The reigning Times architecture critic is Michael Kimmelman. Mr. Kimmelman introduced himself in September 2011 with an online piece about his "mission" in that role. This mission is essentially to invite a public conversation about the social context of architecture: the relationship between people and buildings, who benefits from them and who doesn't, and what makes them succeed or fail. Times readers commenting on his mission statement enthusiastically agreed with the need to drive the conversation away from luxury developments and toward sustainable construction, and to shift the discipline's radar from form-based aesthetic evaluation to a broader social-based evaluation.

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Four years after his inaugural column I think we can say that Mr. Kimmelman is making good on his promise to sustain a focus on the social context and redemptive qualities of urban architecture and design. He neatly summarized some of his most important messages in a public lecture at the Denver Art Museum several weeks ago. "Reshaping Our Cities: Taking back the Streets" was sponsored by the Clyfford Still Museum, the Department of Architecture, Design & Graphics at the Denver Art Museum, and the College of Architecture and Planning at the University of Colorado-Denver. Promotional material promised some answers to key questions of how we will make new cities and remake old ones to be more resilient, equitable, healthy, and enduring places to live. Mr. Kimmelman introduced the lecture as an opportunity for him to "play God for a day." What I heard as an audience member was a call for urban planners and architects to work according to three major imperatives: 1. Promote citizen rights to make urban space ... 2. Promote collective ownership of the urban commons ... 3. Promote the welfare of children and families ... Mr. Kimmelman identifies this as an "optimistic moment" for cities. It's striking that his print columns about the three examples of urban intervention described above not only foreground social equity but also the human desire to live with dignity. Our contemporary urban optimism will be rewarded only insofar as we succeed, as Mr. Kimmelman suggests, in designing built environments that respect human dignity and nurture human hope.