THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
March 9, 1995
Remarks By
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
At The National Design Awards
Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you
very much. I am grateful to Roger Johnson for this opportunity
to be with all of you and also with his wife Janice. I am
delighted that I had the opportunity to share this platform with
Jane Alexander, who is doing a superb job of pointing out the
relationship between the arts and the quality of our society.
And I am particularly honored that I had the chance to share this
platform with Senator Hatfield, and I think, by the reception you
gave him this afternoon, you too were honored by his presence.
It is a particular pleasure to be with those of you who work
day in and day out with the GSA and those of you who were
involved in helping to choose amongst the many designs that were
presented to you as members of the jury, and particularly to all
of the honorees.
I am especially glad that we are holding this honorary
ceremony here, in this building, which is one of my personal
favorites in Washington, but I am usually inside of this building
at night, at some event or another, so to be here during the day,
especially with the sun shining, is a particular pleasure.
The work that we are honoring today, certainly goes far
beyond any recognition that we can give you this afternoon.
Because each day, what those of you who are being honored do,
affects tens of thousands and even millions of Americans, who
over the course of the lifetime of the buildings-- they too feel
what you have attempted to impart to them in the way of your
vision, your idea of what a public building should look like.
Too often public buildings do not represent the best in any
society. They do not reflect the work that goes on in them or do
they in any way represent anyone's vision. They are strictly
utilitarian and oftentimes not even effectively that.
But today we honor work that will stand the test of time.
Sometimes that is not immediately apparent to the people of a
building's or a design's time. You heard Senator Hatfield talk
somewhat of the history of our Captiol. Well, both the Capitol
and the White House were the results of a competition sponsored
by President Washington. Many, many people complained about the
results for both designs. Often the President's House, as the
White House was called then, was referred to as undistinguished,
disproportionate. And yet today it is, as is our Capitol, a
signal and a symbol of our democracy and what we as a nation
stand for that is immediately recognized and appreciated around
the world. Each of your designs are making a mark in the cities
in which you worked. From the energy efficient border station in
International Falls to the new technology which will strengthen
the structure of the US Court of Appeals in San Francisco to
resist future earthquakes, to a program which asked New York
school children to interpret through art the significance of an
African burial ground discovered during construction of the
Federal Office Building.
All of these awards that are being honored today span a wide
range of designs. And the fact that we are all affected means
that each of us has a stake in the work that is done. Each of us
has to in some way recognize that those buildings are us. They
represent who we are, who we intend to become. The GSA, in
partnership with the NEA, deserves great credit for encouraging
creative design in our nation's infrastructure. Together they
have encouraged preeminent national designers to participate in
this process. These kinds of public/private partnerships are
essential to bringing out the best, not only in government, but
also in the private sector. As the world's leading purchaser of
design services, the federal government should be the leader in
fostering design excellence. Good design can affect our lives by
beautifying our surroundings, improving our productivity and
helping to affect positive social change. Too often we take our
surroundings for granted. Too often we forget that the spaces we
work in influence the way we live and do our jobs, the way we
interact with each other, how we enjoy our days. I am lucky
enough to be spending my days in very beautiful federal
buildings-- The Old Executive Office Building, The West Wing, The
White House. They say to me every day as I walk through the
doors, this is a very special country, because the people who
came before cared enough to think about the designs of the
buildings they lived and worked in. And they wanted their
vision, whether it was the Oval Office President Franklin
Roosevelt put in, or the Truman Balcony, to say something about
the kind of nation we were.
Federal buildings tell us a lot about our history, our
culture and how we see ourselves as a people. The designs that
are commissioned should reflect not only the best execution, but,
as Senator Hatfield pointed out, the wise use of taxpayer's
money. This year's 14 winners reflect both criteria, and it is a
great pleasure for me to be part of saying thank you and
congratulations.
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