occur to eminent architects - or apply to them. When they make designs more complex than apparently feasible, many assume that they know what they're doing, that they have done the necessary investigations to ensure that what they propose can be made. Somehow people expect eminent architects to achieve innovation relatively easily, not just because of their presumed capacities, experience and resources but also because of their status. If anyone can do something, its surely the ones we all know and admire. So, when they fail, people are mystified: how is this possible? Some start having doubts, others develop schadenfreude, yet others remember how weak the profession can be, how opinionated and self-indulgent. When something goes wrong, there's always someone else to blame. And don't forget that even bad publicity is publicity, after all. Once one has reached a high status, not even disgrace can remove them from the public eye and, quite often, public sympathy. So, it's possible that eminent architects never fail; it's just their buildings (including clients, users, contractors etc.) that fail them.