ABSTRACT
Architects act to maximize their fee-paying clients’ interests and to enhance their own careers. A variety of public agencies are charged with protecting the public interest but in a globalizing world twin tugs pull on public officials controlling the development process. They need to provide the type of opportunities that international developers and entrepreneurs seek but they are also learning from the experience of the last two decades that a series of new buildings serving the interests of individual clients fails to add up to a well-functioning urban environment, either aesthetically or in terms of the activities of people.
