Creative Vision

I was driving home from yesterday morning's event at the Chrysalis and a sign caught my eye. It went by quickly and I only had a glimpse in my peripheral vision.

Reuse Parkway

"Re-use Parkway?" I thought, trying to make sense of it.

Oh.

Rouse Parkway

Funny how a bit of "creative" vision took me to a whole different place.

It seems to me that, as Columbia turns 50, we are challenged to decide how we will re-use the New American City. It isn't new anymore. Some of its foundational ideals are refreshingly revolutionary, but it is still a product of its time. And times change. Buildings get old and need repair or even replacing. Concepts can become dated as well.

We are living in the age of Columbia's creative adaptive reuse. We are engaged in the process of deciding what has stood the test of time and should be preserved exactly as it is, what is not working and should be replaced, and what can get new life through creative reuse.

Think of it as Columbia: Upcycled.

I think that visionary people (as James Rouse was) are well aware that what is created at the beginning will be used, and reused, and rethought, and recreated over time. Indeed,didn't he say "Columbia will never be finished"?

Some of us, in fact, most of us, are not Pioneeers. We are the re-users. The re-creators. The upcyclers of a vision worth preserving.